Bryan Fischer
The lone man resisting judicial tyranny
By Bryan Fischer
Follow me on Twitter: @BryanJFischer, on Facebook at "Focal Point"
Host of "Focal Point" on American Family Radio, 1-3pm CT, M-F www.afr.net
The Constitution gives absolutely no authority, none, to the federal government to dictate marriage policy to the states. You can read the Constitution left to right, right to left, backwards, upside down while hanging from the ceiling, and in Sanskrit and you will not find the word "marriage" in there anywhere.
That means under the Founders' Constitution – not the Constitution as mangled and shredded by the judiciary – marriage is an issue reserved exclusively for the states.
When the Obergefell case was decided by the Supreme Court, its ruling legally applied only to the plaintiffs before it, as is true in any case before any court. The concept of "judicial review" – in which the Court and not Congress gets to decide what the law is – is not found in the Constitution anywhere. It was invented out of the ether by Chief Justice John Marshall in 1803 as a way for the Court to grant dictatorial authority to itself over the freedom-loving Thomas Jefferson.
Jefferson was well aware of the lethal results to our republican form of government if the concept of judicial review were ever accepted. The Court would become a super-legislature where laws would be made rather than applied. His warnings were prescient but went unheeded.
Lincoln echoed Jefferson when he declared that if we ever accept the conceit that the Supreme Court has the final word on any subject, the people will have "ceased to be their own rulers." His warning likewise went unheeded.
Until, that is, Judge Roy Moore, chief justice of the Supreme Court of Alabama came along. Judge Moore seems to be the only jurist in America who understands the constitutional limits to the Supreme Court's authority.
The Supreme Court's authority is only supreme in cases in which it has jurisdiction according to Article III, and only with respect to the plaintiffs before it. Judge Moore quite correctly observed that Alabama was not a litigant before the Court in the sodomy-based marriage controversy that led to the Obergefell opinion. So while the 16 couples who were before the Court in Obergefell can get their "marriage" licenses, its ruling has no binding authority on the state of Alabama.
Abraham Lincoln said exactly the same thing with regard to the obscene Dred Scott opinion. He accepted the Court's ruling with regard to Scott and his owner, but flatly denied that the Court's ruling had any binding or precedential effect anywhere else in the Union.
So Judge Moore fulfilled his sacred oath of office to uphold the federal Constitution (which leaves marriage to the states) and the Alabama state constitution (which defines marriage as a man-woman institution) by declaring that same-sex-marriage is still illegal in the state of Alabama.
In other words, the only judge in the entire marriage debacle who is actually following the Constitution is Judge Roy Moore.
And he's about to be disrobed and defrocked for having the temerity to actually do what he was sworn into office to do:
"The Alabama Judicial Inquiry Commission on Friday filed ethics charges against Moore, saying that the state chief justice abused the power of his office and displayed disrespect for the judiciary. Moore, 69, has been automatically suspended from the bench until there is a resolution."
Moore is being represented by Mat Staver, the attorney who so capably and resolutely stood with Kim Davis, the county clerk who was imprisoned for her faith by a federal judge in Kentucky.
Constitutional liberty now has just one lone judicial defender in America. If Judge Moore goes down, the last vestige of true freedom will go down with him. We truly will no longer be citizens but serfs, abjectly submissive to our judicial overlords.
When General Thomas Jonathan Jackson arrived on the field during the battle of Bull Run, the troops, who were beginning to weaken, shouted, "There stands Jackson like a stone wall. Rally behind the Virginian!" Judge Roy Moore is the Stonewall Jackson of today, standing resolutely against black-robed tyrants. Who will rally behind him?
(Unless otherwise noted, the opinions expressed are the author's and do not necessarily reflect the views of the American Family Association or American Family Radio.)
© Bryan Fischer
May 10, 2016
Follow me on Twitter: @BryanJFischer, on Facebook at "Focal Point"
Host of "Focal Point" on American Family Radio, 1-3pm CT, M-F www.afr.net
The Constitution gives absolutely no authority, none, to the federal government to dictate marriage policy to the states. You can read the Constitution left to right, right to left, backwards, upside down while hanging from the ceiling, and in Sanskrit and you will not find the word "marriage" in there anywhere.
That means under the Founders' Constitution – not the Constitution as mangled and shredded by the judiciary – marriage is an issue reserved exclusively for the states.
When the Obergefell case was decided by the Supreme Court, its ruling legally applied only to the plaintiffs before it, as is true in any case before any court. The concept of "judicial review" – in which the Court and not Congress gets to decide what the law is – is not found in the Constitution anywhere. It was invented out of the ether by Chief Justice John Marshall in 1803 as a way for the Court to grant dictatorial authority to itself over the freedom-loving Thomas Jefferson.
Jefferson was well aware of the lethal results to our republican form of government if the concept of judicial review were ever accepted. The Court would become a super-legislature where laws would be made rather than applied. His warnings were prescient but went unheeded.
Lincoln echoed Jefferson when he declared that if we ever accept the conceit that the Supreme Court has the final word on any subject, the people will have "ceased to be their own rulers." His warning likewise went unheeded.
Until, that is, Judge Roy Moore, chief justice of the Supreme Court of Alabama came along. Judge Moore seems to be the only jurist in America who understands the constitutional limits to the Supreme Court's authority.
The Supreme Court's authority is only supreme in cases in which it has jurisdiction according to Article III, and only with respect to the plaintiffs before it. Judge Moore quite correctly observed that Alabama was not a litigant before the Court in the sodomy-based marriage controversy that led to the Obergefell opinion. So while the 16 couples who were before the Court in Obergefell can get their "marriage" licenses, its ruling has no binding authority on the state of Alabama.
Abraham Lincoln said exactly the same thing with regard to the obscene Dred Scott opinion. He accepted the Court's ruling with regard to Scott and his owner, but flatly denied that the Court's ruling had any binding or precedential effect anywhere else in the Union.
So Judge Moore fulfilled his sacred oath of office to uphold the federal Constitution (which leaves marriage to the states) and the Alabama state constitution (which defines marriage as a man-woman institution) by declaring that same-sex-marriage is still illegal in the state of Alabama.
In other words, the only judge in the entire marriage debacle who is actually following the Constitution is Judge Roy Moore.
And he's about to be disrobed and defrocked for having the temerity to actually do what he was sworn into office to do:
"The Alabama Judicial Inquiry Commission on Friday filed ethics charges against Moore, saying that the state chief justice abused the power of his office and displayed disrespect for the judiciary. Moore, 69, has been automatically suspended from the bench until there is a resolution."
Moore is being represented by Mat Staver, the attorney who so capably and resolutely stood with Kim Davis, the county clerk who was imprisoned for her faith by a federal judge in Kentucky.
Constitutional liberty now has just one lone judicial defender in America. If Judge Moore goes down, the last vestige of true freedom will go down with him. We truly will no longer be citizens but serfs, abjectly submissive to our judicial overlords.
When General Thomas Jonathan Jackson arrived on the field during the battle of Bull Run, the troops, who were beginning to weaken, shouted, "There stands Jackson like a stone wall. Rally behind the Virginian!" Judge Roy Moore is the Stonewall Jackson of today, standing resolutely against black-robed tyrants. Who will rally behind him?
(Unless otherwise noted, the opinions expressed are the author's and do not necessarily reflect the views of the American Family Association or American Family Radio.)
© Bryan Fischer
The views expressed by RenewAmerica columnists are their own and do not necessarily reflect the position of RenewAmerica or its affiliates.
(See RenewAmerica's publishing standards.)
