You have heard the phrase, court of last resort? The Supreme Court was never intended to be that. At least, not by the man who wrote the Declaration of Independence and probably also not by the man who was largely responsible for drafting the Bill of Rights. Those men were Thomas Jefferson and George Mason, respectively.
Jefferson thought there ought to be other resorts – such as nullification (by the states, by which he meant the people) of edicts that were deemed insufferable (as well as not constitutional) by the states and so, the people. He wrote at length about this last resort in the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions, which are of course regarded as heresies by the proponents of the idea that the federal government determines the limits of its own powers, via its court of last resort.
The Supreme Court.
This was decided – as in I am the Decider – by the Supreme Court, itself, in the case of Marbury v. Madison. In which Jefferson’s enemy (and thus, an enemy of the people) John Marshall, then chief justice of the Supreme Court, simply decreed that the highest federal court is the final court of appeal. Whatever it says is “constitutional” is – or is not. When it says a plaintiff with a case does not have “standing,” he doesn’t.
And that’s all there is to it.
Some will argue that is not very . . . democratic. In that the people have no meaningful say as no ordinary citizen gets to vote for a Supreme Court “justice,” as if these nine people were in fact dispensers of the latter. The fact is they’re undemocratically selected by one person and appointed for life terms, which means once appointed they are free to decide whatever they like and there are no consequences for them and no appeal for us.
This is why both the Left and those who oppose the Left are so very ardently interested in the composition of the court. Per Lenin’s dictum about how even if you’re not interested in government, government is interested in you.
The decisions of the court are not just binding. They are – effectively – permanently binding.
It is very arguably plausible that Marbury v. Madison made what is erroneously called the “civil war” – which is erroneous because the states of the Southern Confederacy were not attempting to control the country; they were attempting to leave the country – inevitable because it gave the Southern states no other option except to try to leave.
Or to submit.
Of course, they were ultimately forced to submit – which makes a sick joke of the idea that the United States has a government “of the people, by the people and for the people.” It has a government imposed upon the people, by a few people.
Never mind.
But – had it not been for the doctrine that there is no alternative means of checking the authority of the federal government than the federal government’s highest court – the states might have simply nullified – that is, ignored – the obnoxious, economically crippling tariffs (which are in fact taxes) that the more industrialized northern states were able to impose upon the Southern states, because the Northern states (effectively) controlled the federal government, including the Supreme Court.
This peaceful way of resolving intractable differences is what Jefferson (and Madison) argued in favor of in the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions. It is arguably a doctrine that was implicit in the very name of the United States – plural, in the original. Each state was originally sovereign – as opposed to a kind of administrative gau, as they have become – and had only delegated limited power to the central (federal) authority for explicit purposes such as the common defense in the event of a foreign threat. State sovereignty and can expressed better, perhaps, as a kind of alternative sovereignty to the others – and that served a check on any that tended toward obnoxiousness.
As well as an important check on the obnoxiousness of the federal government.
More finely, it served as a way to control the authority-creep (so to speak) of the federal government that was not under the federal government’s control.
This threat greatly bothered the authority-creeps, of course. Most especially Abraham Lincoln, who used murderous force against the Southern states that were attempting to nullify the authority-creep of the federal government by getting out from under its authority.
Lincoln put an end to the idea of any state daring to ignore the authority-creeps in Washington by making explicit the idea formulated by Marshall in Marbury v. Madison that the federal authority decides the extent of its authority – and that’s all there is to it. This has been taken – and enforced – as the final word since 1865.
And it is why there is no end to it.
The communists (there is no such thing as a “Democrat” among the party of the blues) are kind of right that the federal government’s court of last resort is tyrannical. Nine people get to decide for 330 million – and that’s all there is to it. Nine people who are appointed – and rule for life.
The communists, of course, don’t object to the tyranny, per se. They merely want to get it more firmly under their control, as by appointing a few more “justices” (of their own) to impose more tyranny and also to be able to get rid of the occasional justice who isn’t entirely tyrannical in favor of the communists’ agenda.
