THE PASSING OF JUSTICE SCALIA, AND THE FUTURE OF THE SUPREME COURT

By Dr. Lawrence Wilson

One of the greatest Americans, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, passed away on February 13, 2016.

Possible murder. Judge Scalia was 79 years old at the time of his death. He was supposedly in excellent health, and was found dead with a pillow over his head. His body was whisked away and embalmed immediately, without an autopsy and without checking for poisons. This is a violation of Texas law, where the death occurred. His security detail was nowhere to be found. For more details, go to http://www.infowars.com.

A loss. This death is a great loss for the United States Of America, and for our world. Judge Scalia was a very knowledgeable judge on the US Supreme Court.

This leaves a vacancy on the Supreme Court. Some people wonder about the future of the court. It is now skewed very liberal or leftist. With Mr. Obama as president for another 6 months, he could appoint another liberal.

I would suggest that two things need to be done:

1. The US Senate approves all presidential appointments of this type. They must not approve anyone who does not understand the intent of the founders of the United States.

2. The liberal members of the court need to be impeached and removed. This is legal, according to the US Constitution.

This needs to be done during the term of a wise, and constitutionally-literate president. The president would then appoint new members who would understand and follow the US Constitution.

CONSTITUTIONALLY-LITERATE – WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?

The United States came into being during a very special time in history. It was a time of the rise of the common man, and the decline of the power of the kings and queens of Europe. It was a time of change and hope.

It was a time of coming together of powerful forces to build a new nation. The US Constitution and her nation of America were the result. A few of the principles of this wonderful time in history, upon which the American nation was founded, are:

1. The Bible. The entire US nation is based on the teachings found in mainly the Old Testament or Hebrew Bible.

You must read and understand the Old Testament, or you cannot understand America. I know some people will challenge this statement, but it is the truth.

Without understanding Biblical principles, you cannot appreciate the teachings found in the American founding documents such as individual liberty, responsibility, shared sovereignty of all the people, self-government, limited government, and others.

2. The British Common Law. America was a product of the British common law tradition, and was an extension of it. The common law is a body of informal laws and rules that were tested mainly in Great Britain over a period of over 1000 years on earth, and found to work well.

The common law includes and documents with case law a gradual increase in the rights and freedoms of the common man. There is a corresponding reduction in the rights and powers of the King of England and his aristocratic friends.

America adopted the common law. America adopted the entirety of the British common law as her legal system. However, this is not taught in American law schools.

Instead, they teach that the British common law was present at the time of the founding of America. However, it was abandoned in favor of statutes and implementing regulations. This is a lie. America adopted the common law of England, and most of the founders of America liked it a lot.

Then, as America grew and prospered, the system of statutes and implementing regulations grew with her and replaced some common law rules and regulations. However, the British common law is still in force in America, in theory. This is even stated in the Codebook of the Internal Revenue Service.

3. Limited government. This is still a radical idea on planet earth. It is a middle ground or compromise between a totalitarian or tyrannical government and no government or anarchy. This can mean 1) a weak government, or 2) a government that may not rule over certain areas of people’s lives.

In America, it is the concept that the government is not allowed to enter all areas of people’s lives. It is not to be a snoop, a nanny, or “big brother”.

It is not to be the main provider in the family, or the welfare state, the children’s educator, or the medical system. It is not to be the retirement system, or even the emergency management system or FEMA.

It is not supposed to inspect your baggage at the airport. Limited government means that people are to do these things for themselves.

What is the role of government? Government is supposed to limit their activities to protecting the people’s safety from foreign and domestic enemies, make treaties with other nations, raise an army, navy and air force, maintain some roads and bridges, and a few other functions that are spelled out in detail in the US Constitution. Limited government means nothing less than this.

The role of the government is mainly a negative one. It is to protect the rights and freedom of the people to live, to act, and to think as they please.

In the US Constitution, this is called the pursuit of happiness, a phrase that is not well understood. The pursuit of happiness is based on the idea that you know more about what you should do with your life than does the government.

Today, our governments are dictating more and more about our lives. Too often, they decide through tax policies and other ways where we will live, what job we will do, how much we will earn, what we will learn in school, what kind of health care we will have, and more. That is not the pursuit of happiness.

Phony teaching about limited government. Today, the attorneys are taught that limited government means the government cannot take away ALL your rights, and all your freedoms, even if you are a criminal. That is their understanding of it. It is totally wrong.

Once again, limited government means that the government may not enter certain areas of our lives such as education, welfare, retirement and health care.

OTHER UNIQUELY AMERICAN LEGAL PRINCIPLES

1. Checks and balances. This is the method used by our founders to prevent and counteract the tendency of government to act tyrannically or in a corrupt way against people. It means that legislation and other decisions must be signed off by others, and can be countermanded by:

Referenda or votes of the people

Funding cuts

New legislation

Impeachment

Lawsuits

Injunctions

Writs of authority

Writs of execution

Prerogative writs

Nullification of fraudulent contracts

Countermand orders

Reprimands

Prove improper jurisdiction

Constitutional arguments

Common law arguments

Methods of delay include:

Appeals

Holding hearings

Many other techniques

Checks and balances do not guarantee a just and fair government. However, they certainly help. The “social democracies” of Europe and some Asian nations such as Japan, Taiwan, and South Korea have many fewer of these than does America. The communist dictatorships such as Red China and Russia have almost none. They consider checks and balances just a waste of time and energy.

