Court Appointments Affect Us All
Current trends put individual rights at stake

In early January, the Senate will begin hearings on the current presidential nomination to fill a vacancy on the United States Supreme Court. Supreme Court appointments are clearly among the most important functions that a president undertakes. While the Constitution provides that the Senate advise and consent on the president’s nominations to the highest court, it does not grant the right to obstruct. Each nominee is entitled, constitutionally, to a yes or no vote.

The courts do not make law. Legislatures do that. The courts are not empowered to enforce laws. The executive branch of government does that. The role of the courts is to interpret the laws as measured against the U.S. Constitution. The Constitution is written to protect citizens from an oppressive central government.

An Oakland, Calif. businessman was recently forced out of his business property by the city. The city, through eminent domain, condemned his property so that another private party could build condominiums on the property.

The courts approved this injustice. The city’s purpose was to bring more property tax revenue from this property into the city’s coffers.

This businessman has operated his tire business on his property for 46 years, and his father operated the same business there for 10 years before that. The businessman always paid his property tax on time and believed that he owned his property. Does this sound like a judicial system that protects a citizen from the powers of the government?

A recent Connecticut case of private property condemnation by eminent domain, which went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, is known all across America. The court’s 5-4 decision upheld the city’s taking property from one owner and handing it over to another private party for development. The city’s interest was more tax revenue from the property after re-development. Rather than protecting property rights of American citizens, this decision smacks of protecting a city government from its citizens.

It is indisputable that these Americans who hold deeds to their property, on which they have faithfully paid all the property taxes, are getting a raw deal from their local government. Further, the nation’s courts are offering no protection to private property owners against the heavy hand of expansive government. This statist thrust of the courts genuinely threatens the constitutional right to own property.

In California, voters have overwhelmingly approved referenda only to see judges go against the results of a democratic vote and rule against the people’s will. On more than one occasion, opponents of the results of a popular vote have gone “judge shopping” until they found a jurisdiction to strike down the results of elections.

Again, in California, a local school board administered a very inappropriate sex survey to children in the first and third grades without knowledge of the students’ parents. Such questions as, “How often do you think of sex? Have sex? Touch your private parts? Touch the private parts of others?” must be considered beyond the pale for any first grade student anywhere, anytime unless the questioner is a parent.

Parents objected all the way to the Federal Court, which upheld the school board, saying in effect that parents have no special rights here.

Does this sound like a system that protects citizens from an all-powerful government? This 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in California is considered the most left wing, as well as the most frequently reversed, court in the nation.

Recent actions of some of the nation’s courts provide ample evidence of the need for a judicial system that respects individual rights. It is entirely possible that the justice system is broken. If so, it can be fixed. Representative government is hard work and requires eternal vigilance on the part of its citizens.

Supreme Court and other federal court appointments are among the most important duties for an American president. These appointments determine how we all live and work every day – whether we are truly free people or mere clients of the government.

Pat Freibert is a former Kentucky state representative from Lexington.
editorial@lanereport.com

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