THE FEMMES FATALE OF THE U.S. SUPREME COURT

Over 200 years ago, Thomas Jefferson wrote the following concerning judges:

“Making judges the ultimate arbiter of all constitutional questions is very dangerous (because) it would place us under the despotism of an oligarchy. Our judges and their power are the more dangerous as they are in office for life, and are not responsible, as the other functionaries are, to the elective control. When the legislative or executive functionaries act unconstitutionally, they are responsible to the people in their elective capacity. The exemption of judges from that is quite dangerous.”

We are now seeing how prescient Jefferson was. In just the first three months of the second Trump Administration, over 175 lawsuits have been filed in a variety of locations and almost 20 judicial rulings issued by (local) federal district court judges.  Each attempts to overturn executive branch actions. Some have now been overruled by the U.S. Supreme Court and virtually all the rest will eventually appear on the Court’s docket as they seem to be in clear violation of the Constitution’s Doctrine of the Separation of Powers.  

Many recent Supreme Court rulings are revealing a disturbing trend, i.e. that the putative conservative justice Amy Coney Barrett (put on the Court by President Trump) often sides with the other three female justices – Sotomayor, Kagan, and Jackson. This situation is eerily similar to another horribly mistaken appointment to the Supreme Court – David Souter whom Republican President George H.W. Bush appointed in 1990.  From the standpoint of constitutional originalism, Souter’s voting record was truly embarrassing.

I rarely make suggestions to the President of the United States since that’s way above my pay grade. However, given what we’re seeing out of his last Supreme Court appointment, I would humbly suggest that he consider completely and forever ignoring any future advice which may come his way from whoever it was that recommended Amy Coney Barrett for the Supreme Court. Given her age, it’s beginning to appear likely that this mistake is going to haunt America for years.

Lest anyone think this matter is of little importance to us here in Wyoming, I believe it should give us pause to carefully consider a major aspect of future gubernatorial elections since the Governor of Wyoming names judges to fill vacancies on the various courts in our state. This aspect of campaigns has been all but forgotten in Wyoming. Candidates for the office of governor need to be carefully examined as to their judicial philosophy including questioning the basis for their decisions as to judicial appointments.   

Charles Cole

Sheridan