Thomas Jefferson wrote to Mr. Hammond in 1821: “The germ of dissolution of our federal government is in … the federal judiciary; an irresponsible body … working like gravity by night and by day, gaining a little today and a little tomorrow, and advancing its noiseless step like a thief, over the field of jurisdiction, until all shall be usurped from the states.” In writing to William Jarvis, Jefferson said, “You seem … to consider the judges as the ultimate arbiters of all constitutional questions; a very dangerous doctrine indeed, and one which would place us under the despotism of an oligarchy.” It seems to me that he was prophetic! He was not alone. Alexis De Tocqueville, a disinterested observer of early American government, wrote in Democracy in America that  “. . . if the Supreme Court is ever composed of imprudent or bad men, the Union may be plunged into anarchy or civil war.” We have had imprudent and bad people in the federal courts which led to the Dred Scott v. Sanford decision, and therefore we had civil war. We most certainly will have civil war again and even more anarchy than we have now unless the issue with the federal courts is addressed immediately. The degeneration of the nation is largely due to the federal courts. De Tocqueville also said, “When the American republics begin to degenerate, it will be easy to verify the truth of this observation by remarking whether the number of political impeachments is increased.” He hit the proverbial “nail on the head” in making that comment nearly two hundred years ago!

I would advocate and vote to repudiate Marbury v. Madison, a decision issued many years ago by the United States Supreme Court that was used to establish federal courts as the ultimate decision-maker in government. Even though the Constitution itself provides a mechanism for amendment, and it has been amended many times, federal judges are so pompous that they say they can change it as they wish.  To take this ultimate power is tyrannical and despotic (anti-nobility clauses ).

In issuing the Marbury decision, the United States Supreme Court did not have the support of the Constitution, the Executive, or the Congress to do so. The very structure of the Constitution establishes Congress as preeminent to the courts, which is eminently logical because they are closest to the people in that they are elected and judges are appointed. For Congress to make a decision, it takes 269 votes in favor of it. With the United States Supreme Court, it only takes five votes, and many times a binding decision circumventing the will of Congress and the President rests on the vote of one Justice. What’s worse is that one unelected federal district court judge circumvents the will of Congress and the President, and therefore the will of the people. That is outrageous! At the time the Constitution was formed, for the courts to declare something “unconstitutional” would have been completely foreign to the Founders.

According to the Constitution, the existence of lower federal courts is completely discretionary. It doesn’t make any sense to consider them superior to Congress and determine that an Act of Congress is unconstitutional. Congress can, and maybe should, repeal the Judiciary Act of 1789 and terminate the existence of the lower federal courts unless they can be put into their proper role under the Constitution.

In shaping the Constitution, the Founders were extremely concerned about preventing tyranny and despotism through application of government power to anything but basic morality. Thomas Jefferson, who was President when the Supreme Court issued the Marbury decision, had the view that it was illegitimate, as did Andrew Jackson when he was President. Early observers of the American way of life and government warned that the structure of the courts was the weak link of our system of government and would lead to civil war. History has proven them correct at least once, i.e., Dred Scott v. Sanford. This tyranny must be addressed.

Governmental power must be returned to the people. One way is to limit the federal government as understood by the Founders. This would include empowering the people by requiring the courts to have the jury determine the facts and the law before the coercive power of the government can be applied to any person or situation. As it is now, the jury is rarely used, and then only to determine a few facts. I will advocate and vote along these lines. Alexis-de-Tocqueville-Democracy-in-America.pdf page 310.

Judges, federal and state, are responsible for making it practically impossible to defend yourself. They have created doctrines that punish the victim if a firearm is used in the slightest way against their criminal-friendly rules. This is another reason why judges’ role in society must be completely revamped to limit them to administrative functions only and the jury reestablished to make all decisions on the application of the law. Federal judges, trial lawyers and bureaucrats, though not elected, have far more influence on the direction of government than elected officials or even bodies of elected officials. That has to end if the nation is to survive.