Friday, March 18, 2016

We Need More Justice Moore’s Who Judge by Rule of Law


Earlier this month, the Alabama Supreme Court (ASC) openly rejected the U.S. Supreme Court (SCOTUS) marriage opinion … labeling it “illegitimate” and without legal or precedential authority.  This is a clear victory for the rule of law.  The ASC judgement rejects the opinion of 5-lawyers on the SCOTUS and prohibits AL probate judges from issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples.

Chief Justice Roy Moore and Justice Tom Parker issued concurring opinions openly criticizing the SCOTUS marriage opinion.  Using SCOTUS Chief Justice John Robert’s term of “five lawyers” when referring to the Supreme Court Obergefell opinion, Alabama Chief Justice Moore wrote a blistering 105-page concurring opinion.  Among his words are these: “I agree with the Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court, John Roberts, and with Associate Justices Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas, and Samuel Alito, that the majority opinion in Obergefell has no basis in the law, history, or tradition of this country.  Obergefell is an unconstitutional exercise of judicial authority that usurps the legislative prerogative of the states to regulate their own domestic policy.  Additionally, Obergefell seriously jeopardizes the religious liberty guaranteed by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.”

Chief Justice Moore went on to say: “Liberty in the American system of government is not the right to define one’s own reality in defiance of the Creator … But the human being, as a dependent creature, is not at liberty to redefine reality; instead, as the Declaration of Independence states, a human being is bound to recognize that the rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are endowed by God.  Those rights are not subject to a redefinition that rejects the natural order God has created.”

Chief Justice Moore then said: “In short, the majority acts not as a court of law but as a band of social revolutionaries.  The Chief Justice [Roberts], amazed at this presumption, exclaims: ‘Just who do we think we are?’ … Indeed, as the Chief Justice warns, the plenary power the majority asserts to redefine the fundamental institutions of society offers no assurance that it will not give birth to yet further attacks on the social order. … If, as the Chief Justice asserts, the opinion of the majority is not based on the Constitution, do state judges have any obligation to obey that ruling?  Does not their first duty lie to the Constitution?”

Chief Justice Moore then concluded: “If, as an individual who is sworn to uphold and support the United States Constitution, I were to place a court opinion that manifestly and palpably violates the United States Constitution above my loyalty to that Constitution, I would betray my oath and blatantly disregard the Constitution I am sworn to uphold. Acquiescence on my part to acts of ‘palpable illegality’ would be an admission that we are governed by the rule of man and not by the rule of law.  Simply put, the Justices of the Supreme Court, like every American soldier, are under the Constitution, not above it.”

Senior Attorney Matt Staver of Liberty Counsel is correct when he says: “Justices and judges are bound to interpret the U.S. Constitution.  When they write opinions that have no legal foundation, then their opinions lack legal legitimacy.  That is what the five lawyers did on the U.S. Supreme Court in the marriage opinion.  They ignored the Constitution, the Court’s precedents, and millennia of human history.  Their opinion calls into question the legitimacy of the Supreme Court.  When we the people lose trust in the Justices, the authority of the Supreme Court is undermined.  If the people accept this 5-4 opinion, then we have transitioned to a despotic form of government.  The people must now decide if we are governed by the rule of law or the whim of unelected judges.”

Let us pray that more state Supreme Court Justices come to recognize that such SCOTUS opinions are not the rule of law, but of man.  This is why the nomination of SCOTUS Justices must be “originalists” not social revolutionaries who have agendas for social engineering.

Rev. Dr. Kenneth L. Beale, Jr.
Chaplain (Colonel-Ret), U.S. Army
Pastor, Ft. Snelling Memorial Chapel

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