By Jerry Kotyuk
It is an outrage that the justices of the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) have refused to hear the case of Texas against four states, including Georgia, which held fraudulent elections. Texas had the backing of 18 other states and more than 200 Congressmen.
It has been reported that Chief Justice Roberts was heard yelling at the other Justices, “Do you want to be responsible for riots in the streets?”
Someone needs to educate the Chief Justice on his appropriate constitutional role. All the justices take an oath to “support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic.” It is not their job to worry about social or economic consequences of their decisions. Nor is it his role to worry about the legacy of SCOTUS, or of his court in particular, as has also been reported. A justice’s job is to look at the facts and evidence of the laws being debated, compare them to our Constitution, and then make a decision that defends the Constitution. PERIOD.
When Roberts was nominated by President Bush, he promised to be a fair umpire that called balls and strikes. Instead, he changed the language of the Obamacare mandate from a fee to a tax so he could decide it was legal when it was not. He seems to have been intimidated by some of President Obama’s and Sen. Schumer’s comments, and then ruled by his feelings rather than by text of the law and the Constitution.
Perhaps a bit of history will give perspective to the Supreme Court. The framers of our Constitution NEVER considered SCOTUS to be a co-equal branch of government. They were to be a coordinate branch, but were considered the weakest branch and the least dangerous to our freedoms. When the framers devised the buildings of our government in Washington, D.C., they built an Executive Mansion for the President, The White House, and a building for Congress, the Capitol. The unimportant Supreme Court was given a small room in the basement of the Capitol. As the population of the country and the number of states grew, the House and Senate moved upstairs to larger quarters, and gave their hand-me-down rooms a couple of times to SCOTUS. It wasn’t until 1935 that the Athenian temple across the street from Congress was finished, and SCOTUS moved into the grand structure they now occupy.
Perhaps the grandeur of that Athenian temple went to their heads and made them think they were gods, whose personal opinions were to rule the nation. For some of them, I fear that is true. Since then, they have made many grievous decisions regarding interstate commerce, the presence/absence of prayer, the Bible, and the Ten Commandments in public schools, life and death (abortion), and the definition of marriage and gender.
To Congress, I recommend a solution that will hopefully cause the justices to take a humbler approach to their constitutional duties. Sell that Athenian temple to the highest bidder and give SCOTUS a small facility back in the Capitol. Since Chief Justice Roberts obviously no longer understands his proper role, Congress should impeach him for “bad behavior.” Despite common conception, a justice’s term is not lifetime but “during good behavior” (Article 3, Section 1). Roberts’ behavior has been abominable.
Jerry Kotyuk, of Marietta, is a former board member of Franklin Roundtable and serves on the Franklin Roundtable Advisory Board.