Jefferson and Madison’s idea was a lot less tyrannical and for that reason both they and the resolutions they authored are regarded by communists as “threats to democracy.”
Of course.
And in very real sense, the communists are right – because “democracy” is a kind of slick tautology for tyranny, of the minority that manipulates a majority. In a “democracy,” people – individuals – have no rights save those “democracy” allows, for as long as allowed and not one second longer.
In other words, no rights at all.
The chief one negated by this being the right to walk away rather than fight – and expect to be let alone. It is the ultimate court of last resort and the ultimate heresy to “democrats” who are communists and Republicans alike.
. . .
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Hitlary doubles down:
Writing in the legacy propaganda outlet WaPo, Hillary noted, “In 2016, I famously described half of Trump’s supporters as ‘the basket of deplorables.’ I was talking about the people who are drawn to his racism, sexism, homophobia, xenophobia, Islamophobia — you name it. The people for whom his bigotry is a feature, not a bug.”
“It was an unfortunate choice of words and bad politics, but it also got at an important truth. Just look at everything that has happened in the years since, from Charlottesville to Jan. 6,” she writes.
“The masks have come off, and if anything, ‘deplorable’ is too kind a word for the hate and violent extremism we’ve seen from some Trump supporters. Talking about the ‘deplorables’ in 2016, I said, ‘Some of those folks, they are irredeemable.’ Part of me would still say this is objectively true.” — ZeroHedge, Sep 28
Sadly, this revealing author’s photo was omitted from her blistering screed:
https://tinyurl.com/y5byv8zd
Excellent work there, Eric!
I have been educated.
Thank you!
(Maybe your next book should along these lines- of righting the wrong-think of history and civics with which we have all been inculcated. Your writing style, and libertarian perspective make for very enjoyable reading, where one can just relax and not have to constantly scrutinize.
F. Tupper Saussy’s book, Miracle on Main Street, is a good read, recommended. It’s all about minted US silver and gold coins and what is lawful money.
Brett Kavanaugh is known to be a beer drinking fool.
A case for Brett is in 24 cans.
Gotta have one of those on the Supreme Court.
I nominate Diana Ross from the Supremes for Supreme Court Justice!
Didn’t they used to say “THESE United States” (plural), rather than “THE United States”? I think so, probably even that shitbag Abraham Lincoln did as well.
With a naive view of the government, i.e., the most “generous” assessment is that the Supreme Court and the entire court system has failed us more than anything else because they are supposed to check the other branches.
But they end up just being a rubber stamp, more than anything else. It’s super rare that they make any decisions that don’t align with the establishment.
Pretty much all of the courts, are “somehow” the perfect cover for the obviously illegal operations of government. Isn’t that some coincidence??
Almost like they couldn’t ask for better cover.
‘Biden’ (or more accurately, his shadowy handlers, since ‘Joe’ is a drooling vegetable) goes full ‘state terrorism’:
‘President Biden has called Nasrallah’s death ‘justice’ for the hundreds of Americans who perished over what the US called a ‘four-decade reign of terror.’
“Hassan Nasrallah and the terrorist group he led, Hezbollah, were responsible for killing hundreds of Americans over a four-decade reign of terror. His death from an Israeli airstrike is a measure of justice for his many victims, including thousands of Americans, Israelis, and Lebanese civilians,” Biden said. The White House says the Pentagon has been ordered to enhance America’s defense posture and readiness in the Middle East.
‘Biden has further repeated that the US “fully supports Israel’s right to defend itself.”‘ — ZH
Note the talmudic inversion, in which a cross-border air strike to assassinate Nasrallah somehow morphs into ‘Israeli defending itself.’ Over the past ten months, Israel launched eight times as many cross-border strikes into Lebanon as Hezbollah launched from Lebanon.
Israel is our misfortune.
