"Deciding when not to decide is, of course, among
the most important things done by the Supreme Court. It takes a lot of doing,
but it can be done." –Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall
Since Roe v. Wade in 1972, public commentary on Supreme Court decisions and
opinions from the media reveal a far greater investment in the preferred outcome
than meticulous legal rulings from the Supreme Court. While these decisions have
real consequences, and may be irreversible, using the court to achieve
legislative objectives on virtuous issues is not advisable and not
constitutional.
Today, Americans are more interested in the moral outcomes than court legal
decisions when they refer moral dilemmas to the Court. By framing them to "sound
legal," they ask the Court to validate or invalidate moral behavior. This pits
the Court against the Constitution since it is a judicial body appointed to rule
on constitutionally legal issues, not to make decisions for legislative
dysfunctions.
We always hear, "Life, Liberty, and Pursuit of Happiness” are Constitutional
rights. Yet only liberty and life are protected by the 5th Amendment, not
happiness. We think we are innocent until proven guilty," but that is not a
"right" in our Constitution, it is a British law. While the bill of rights
defines our rights, the states have authority to administer them and grant
additional rights.
“Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious
stupidity.” – Martin Luther King
Everyone who has seen the cost of their health insurance premiums, medications
and deductibles skyrocket and had to search for bargain health insurance
dislikes the Court's Obamacare ruling. When Chief Justice John Roberts turned
Obamacare's mandate into a tax, he saved Obama's "behind." But those who've read
the Constitution know healthcare does not appear anywhere in the Constitution.
Article I, Section 7, of the Constitution states: “All bills raising revenue
shall originate in the House of Representatives." The power to tax was put in
the hands of the body that directly represented the people. No other branch of
government can tax. Ruling on the illegal mandate and the penalty for those
having good insurance was the only authority Justice Roberts and this Court
legally had.
"The Court shall not allow any political or civil group to influence our
decisions." –Justice Roberts
The 10th Amendment to the U. S. Constitution defines federalism and clarifies
that "all powers not granted to federal judicial or legislative branches belong
to the states; or states rights." Therefore, all healthcare laws are the
exclusive responsibility of individual states; not the federal government.
The Supreme Court was fashioned to judge the constitutionality of cases such as
Brown v. Board of Education (1954) and Miranda v. Arizona (1966), concerning
segregation and the rights of those arrested. Without question those types of
cases were meant to be decided by the Supreme Court. The court never had power
or authority to declare if "morality or healthcare" were legal or illegal.
In the 1970s, justices began venturing beyond unwritten law, taking on
disputable cases, deciding them on unwritten law referred to as “enlightened
opinion;” a phrase coined by Europeans in the 1700s. The Court abolished the
death penalty in 1972, although the Constitution clearly authorizes
government-administered capital punishment. When they took on a moral case that
did not involve federal regulations or oversight, Roe V. Wade, they opened a can
of worms they can't ever close.
And from the moment Roe was decided in 1973, that ruling would, without a doubt,
be questioned, and never settled by SCOTUS. The court went where no court went
before; utilizing law to make an inherently, legally precarious decision on a
moral issue that wasn't even under their jurisdiction.
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When the court gave the country a new right, abortion, that was not a right but
a moral healthcare issue, they applied the English principle of “Settled law” to
justify their ruling. Settled law is former judicial opinions, periodically to
denote precedent that has acquired a mystical permanence or part of a legal
doctrine. Since this decision, settled law has been used by the Court in lieu of
precedent.
Roe V. Wade has befuddled the Court since 1973 because abortion laws belong to
the states. In Gonzales v. Carhart (2007), the Court upheld the Partial-Birth
Abortion Ban Act of 2003. But then in Gonzales v. Planned Parenthood (2007) they
struck it down. In Casey v. Planned Parenthood (1992), the Court ruled states
have a right to protect a woman’s health as well as that of a fetus.
"Whenever you put a man on the Supreme Court, he ceases to be your friend."
–Harry S. Truman
Abortion advocates conveniently forget that Roe V Wade stumbled its way through
appeals to the Court based on mistruths and lies told in the lower courts. Jane
Roe, aka Norma McCorvey, falsely claimed she'd been raped by a Black man and it
was never divulged at the Supreme Court hearing.
Roe V Wade, a case that should have never been ruled on by SCOTUS, has damaged
the credibility of the Court and divided more Americans politically than Dred
Scott in 1857. And rest assured, this is not the last we'll hear from Roe v.
Wade, since abortion laws are state issues, not a federal right.
America is a center-right nation, yet it had one of the most liberal abortion
laws in the world. Taking the judicial route to solve a socially moral issue
short-circuits public debate and forces opposition and radical actions. Then it
obligates presidents to fill the court with judges that favor his opinions.
Common Core teachers have been teaching the merits of federalism so long over
states' rights that students believe that the federal courts have the final word
in legalizing every liberal case. Yet the 10th Amendment delegated the authority
to define all social and morally legal issues to the states.
"The central government shall never rule upon that what belongs to the states."
– James Madison
In America, the abortion rate for Black women is over five times that for white
women. If it hadn’t been for Roe V Wade that permitted over 50 million abortions
to take place, there'd be hundreds of thousands of more Black citizens alive in
America today. The abortion rate among Hispanics is double the rate among
whites. And the Hispanic population in our nation is mainly increasing through
illegal immigration.
Lamar Smith wrote, "The Supreme Court is not an arbiter of social policy." Many
cases that end up in the Supreme Court never should have made it there and do
not belong there. But when states discover they cannot legislate morality they
ask the federal government to intervene. If they do not like the decisions that
Congress makes, they end up trying to change them in the Supreme Court.
If the Supreme Court hadn’t intervened on abortion, healthy political debate
would have resulted in more agreeable state laws passed by state legislatures.
Instead, the Court assumed the power of the states and pinned them to a wall
mandating they accept abortion laws they never wanted. Anyone who thinks the
issue is over, must remember, what the Supreme Court gives, it can always take
away.
“I've noticed that everyone who is for abortion has already been born." – Ronald
Reagan
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