Courting Climate
“Jay Walking” was a comedic presentation of NBC’s Tonight Show where humorist Jay Leno would walk the streets of Los Angeles and ask random by-passers relatively simple questions about the United States or some current news event. Sample questions could be “How many stars are on the US Flag” or conversely “How many states are in the United States”.
The questions often aligned with uncomplicated civics examinations given to immigrants vying for US Citizenship. Here’s one for you, “Which branch of the three in the United States Government is not elected?” The answer of course is the United States Supreme Court. With nine justices, this is the highest court in the federal judiciary. At anytime that there is a vacancy, the President, with the advice and consent of the Senate, appoints a new justice.
Further though, and unlike the other two branches, the court cannot enact laws, merely deciding on the constitutionality of a law or decree made by congress or any other form or level of government within the United States. The court may also rule on presidential and executive branch activities within the limitations of Article II of the United States Constitution.
I am confident the cry of “legislating from the bench” has been heard quite often, but the whimpering noise is customarily from those that lost a specific case based on its constitutionality or reverse thereof. Not every court in the world, however, is adjudicated in the same manner. In the linked story, the German Supreme Court ordered the reduction of future carbon dioxide emissions and any failure to do so would cause the court to impose its own emissions standards and lawful mandate. In other words, the court would and can enact a law.
While the average American would conclude that this could never happen in the United States, one must remember that a specific political party has more than once suggested the expansion of the Supreme Court from 9 to 15, as well as talked about the fluidity or antiquity of the country’s constitution. The US Constitution was ratified on March 4, 1789, and in the 233 years since, the laws in the document have created the world’s most influential nation and greatest economy. Noteworthy is the Bill of Rights. a component of the US Constitution which was fully accepted on December 15, 1791.
While one would think justices are politically impartial, think again. The judges seem to always discover a way to interpret or construe the constitution in a manner beneficial to their own ideology of politics. Each judge’s politics are often known simply by identifying the President who nominated them.
On August 17, 2000, at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles during a fundraiser for presidential candidate Al Gore, Barbra Streisand quipped, “The first three reasons to vote for Al Gore are the Supreme Court, the Supreme Court, and the Supreme Court.” A smile slowly left Gore’s face as he heard this and reflected on the meaning – apparently he believed his initial qualifications for president were much greater than that alleged by the “Babs”.
In 1937 then-President Franklin Roosevelt also tried bringing 15 justices into the Supreme Court. This was an effort to “pack” the court because he wanted to neutralize certain Supreme Court justices that he recognized as hostile to his “New Deal”. As a matter of course, the farther left the court goes, or if it gets “packed”, you can be assured that anthropogenic climate change despite refuting testimony, evidence or verification will become a political certainty.
Now, I conclude this commentary in a fashion similar to its beginning. Canadian Rick Mercer once had a regular feature on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) television program, “This Hour has 22 Minutes” called “Talking to Americans” a satirical view of the American lack of awareness about Canada. In one episode Mercer asked Mike Huckabee then the Governor of Arkansas to communicate a note, “congratulating the Canadian government on building a dome over its ‘national igloo’ - a downsized version of the United States Capitol made out of ice to protect it from global warming”. Huckabee agreed - see the 2:17 mark in the linked video.