‘The decision to assassinate Nasrallah was made while Israeli PM Netanyahu was in the US, specifically during the UN General Assembly session. The location and timing are symbolic for two reasons: it suggests that the decision was made with American consent, and it implies that the principles of international justice, as represented by the UN, are subordinated to Israeli interests. This signals that we are living in an era where power overrides justice.‘
https://x.com/KevorkAlmassian/status/1840056473436737773
Benjamin Netanyahu and the terrorist group he leads, known as the “State of Israel,” are responsible for killing hundreds of thousands of native Arab Palestinians over a decades long reign of terror. His death from any cause would be welcomed, and likely celebrated, by most of he civilized world.
In an absolute monarchy…no supreme court to interfere….
What is better?….an absolute monarchy….a constitutional monarchy or a republic?
In an absolute monarchy, as in a dictatorship, the ruling power and actions of the absolute monarch may not be questioned or limited by any written law, legislature, COURT, economic sanction, religion, custom, or electoral process.
Executive orders give a president the power of an absolute monarch?
Crime rates tend to be low in absolute monarchies.
The overall cost of government to the people in absolute monarchies can be lower than in democracies or republics. Elections are expensive. Since 2012, federal elections in the United States have cost taxpayers over $36 billion. In 2019, maintaining the U.S. Congress cost another $4 billion.
https://www.thoughtco.com/absolute-monarchy-definition-and-examples-5111327
In Europe after the French revolution…absolute monarchies became less popular…scared of being beheaded…they became constitutional monarchies or republics……
In 1806 Napolean invaded Germany….France was the agressor….@ 11:50 in video….
This started two World Wars…..France caused them….in 1940 Hitler visited Napoleon’s tomb to tell him this was payback time……..@ 1:01:00 in video….
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xibNleNARbw
Eric, you make me laugh, the idea that “we the people” have a say in government is NOT ACTUALLY THE IDEA BEHIND GOVERNMENT. Government, has always been, a scam, by the rich ruling priestly class/elites on the masses. Including the USA which was created by the Founding Fathers which created a:
“government imposed upon the people, by a few people”
Yes, the United States government is just the latest attempt of the ruling class to fool you into compliance to their will. No longer was the state ordained by god, it was ordained by the will of the people. Sure it is, which ever political party gets control of the state. Left or Right, but never Libertarian.
Over at the Unz Review, much discussed is government and it’s madness. Nearly every article is about some maddening aspect of our subverted Zionist government. Dr. Kevin Barrett, who is a former university professor ousted for questioning the official 911 narrative, has a current article featured on the front page:
“The Fine Line Between Politics and Madness”
That title made me laugh also. Politics is madness. There is no fine line between the two. I wrote a comment, from a Libertarian/Anarchist/philosophical viewpoint on the topic of how the government scam came to be. I argue it is the GOD MEME. I have backed tracked the authority scam all the way back in time when the priests invented the external authority to self back in time to G O D, the idea that a supreme being rules over mankind. That idea in our head is what gets you to accept the idea of a “Supreme Court” which has the “final authority” on how the elite rule over and manage you (because you are their sheep which they shear for profit).
https://www.unz.com/kbarrett/the-fine-line-between-politics-and-madness/#comment-6783371
“No one has any authority over another, never did, never will. All living things are free, free to think and act and not be controlled by others.”
BTW, any Eric Peter readers are welcome to use a fake name and fake email to comment on Unz. (No sign up or email verification is used, just use the same fake name and same fake email each time you post a comment) Feel free to passionately argue your point of view, or even call me names and engage in ad hominen is you are a shill for Israhell.
Jews, of course, represent this ultimate authority in the mind’s of the Christian sheep, because the religious FABLE claims He-man God contacted and contracted with one particular tribe called Jews, thus the rest of us must bow down and kiss their feet as they wage divine war.
