Category Archives: Supreme Court

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Justice Anthony Kennedy – More Powerful than Any President

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by: the Common Constitutionalist

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Some say the President of the United States, no matter who that is at any given time, is the most powerful man in the world. As the Chief Executive of the United States, he commands both the largest and most powerful military, and also the largest and most powerful economy on the planet.

This may be true on the World stage, but it is not the case domestically. For years now, supreme Court Associate Justice Anthony Kennedy has been the most powerful person in America.

While this is an abomination of federalism, it is never the less true. And it’s something that seems to be thrown about as no big deal by the legal, political and pundit class. But it is a big ‘F’ing deal (h/t Joe Biden), yet has evidently become the new normal.

We have devolved from the Founders’ vision of three equal branches providing checks and balances on one another, to being ruled by nine black robed oligarchs, to now the reality we face today. That our freedoms and liberties, our economy – everything we hold dear, is controlled by a single individual.

In Justice Kennedy’s hands (or his vote), he holds the future of America. We have never been so close to a dictatorship as we are today. And by one who cannot be voting out, or otherwise removed. Like a dictator, it is he and he alone who decides to stay or go. But unlike a Dictator, there is little fear of assassination. read more

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Podcast – This is What We Do About the Out of Control Courts

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We’ve all heard too many times, that the federal courts are out of control. They’ve stolen power from the Congress and the president and are effectively holding the country hostage to their whims.

What we haven’t heard is what to do about. What can we the people, or the Congress, or President Trump do to take from the courts that which is not theirs in the first place. And that’s the problem. We hear constantly that Congress has the Constitutional authority to pass this or that law, or that President Trump is well within his Constitutional power to write such and an order. But then the courts stop it. Then what? Then nothing – apparently.

Well this has to end and I have a couple of suggestions to facilitate that end. read more

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WND Exclusive – Why ‘National Reciprocity’ for Guns is Immaterial

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by: the Common Constitutionalist

Over the weekend, I was perusing the online NRA-ILA newsletter. If you are gun enthusiast, own and/or carry a weapon, or merely a supporter of the Second Amendment and gun rights, I would suggest you sign up for the newsletter.

Most articles interest me, but one in particular seemed intriguing. It is entitled, “5 reasons to support National Reciprocity.”

Although every year I feel I’m a bit closer to becoming a self-taught, “so-called” constitutional expert, I’m still far from it. So I thought, why not read what the real experts had to say on the matter of reciprocity, or the extension of rights and privileges from state to state. read more

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The Democrat Plan to Prevent a Conservative Court

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by: the Common Constitutionalist

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On Tuesday the Washington Times reported that Senator Tom Udall (D–NM) proposed a compromise for P

Tom Udall

resident Trump and the Republicans. Udall suggested that rather than Trump nominating Neil Gorsuch to the supreme Court, he instead simultaneously nominate both Gorsuch and Obama’s nominee, Merrick Garland to the High Court.

He advanced the notion that president Trump “should meet privately with the court’s current eight justices and see if any of them are retiring. If one of them is planning to step down at the end of this term in June, Mr. Trump should promise to nominate Judge Garland — and he and Judge Gorsuch could be voted on at the same time.”

As an odd aside, Tom Udall, son of the late Mo Udall, democrat of Arizona, who served in Congress for 30 years, is second cousin to Senator Mike Lee of Utah. A liberal hack like Tom Udall, with a CR “Liberty Score” of ‘F’ and a conservative voting record of 4%, comes from the same family tree as does Mike Lee, the only Senator with a perfect 100% “Liberty Score.” Small and weird world isn’t it.

Does anyone else see what is happening here? This is classic “good cop – bad cop,” and I guess Udall has decided to play the good cop in a cesspool of democrat bad cops. read more

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Trump Meets With Possible Supreme Court Pick – The Left Hates Him

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by: the Common Constitutionalist

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Judge William Pryor

Yesterday, Townhall.com reported  that President-elect Donald Trump had just met with one of the 21 members of his well-publicized supreme Court selection list.

The man Trump chose to meet with this past Saturday is Judge William Pryor of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The 11th Circuit services the States of Florida, Georgia and Alabama. Coincidently, Pryor served as deputy Attorney General of Alabama for two years under Jeff Sessions. After Sessions was elected to the Senate in 1997, Pryor was elevated to Alabama Attorney General. Small world isn’t it.

A few years later (2003) ‘W’ nominated him for the 11th Circuit, but the dems successfully stalled the pick. He was later recess-appointed by Bush and confirmed by a narrow margin. read more

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There is a Way to Override the Supreme Court

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by: the Common Constitutionalist

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Yesterday, I posted an article regarding those on the left whining about the lack of a ninth supreme Court justice. You may review it here.

The author of the piece I quoted went so far as to accuse the Republican Senate of being “nothing less than an existential threat to the supreme Court,” for not confirming, or at least voting on Obama’s nominee, Merrick Garland. As if this is their duty to accommodate our beloved president, despite the Constitution making no such assertion.

