A Prescient Warning About Rogue Judges by Robert Socha

In a letter to William Charles Jarvis in 1820, Jefferson wrote:

“To consider the judges as the ultimate arbiters of all constitutional questions [is] a very dangerous doctrine indeed, and one which would place us under the despotism of an oligarchy. Our judges are as honest as other men, and not more so. They have, with others, the same passions for party, for power, and the privilege of their corps.”

What a prescient warning that giving unelected judges, who are not directly accountable to the people, unchecked authority to interpret the Constitution could lead to a form of tyranny. We have been witnessing the third and supposedly weakest branch usurp more and more authority for decades, and that unchecked power has given many judges on the Left the ideological supremacy to thwart their political rival’s Presidential powers by judicial fiat.

Myriad examples exist of this in recent memory in opposition to President Trump’s house-cleaning deportations and defunding. District courts are telling the Trump administration they must reverse firings, refund agencies, such as USAID, and return deported illegal aliens. Mark Levin, one of the foremost constitutional scholars alive today, stated emphatically on his show a couple of days ago, “If the Supreme Court doesn’t fix this, we will have a complete change in our constitutional construct. We will have an all-powerful Judiciary, not at the Supreme Court level so much, but at the lower levels, the courts that don’t even exist in our Constitution.” Here is a thorough transcript of the session of his show where he defends his position. It is worth your reading, especially where he reveals that all of these lawsuits against the Trump Administration’s actions are being filed in deep blue states where judges appointed by Clinton, Obama, and the last usurper in chief hold the chambers.

Alexander Hamilton, while defending the judiciary’s power, warned in Federalist 78 that the judiciary should remain the “weakest” branch with no control over the “sword” (executive) or the “purse” (legislature). (Grok)

Suppose these judicial findings continue unabated and somehow have the power to persuade the executive against its actions. In that case, I fear, as Jefferson feared, it has led to an imbalance of power. In a letter to Abigail Adams in 1804, he wrote: “The opinion which gives to the judges the right to decide what laws are constitutional and what not, not only for themselves in their own sphere of action but for the Legislature and Executive also in their spheres, would make the Judiciary a despotic branch.”

The rise of the power of the courts and the ability, especially of the Left, to manipulate the system by picking and choosing which districts to bring their lawsuits to try and mold the Constitution to their approved form of governmental authority is tantamount to oligarchic overreach. The Legislature must confront this abuse of power in spectacular fashion as Representative Brandon Gill, Republican, Texas, did in filing articles of impeachment, to ensure the checks and balances protected by our laws remain unabated. This act provides hope that we can continue to cut fraud, waste, and abuse, reminding us that Americans derive power in government from the people, not those elected and appointed to office.