Some day, the sheep will learn that the Holy Bible is total fiction, from Abraham to the cross. Abraham was stolen from Hindu mythology, Brahma and Saraswati became aBraham and Sara. Ishaak became Isaac. The Ghaggar river became Hagar. Jesus was derived from the other sun god myths of the time. The primary Gospel writer J o S E p h U S used his own name to create the make believe character J E S U S who did miracles, etc. No man can walk on water or beat death. No god ever cared about us, no salvation is necessary or even possible. We humans live our lives in myth bubbles, thinking our life right now is about some future heavenly life, without one shred of evidence of it. Life exists, I say all you get is this life right now. So why obey the edicts of government – when government has always been a scam? No man has any authority over you – unless you believe it and allow it.
Two centuries after the Supreme Court’s power grab in Marbury v. Madison, the advent of DEI hiring predictably eroded the quality of justices.
A few days ago, Jonathan Turley wrote about a leak of internal deliberations which could only have come from one of the justices themselves. Turley quoted another commentator who claimed the leaker was Elena Kagan.
DEI hire Kagan checked two boxes — one for ‘female’ and one for ‘influential religious minority’ [not necessarily in order of importance]. As her habitual ideological bias and constitutional malpractice continues to grate, the Court loses respect and finds itself under attack.
Turley is a great admirer of the Chief Justice. But John RINO Roberts is the malleable invertebrate who gave compulsory Obamacare his stamp of approval, under the mindless beer hall chant that ‘it’s a tax, not a penalty.’
Sadly, the Founders’ separation of powers turned out to be a gigantic conflict of interest. The three [now four] branches of the fedgov no more police each other than the Holy Trinity restrains the Deity. Cite ‘national security,’ and the hacks in black dutifully pull out their rubber stamps to award carte blanche to the spooks and spies of Truman’s Fourth [Intel] branch.
Today, in a chaotic flurry of worthless greenbacks, sadistic overseas slaughter, and a failing domestic welfare state, the fedgov kabuki show is ready to end its run.
“The illusion of freedom will continue as long as it’s profitable to continue the illusion. At the point where the illusion becomes too expensive to maintain, they will just take down the scenery, pull back the curtains, move the tables and chairs out of the way and you will see the brick wall at the back of the theater.” — Frank Zappa
As originally conceived, the federal – or general – government was a government for the states. It had nothing to do with individual citizens.
Under that construction, SCOTUS would be largely irrelevant. Alas, that is not what it has become, and so SCOTUS is the last resort to apply more powers to government than what were delegated by the states.
Five political lawyers are now the real government. Smell the freedom.
A two-lawyer couple, ‘Kackala and Doug,’ would like to make it seven.
I rest easy knowing a retard as stupid as Sonia Sotomayor is one of the nine who decide.
Hi BAC,
Don’t forget Ketanji Brown Jackson, who lamented that the 1st Amendment “hamstrings the government”. IIRC, she advocated censorship under guise of “Stopping mis and disnformation”, never mind the fact that the BIGGEST purveyor of mis & disinformation just over the past several years is the federal government, followed by corporate/ establishment media. Examples include “Trump-Russia collusion”, “Natural immunity gained by recovery from a COVID infection is inferior to immunity from a vaccine”, “The Hunter Biden laptop story was Russian disinformation”, “Safe and Effective COVID vaccines”, “Pandemic of the unvaccinated!”, “face diapers will stop the spread of COVID”, “January 6th”, “Our Democracy”, “Climate change”, etc.
Sotomayor is a terrible person and awful at her job as a Supreme Court Justice.
Hi Groundhog,
I could be wrong, but is Sotomayor the Supreme Court justice who tried to DEFEND the Biden Thing’s COVID jab mandates for employers with 100+ employees when that was being fought in SCOTUS? Or was that the other Obama appointed SCOTUS justice, Elena Kagan?
‘“democracy” is a kind of slick tautology for tyranny’ — eric
It’s often pointed out that the republic specified by the Constitution is not particularly democratic. Only the House was elected by the people. Senators were selected by state legislatures. That’s what made the DC entity ‘federal’ until 1913. Now the states no longer play a formal role in it, making it not federal and not legitimate.
Likewise, the Senate confirmed cabinet officers and judges nominated by the president. And presidential electors — presumably intended to be eminent citizens (though the Founders flubbed that too with their poor drafting of the Constitution) — intervened between the people and the final selection of the president.
