Strip The Courts

by Terence Jeffrey - July 26th, 2006 - Townhall.com

Article III of the Constitution gives Congress the authority to create the lower federal courts and define their jurisdictions. It also includes the "Exceptions Clause," which says "the Supreme Court shall have appellate jurisdiction, both as to law and fact, with such exceptions, and under such regulations as the Congress shall make."

This is an interesting new battle in the ongoing war to constrain court arrogance and tyranny. It is based upon confidence by some individuals that the courts still care what the words of the Constitution and the words of our laws as passed by the legislative branch actually mean. To a great extent I have no confidence that our courts and the corrupt judges care about either. Therefore I don't have much confidence in this strategy succeeding in bringing our judges under control.

The judges have already narrowed the meaning of the "exceptions" clause to such a degree they could still jam same sex marriage down the throats of the nation. It would simply take them 50 cases to do it instead of the single case they otherwise would use.

It is therefore my concern that like all of the Constitutional Amendments being proposed to control our courts, using the exceptions clause to resist court power is an exercise in futility. If the judges don't care about the words and their clear meaning, passing an Amendment with more specific words they can ignore has done nothing except waste time. Passing a law narrowing the appellate jurisdiction will likewise be ignored by judges who don't care about the meaning of our laws but only care about seizing power over our nation through the "rule of judges".

But it is an interesting battle.