Extreme
Supremes
by Jennifer King, Managing Editor
January 7, 2004
The
latest ruling from the Supreme Court, upholding the most noxious portions of
the Campaign Finance Reform Act, proves further that the Court has lost its
collective head. Antonin Scalia (right at Marquette University), dissenting,
noted that this “was a sad day for freedom of speech”. Scalia further
astutely observed, “Who could have imagined that the same Court which,
within the past four years, has sternly disapproved of restrictions upon such
inconsequential forms of expression as virtual child pornography, tobacco advertising,
dissemination of illegally intercepted communications and sexually explicit
cable programming would smile with favor upon a law that cuts to the heart of
what the First Amendment is meant to protect: the right to criticize the government.
For that is what the most offensive provisions of this legislation are all about.
We are governed by Congress, and this legislation prohibits the criticism of
Members of Congress by those entities most capable of giving such criticism
loud voice: national political parties and corporations, both of the commercial
and the not-for-profit sort. It forbids pre-election criticism of incumbents
by corporations, even not-for-profit corporations, by use of their general funds;
and forbids national-party use of "soft" money to fund "issue
ads" that incumbents find so offensive. “Congress shall make no
law …abridging the freedom of speech” simple yet elegant words,
which surely five grown jurists could understand and interpret correctly. Yet
today, as Concerned Women for America’s Chief Counsel Jan LaRue noted,
“‘no law’ has been replaced by a thousand pages of complex regulations.”
The Supreme Court, with a staggering disregard for propriety and historical precedent, has overturned one of America’s most defining principles. This Court appears to suffer from an excess of hubris, determined to change our society from the bench. Its most recent rulings include upholding affirmative action at the University of Michigan and finding a new right to sodomy in the Constitution. All while abrogating a clearly written, founding right out.
Liberals have long understood that they need control of the judiciary, because they cannot get their anti-American, leftist “progressive” agenda enacted through the ballot box. Their tireless “long march” through the institutions have finally culminated with this left-wing, arguably regressive Court. While the Court has moved steadily Left, the American public has moved to the Right. The tragic excesses spawned by the ‘60s and ‘70s “Days of Rage” are now unmistakably transparent to all but the most insulated tenured college professor. An entire generation of children was sacrificed on the altar of their parents' selfishness, with African-American children suffering the most grievously from the banes of illegitimacy, divorce and the rise of the welfare state.
Americans have seen some of the errors of their ways, and the latest generation of Americans may end up being more conservative than even their parents. Most young women today shy from the label of “feminist”, accurately associating it with radical causes and sheer, screechy harpyism. Women are beginning to understand the danger posed by feminism to men and women alike. Men are allowed to remain perpetual “Peter Pan” adolescents and women don’t get what they often desire - a stable home with a monogamous mate.
Americans have also seen the intrinsic irony of affirmative action laws when judged by Dr. Martin Luther King’s stated desire to have men judged on the “strength of their character rather than the color of their skin.” And, although most Americans are uninterested in what others do behind their bedroom doors, many are heartily sick of the 24/7, in your face, homosexual advocacy practiced tirelessly by the mainstream media. The outright hostility to organized religion - save Islam - is also wearying.
The Court’s recent opinions place it outside the circle of popular opinion. Yet, they are our judicial masters. If they are willing to overrule a bedrock of the American Constitution - free speech - what’s next?
The Court has declared itself renegade. James Bopp, Jr., General Counsel for the Madison Center for Free Speech, has warned that the “Court’s affirmation of BCRA severely damages citizen participation in the American system of government and fundamentally alters American political discourse without any constitutional warrant and in direct contravention of constitutional mandate.” In that case, Americans should remember from where our rights, our “inalienable rights” derive. A hint - it's not the Supreme Court. ***
© 2004 Jennifer King
COPYRIGHT © 2004 BY THE AMERICAN PARTISAN. All writers retain rights to their work.
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