L’Observateur / August 5, 2000

DEAR EDITOR: With its June 28 ruling in favor of partial-birth abortion, the United States Supreme Court has once again demonstrated its disregard of the relationship between the national government and the states which make up the union.

In the ruling, the court struck down a Nebraska law which outlawed the grisly procedure, saying that it might cause all abortion options to be restricted. What the court has chosen to ignore for the last 27 years,however, is the constitutional fact that the power to regulate abortion properly belongs to the states. This power was never delegated to thenational government and therefore is reserved to the states, according to the 10th Amendment.

Most people are of the understanding that if the Supreme Court makes a decision then it’s the law of the land. This is just not so. The court canonly make rulings. Congress only, not courts or the President, has thepower to pass national laws. Now what do we as Americans do when thehigh court makes rulings that are so obviously wrong and in opposition to the Constitution? We can either ignore it because we don’t care about it, or we can in the spirit of 1776, stand against it.

Also we can support an out-of-control court if we favor big government statism, as many seem to do. Well, what if we choose to stand againstillegal actions of the central government? What are our options? Some fight these decisions in court, but that fails as the high court doesn’t seem to care about sound legal principles as a rule anyway. Someput their faith in getting the right man elected president so he can appoint good people to the federal court. This also fails because judges can voteany way they want to.

The most successful, but also most difficult, option is to educate the electorate to the extent that citizens will only elect to Congress men and women dedicated to following the U.S. Constitution as it is written and asit was intended. Once we elect constitutionalist, we have got to monitortheir voting behavior to ensure that they continue to vote correctly. We’vegot to follow the news, keep up with how our representatives vote, and contact them often.

Now, how does electing a strong constitutionalist Congress solve the problem of a Supreme Court issuing warped rulings? Remember, our Constitution provides a system of checks and balances in order to keep any branch of government from gaining too much power and becoming tyrannical, as the Supreme Court has become.

Article III, Section 2 of the Constitution gives Congress the power to limit the Supreme Court’s jurisdiction over most cases. Therefore,Congress can rule that the Court shall not decide cases concerning abortion and other matters, and then the problem will be left up to the staes where the issue properly belongs.

Congress doesn’t do this because our representatives would rather let the high court take the heat on these tough issues. Since the people electCongress, and since Congress can limit the Supreme Court’s appellate jurisdiction, then we, the people, should take back the powers reserved to us as affirmed by the 10th Amendment.

We the people have got to stand up for liberty again. The Founding Fathersgave us a republic – if we can keep it. For a nation to remain free, thepeople must care and stay involved.

Ronald J. Theriot Jr.

LaPlace

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