BY FRANK SALVATO
With the death of US Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia our country stands at a very sober moment in time, a moment that finds the US Constitution – and the idea of constitutionality in general – in a very vulnerable state. With the make-up of the US Supreme Court existing on a razor’s edge between the opposing ideologies of Progressivism (which views the Constitution as malleable) and Constitutionalism (which sees the document at a limitation on government) what happens in the next few months will serve to chart the course for our country. The two paths couldn’t be more different: one a pathway to the end of the American experiment.
I am want to recall a passage from a speech that Ronald Reagan gave in 1964:
“You and I have a rendezvous with destiny. We will preserve for our children this, the last best hope of man on earth, or we will sentence them to take the first step into a thousand years of darkness. If we fail, at least let our children and our children’s children say of us we justified our brief moment here. We did all that could be done.”
Today, with the passing of Justice Scalia, the Republican and Conservative members of the United States Senate have met up with their own “rendezvous with destiny.” They will soon be presented with a nominee to the US Supreme Court from President Obama, a Far-Left Progressive who has already seated two political activists to the Court. It will be the Senate’s duty – not their option, but their duty – to deny Mr. Obama another Progressive seat on the US Supreme Court.
Progressives by their very nature believe that the US Constitution is a flawed document; something to be improved, perfected and otherwise titrated to the needs of the times. That is anathema to what the Framers intended and history bears that out. The Framers intended for the US Constitution to be the “chains” that binds government to the service of the nation, not the service to the ideological and/or the few.
Thomas Jefferson is quoted as saying:
“The two enemies of the people are criminals and government, so let us tie the second down with the chains of the Constitution so the second will not become the legalized version of the first.”
For just over 100 years Progressives have been moving to free themselves of those chains in an effort to diminish the Constitution, all in the name of social engineering. Progressive political activists elevated to the US Supreme Court have read authority over the States in all matters into the Commerce Clause; have divined the right to execute abortion into privacy laws; twisted affirmative action to champion equality; and facilitated mandated health insurance under the guise of taxation. None of these “decisions” have anything to do with constitutionality in the understanding that the Constitution is written to restrain government. None of these “decisions” have anything to do with ‘Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
In recent times we have suffered the rhetoric of Republican leaders who insist that a President is due his choice when it comes to seating US Supreme Court Justices. This is a political narrative that has no meaning when viewed through the eyes of the Constitution. The President is due his opportunity to submit a nomination for consideration. Then it is the duty – not the option, but the duty – of the Senate to vet that nominee; to make sure that nominee is not damaging to the Constitution, to the office to which her or she is nominated, and to the nation.
Article II, Section 2 of the US Constitution states quite clearly:
“The President shall… by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, shall appoint Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, Judges of the supreme Court, and all other Officers of the United States, whose Appointments are not herein otherwise provided for;…”
The Constitution does not give the President free reign over who he sees fit to sit on the US Supreme Court. The Senate must – must – provide “consent.” This means that the Senate – a chamber of a co-equal branch of government – has the authority to deny a President his choice for the Court.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), and his leadership team must make a stand for the good of the country and for the survival of constitutionality. The Republican controlled Senate must jettison the false narrative of a “President getting the justices he chooses” and make a stand for the Constitution and the Framers intention of co-equal branches of government. Failure by Senator McConnell and Senate Republicans to keep another Obama nominee from being seated by to the Court will mean “a thousand years of darkness” at the hand of a Progressive leaning US Supreme Court and the social engineering decisions they will hand down.
Senator McConnell, Senate Republicans, this is your “rendezvous with destiny.” Stand up for the Constitution. Stand firm for our country. Hold the line for the “last best hope of man on earth.” Hold the line!
My condolences to the Scalia Family. My God hold him in His light in perpetuity.