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http://www.townhall.com/bookclub/levin.htmlMark Levin's Men in Black: How the Supreme Court is Destroying America is a must-read for anyone who wants to understand how the Constitution applies today. It also serves as an excellent handbook for wrenching power from the unaccountable oligarchy of the Supreme Court and putting it back into the hands of the people and their elected representatives.
The author of Men in Black is a brilliant constitutional scholar who served in the Reagan administration and now acts as the president of Landmark Legal Foundation, a national public interest law firm. Dr. Levin shows how Supreme Court judges, whose power is supposed to be checked and balanced by the elected legislative and executive branches, have made themselves the supreme arbiters of what is constitutional in an attempt to remake American society. Today, special interest groups gain by judicial fiat what they could never obtain by the legislative process -- that is, through the representatives of the people. This is the type of tyranny that inspired the American Revolution.
What is truly constitutional is what we the people have made part of the Constitution, not what unaccountable judges have ruled in keeping with current trends. Dr. Levin shows how the commonly cited "landmark" legal cases, reverently taught from high school through law school as being expansions of liberty, have actually limited it.
Thomas Jefferson one warned that "the opinion which gives to judges the right to decide which laws are constitutional, not only for themselves in their own sphere of action but the Legislative and Executive also in their spheres, would make the Judiciary a despotic branch." The framers did not give the Supreme Court the power of review; it seized this for itself in Marbury v. Madison.
The Supreme Court is supposed to maintain the balance of power between the states and the federal government. Instead, it has expanded the power of the federal government at the expense of the states, when the clear intent of the Constitution was to preserve the tilting of power toward the states and the people. Marbury v. Madison, Dr. Levin notes, was not a ruling on constitutional principles, but a blatant political power grab - similar to moves of leftists today.
The Supreme Court consists of people no wiser and no more moral than the rest of society. Dr. Levin gives numerous examples of Supreme Court rulings which violate the Constitution: maintaining slavery in the Dred Scott decision; authorizing the internment of Japanese Americans in Korematsu v. United States, and authorizing segregation in Plessy v. Ferguson. The people can do better by exercising their power to legislate. Dr. Levin warns, "The judiciary, operating outside its scope, is the greatest threat to representative government that we face today."
The Constitution authorizes Congress to determine the functions of judges and to impeach them. The people must demand that judges abide by the original intent of the framers; that our Congressmen fulfill their duty to check and balance the power of judges; and that our Supreme Court judges use the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, and colonial covenants and original state constitutions as the basis of their interpretation. When judges cite foreign laws or foreign courts, they violate their oath to uphold the Constitution of the United States.
The Constitution was developed to effectively protect the principles of the Declaration of Independence; namely, that God, not the government, is the source of our rights. That political philosophy is unique in history and key to the Constitution's interpretation. Limiting the power of the federal government is required, because the actions of government must not interfere with our God-given rights. The Declaration of Independence supports change whenever government attempts to alienate those rights.
Though Congress has the power to impeach Supreme Court justices, it is extremely unlikely to do so. However, the judicial reform system, initiated and controlled by judges, is even less likely to produce real reform. The real power to reform and control justices is through our elected representatives. Congress can limit the Supreme Court's jurisdiction. Congress can also set the terms and number of justices. Dr. Levin suggests that the most accessible method of reform may be for Congress to set limited staggered terms for Supreme Court justices, rather than allowing them to serve for life. Outstanding jurists might be re-nominated for additional terms.
Congress could check the power of Supreme Court justices by establishing a legislative veto over Court decisions, similar to how a congressional override of a presidential veto keeps presidential power in check. The intent of the framers was always to keep ultimate power in the hands of the people. Thomas Jefferson said, "I know of no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves."
The Supreme Court has neither the right nor the authority to decide what the law is, but the people do. The standards should be the Constitution, as it was written, and the Declaration of Independence, which is the political philosophy which underlies the Constitution.
Dr. Levin notes that much of his love for and understanding of the Constitution came from family discussions of history. All people can - and should - read and discuss these issues with families and friends to set a framework for the preservation of the Constitution for the generations that follow.