This is the frustration, or impatience of the left. They can wait no longer to pack the high Court with leftists, giving them the means to finally transform America into the socialist utopia they’ve been dreaming of.

But the frustration of the right always seems to end up back at that dastardly decision, Marbury v. Madison (1803), which was the first U.S. supreme Court case to apply the principle of “judicial review,” giving it the power to void acts of Congress that they feel are in conflict with the Constitution.

Over the years, the Marbury v. Madison decision has seen judicial review morph into the high Court becoming the final arbiter regarding all things – legal, social and cultural.

The federal Courts, including the supreme Court, were not designed, under Article III, to adjudicate everything as they seem to today. The federal courts were set up specifically to deal with federal issues, beyond the scope of State Courts. These issues are described in Article III of the Constitution. read more

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The Left Accuses Republicans of trying to Rig the Court

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by: the Common Constitutionalist

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I’ve stated before that if we wish to witness where the left really wants to take us – don’t read the Washington Post, the New York Times or even watch CNN. No – to get the true pulse of the left, we must look at off-the-wall leftist sites like ThinkProgress.

ThinkProgress makes no effort to soft sell its Marxist ideology – no veiled attempt at fairness. Every article written and all commentary is unvarnished progressivism. These are the views of all leftist statists, if they dared to be honest. But they cannot, for if they were to be, they would never win another election.

A couple of days ago, Ian Millhiser, the “Justice Editor” at ThinkProgress, penned a piece entitled, “We may be living in the final days of the Supreme Court of the United States – Constitution, meet crisis.”

Without even reading, we should be able to surmise that Mr. Millhiser is going to whine about the lack of a ninth supreme Court justice – that it is a crisis – that it’s just not fair, and that the republican Senate is shirking its Constitutionally mandated responsibility. read more

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The Left is Deeply Disappointed with Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg

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By: the Common Constitutionalist

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The shine of one of the progressive left’s icons has recently been tarnished. I liked to say that supreme Court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg may be mellowing with age, but it seems like she has been aged for decades.

However, she did stun a whole lot of nouveau-leftists in her interview  with Yahoo’s resident shrew, Katie Couric.

Many younger liberals have come to call Ginsberg, Notorious RBG, for her stance on abortion and such, but it appears she may have lost the gangsta moniker when the topic turned to something I’m sure Couric and most leftists would consider “safe.”

Katie brought up the Colin Kaepernick, National Anthem flap that so many, including me, have been talking and writing about for many weeks. I don’t know what Couric was expecting to hear, but I can guarantee it wasn’t this.

Couric asked Ginsberg: “How do you feel about 49ers player Colin Kaepernick and other NFL players who have basically refused to stand for the National Anthem?” read more

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The Left Sues to Force a Vote on Obama’s Supreme Court Nominee

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by: the Common Constitutionalist

How many times have you heard, either in person, in a book, on TV or the movies – that that guy is the greatest salesman to walk the planet. He can sell ice cubes to Eskimos, or some such nonsense – and also that he will never take no for an answer. That is to say, the salesman never leaves his customer without the customer agreeing to purchase something.

This sounds great but is an obvious embellishment. Even the best get turned down from time to time. They may not like it, but it is a fact of life. Eventually every salesman has to accept no as the answer and move on.

The phenomenon is not peculiar to sales people. It happens in every walk of life, from the time we are children, assuming the parents have the backbone to stand up to their kids, through adulthood. Everyone has to accept “no” from time to time. Everyone but the left that is.

When was the last time anyone on the political left ever took no for an answer and simply let it go? I’ll give you the answer – NEVER. They never have and they never will. No matter how illogical, absurd or even unconstitutional, the political left will always find a way to use, abuse or even usurp the system to get what they want.

As we’ve already witnessed umpteen times over, Obama is the king of this tactic. He’s said on a number of occasions that he can’t and won’t wait for Congress to act in order to “get things done.” He has a pen and a phone is not shy about using either, or both. read more

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Iran Wants More Pallets of Cash

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by: the Common Constitutionalist

I wonder if now that the Obama administration has paid the ransom “we owed” the Iranian regime, whether it will set a precedent for others to put their hands out and demand, or at least request funds from the U.S. treasury?

Heck, even before the precedent, the Israeli government asked the U.S. to bump up its annual military stipend from $3 billion to $5 billion. Those dirty, money-grubbing Jews – asking for an additional $2 billion. You might think that, but they are blaming the Obama administration for the fact that they must request it in the first place.

It seems the Middle East is poised to get a lot more dangerous thanks to the huge infusion of cash which was part of the US-Iran nuclear agreement. So thanks to Obama, Israel expects to have to spend a lot more on defense. They do have a point.

Now in, we’ll call the post-ransom period, another has come forward asking for cash. Our old buddy, “former Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is asking President Obama to release nearly $2 billion in Iranian assets frozen in a New York bank account.” read more

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