Republican Congresswoman Jean Schmidt admits to voting for unconstitutional legislation. Her excuse is the typical one, its up to the courts to decide what is and what isn't constitutional. "The [Federal] courts are the ultimate power", she said. Not according to Article III section 2, Ms. Schmidt. It reads:
In all Cases affecting Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, and those in which a State shall be Party, the supreme Court shall have original Jurisdiction. In all the other Cases* before mentioned, the supreme Court shall have appellate Jurisdiction, both as to Law and Fact, with such Exceptions, and under such Regulations as the Congress shall make.
*includes "Controversies to which the United States shall be a Party"
President Thomas Jefferson wrote to a friend in 1821:
You seem … to consider the [federal] judges as the ultimate arbiters of all constitutional questions, a very dangerous doctrine indeed and one which would place us under the despotism of an oligarchy … The constitution has erected no such single tribunal, knowing that, to whatever hands confided, with the corruption of time and party its members would become despots.
Source: “An End to Judicial Tyranny?” by Thomas R. Eddlem, The New American, October 18, 2004, p. 44.
Tell Jean Schmidt that her actions are unacceptable.
No comments:
Post a Comment