Judging from the masonic influences plainly apparent in the imperial capital, the ‘republic’ (also undefined) was intended to be an elitist regime with a popular facade, confined solely to the rum-soaked rabble of the People’s House.
All in all, it’s a fine mess. And it quickly turned rancid, as anyone with three brain cells under his tri-cornered hat could’ve predicted.
FOOLS! Why did they have to f*ck with the Articles of Confederation? Wartime currency depreciation (‘not worth a continental’) was one factor that undermined the Articles. And despite the gold clause in the constitution, wartime currency depreciation is eating our lunch again. Which means it’s time to jerk the carpet out from under this swindling, deceitful shambles, just like last time around.
The Supreme Court has been a mixed bag over the past several years if not decades. While it had several rulings such as those in favor of the 2nd Amendment, the ruling striking down the Chevron deference, and the ruling that the Biden Thing couldn’t force Americans to take an experimental Big Pharma product to keep a job, it also made a BIG mistake a few months ago when it ruled that those who filed a lawsuit against the Biden regime over censorship “didn’t have standing”, which likely emboldened the Biden-Harris regime to enact censorship on steroids, and will likely get even worse if we end up with a Harris-Walz regime. The Democratic Party is now firmly ensconsed as the party of billionaire sociopaths, war, Big Pharma, and censorship.
https://www.fff.org/explore-freedom/article/supreme-court-unleashes-censors-and-betrays-democracy/
One of the many fatal wounds inflicted upon the republic by dear Abraham. And it only cost 650+k American lives. More than all other wars combined.
“The US Constitution is a pretty interesting document, if you read it in the plain language it was written. ”
Same for any religious text like the Bible for example. Whole organizations invented to “interpret” it for the rubes while amassing wealth and power for themselves despite the simplicity of the message.
Shame that only a fraction of Merica’ can even read and/or comprehend what they read. And to think that once upon a time this nation had some of the highest literacy in the world.
Observing functional illiteracy firsthand is a soul crushing experience.
You know I get the feeling that things would be a whole lot better if those justices had stuck to reinforcing the Constitution instead of rewriting it.
Funny thing is with some of the recent decisions that is happening to a certain extent now.
The federal department of “justice” is suing Alabama for removing non-citizens from the voters roll. Back when Alabamians had balls & backbones we’d have told the fedgov to fuck off (and they’d send in more troops, of course).
Today Alabamians are more concerned about Auburn’s certain beatdown by Oklahoma, and more importantly, Alabama vs Georgia. One coach handpicked by Saban to be his successor and one that’s a Saban protégée.
Clowns in gowns. Plain and simple.
Nullification is the only hope. But as things currently stand, the slaves love their master and will do no such thing.
“Justice awaits for those in high places”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whHL297qgdI
Go read Article III. It won’t take you very long. Doesn’t say much for sure. That might have been a good thing, but of course brevity opens the door to wild interpretation.
One reason why Article III is so brief is because the colonies (states) and cities had already established their own courts. There wasn’t much of a need for federal courts. But of course this meant that an illegal act in one state (say, selling a car without a catalytic converter) was just fine in another. There’s no way that scales so the federal government began looking for ways to broaden and unify laws, which led to the most important sentence fragment in world history…
“To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes;”
Any interaction that involves barter or exchange of anything has been recognized as “Commerce” (note the capital C). So if there’s a mutual benefit, it’s under congress’ control. And that holds up even if you leave, because then you become a foreign Nation…
The US Constitution is a pretty interesting document, if you read it in the plain language it was written. I guess all that common sense is cauterized out of your brain when you go to law school and replaced with interpretation of what was meant. Almost inspires me to seek out a translation, as written by a lawyer, so I know what it’s really about.
“The US Constitution is a pretty interesting document, if you read it in the plain language it was written.”
Indeed. It’s written in as plain English as one can manage. The notion it needs to be “interpreted” Is ludicrous.