Judicial Tyranny

Thomas Jefferson warned that “Judicial Tyranny” was the greatest threat to our Republic. He has been proven right by the scenario he predicted would unfold, and has, with judges legislating, or making laws, from the bench that would violate the Constitution and the will of the people.

The “Judicial Tyranny” Jefferson warned about is actually at the root of the great divisions tearing at our country now. Under the Constitution, any authority not specifically given to the federal government was maintained by the states and the people. Many wrongly think that federal law automatically trumps state or local laws, but that is only in the few specific areas of authority given to the federal government in the Constitution. In all of the other issues the state and local laws trump the federal.

As the federal government, and especially the federal courts, have illegally usurped more and more authority from the states and the people, and have established laws to be imposed on all the states, it stopped up one of the most brilliant relief valves for the social pressures we are now experiencing. It was intended for the states to work these matters out through the process of trial and error, so that if a state chose to go in a certain direction on social and moral issues it would soon bear the fruit, or the consequences, but could not impose them on all of the others. If the way a state worked something out bore good fruit, then it was likely that the others would start to adopt it.

Donald Trump is right when he indicated that social and moral issues such as abortion and same-sex marriage should be decided by the states. That is true if we are to be a true Constitutional Republic, which means we abide by our Constitution. If a state wants same-sex marriages, it has the right under the Constitution to have them. If it does not, then it has the right not to. For the federal government to usurp the right of the states to choose in such things and impose on many what is against their will, the pressure and divisions will inevitably build, just as they are.

The highest morality comes when we do the right thing even when we are not forced to. You can teach a parrot to say and do the right things, but they will not be in its heart. You can force someone to do the right thing, or stop doing the wrong thing by putting them in jail, but you will not have changed the person - just controlled them. Some laws and jails are necessary, but when we impose those that try to micromanage and control everything, we are limiting the highest and best that can come from people and crippling true moral and spiritual development.

The above will sound like anarchy to the legalist, but it’s not. It’s a matter of finding the right balance, and our Constitution comes very close to it if we would abide by it.