2. Separation of powers. This is another key American legal doctrine that has been trashed in the past 50 years. It means that:

A. Those who make the laws (the legislatures) must not be allowed to carry out the laws or judge the laws.

B. Those who carry out the laws (the executive branch - presidents, governors, mayors, and city councils) must not be allowed to make the laws or judge the laws.

C. Those who judge the laws (the courts) must not be allowed to make the laws or carry out the laws.

This amazing legal idea comes directly from The Book Of Isaiah in the Bible, which states that only God should be able to make, execute and judge the law. When those three functions are given to one man or one group of people, tyranny and corruption always result.

3. Sovereignty of the people, not the government or any government body. This is another unique American legal doctrine. It is found in no other nation, even today.

Some people mistakenly confuse this doctrine with another unique doctrine, that of natural rights. However, they are not the same.

Natural rights means that as human beings, we are endowed with certain individual rights that are not to be violated by any government.

Sovereignty of the people, (versus sovereignty of the government) is totally different. It means that the seat of real power in society is in the people in perpetuity, not in their government.

This never changes. The only thing that changes is how much power the people delegate to their government.

The word delegate is critical! It means temporarily ceding or assigning. It never means giving away power. This critical legal principle is rarely taught today in schools of any level, including law schools.

4. Liberty or Freedom. Liberty or freedom, as a legal principle, means you can do as you wish, but you must not infringe upon the life, liberty, or property of anyone else. It is a compromise or middle ground between slavery or tyranny, and license.

Slavery or tyranny means that one is not free to do as one wishes.

License means you can do whatever you wish, even if you harm another. Some readers have heard of “a license to kill”. That is the idea of license.

Liberty is not license. These two ideas are commonly and deliberately confused today. The deliberate confusion is a powerful pretext or excuse to take away the liberty of the people. So do not confuse these two behavioral principles.

Liberty is not a political principle in most of the world. In most other nations, including Europe and Asia, the people must obey the government or they go to jail, or worse. This is not liberty. This is tyranny. Liberty means that as long as you do not oppose the life, liberty and property of another individual, you can pretty much do what you please.

Clearly, there are gray areas of the principle. However, the principle stands and the American Constitution was based on this important principle.

5. Self-government. This is another unique American legal principle. Self-government, as the American founders understood it, means at least three ideas:

A. Self-government means that many decisions are to be made by the individual, and fewer are to be made by the government.

The opposite of self-government, in this sense, is the cradle-to-grave nanny state. The rationale for the nanny state is that individuals are not capable of making their own decisions about most things. As a result, a nation needs a large, “big brother”, paternalistic government that “knows better” and will make these decisions for people.

B. Self-government is another statement of the idea of limited government. It does not mean anarchy, or no government.

When all decisions are made by the individual, and there is no government, the condition is called anarchy. This does not work well. Anarchy is “the law of the jungle” - where there is no governmental protection for anyone. This is not what the founders meant by self-government.

C. Self-government also means the common man, rather than a ruler, is capable of running for office and carrying out the duties of government. Self-government, in this sense, is a misnomer. The proper phrase is government by the common people. They can do this as well as, or better than, a political or governing class of people, or a ruling party, or a set of elites.

Elitism is the idea that a few people are born to rule. It is the idea that some people are smarter, wiser, more capable, and less corruptible than everyone else.

Another similar doctrine is called the divine right of kings. It states that some are apparently “chosen” by God to rule others. The rest of the people must follow or be imprisoned or even killed.

Elitism is the basis for most governments on earth, even to this day. Some nations allow the people to elect their rulers, but once elected, the rulers do as they please and join an elite group that is superior to all others.

Elitism is what the founders of America sought to eliminate from public life. It is a pernicious evil on many levels.

Elitism is declining slowly on earth, and America leads the way. In the past, nations were often ruled by a king, queen, dictator, warlord, emperor, or religious Imam. These “single leaders” or monarchs (mono means one) are slowly being replaced by oligarchs (oligo means many).

Examples of “party bosses” are the Communist party, Labor or other parties in Europe, the Central Committee in Red China, and leading families as in some Arab nations.

However, most nations have a long way to go to true democracy (meaning rule of the demos or people), and a true republican government, which means the rule of law and the sovereignty of the common people.

The recent American presidents do not understand self-government. If the presidents understood all the principles above, they would realize that America is an extremely unique and special nation on earth. It is sad when a president does not realize that he is the head of such a wonderful nation.

6. Freedom of religion. This has a special meaning in America. It is a compromise or middle ground between two extremes – no religion, as is the doctrine of communism and socialism, and an official state religion.

At the time of the founding of America, most nations had a state religion, and one had to go along or could be punished or even killed. The founders of America did not like this idea, and the church was corrupt.

On the other hand, the founders loved the Hebrew and Christian Bibles. They believed in God, and they wanted a nation that would uphold, teach and live by the principles of the Bible.

So they came up with a compromise or middle ground between:

1. Abolishing all religion, which is the goal of some today, but which the founders would never have allowed.

2. Imposing religion by law.

This is the meaning of “freedom of religion”, as mentioned in the First Amendment to the US Constitution.

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