More Judicial Activism
Topic: Current Events
Tuesday, and I came to the realization that I have not posted any reaction to the Supreme Court's latest foray into the legislative arena. As you proabbly already know, the Supreme Court deicded today to once again outlaw the death penalty- this time for killers who happen to have committed their crimes whilst under the age of eighteen. However, unlike some of my brethren on this side of debate, I am neither surprised nor appalled.

After the incredible judicial arrogance of the past thirty years, most blatantly expressed by the new constitutional right created out of whole cloth in the Roe vs Wade case, and a host of other decisions that marked the Court's entrance into areas of governance specifically denied them, I am no longer surprised by any judicial activism by any court of the united States. Rather, the aspect of this decision that I most deplore is the increasing reliance our judiciary appears to put in foreign rulings- specifically against their oath of office to uphold the Constitution and the laws of the United States.

I am increasingly wishful that Congress would put aside its current preoccupation with partisan power struggles and rein in a Court gone amok.

For those who wonder at the ssource of the authority I credit the Congress with, one has only to go to the United States Constitution. The relevant section is as follows, taken from the online edition of the Constitution found at the US Constitution.net site, and is as follows:

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.

I would direct your attention to the last section, which says specifically that Congress has the power to limit the scope of the Supreme Court's jurisdiction. having pointed this out, I heartily wish that Congress would have the courage to exercise said power.