"The Will of the Judge"

He understood the problem with the judiciary.

With the stroke of a pen, one judge in California, Ms. Virginia Phillips, dictatorially swept aside the legislative and executive branches of government today when she dissolved the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy. Question: Where do federal judges acquire this kind of unparalleled authority? Who gets to censure them for their rank abuses of power in cases such as this one? (and not to mention the California Prop. 8 ruling) People just assume the judge's great power is legitimate and beyond reproach because of longstanding precedent to rule on everything under the sun. They've done it before, and they'll do it again. Case closed. But is reliance on precedent alone, as opposed to the Constitution, a satisfactory justification? Judicial review is a sticky, controversial thing, stretching all the way back to the founding (read James F. Simon's What Kind of Nation: Thomas Jefferson, John Marshall, and the Epic Struggle to Create a United States), but something has to be done to curtail the power of the judiciary.

When it comes down to it, what is the point of voting if judges, on a personal whim, can simply snuff out any legitimate law coming from the majority? That is a fundamental question facing Americans today, with federal judges reigning supreme as thinly veiled despots, hurdling down their politically laced rulings from their marble encased, Mount Olympus-like court rooms.

When a battle is lost in the halls congress or in the ballot box, at least there is that strong, stinging sense of, "Well, I need to do a better job convincing people." There is an awareness of personal responsibility to get involved and dive into the debate to make a difference. But with the judicial tyranny we are witnessing today, not even fighting hard tooth and nail and perhaps, in the end, coming up a few votes short matters. Majority or no majority, what the court says goes.

Finally, why should the military even listen to Phillips? It is remarkable that a federal judge like Ms. Phillips can impose her personal views about fairness and equality on the armed forces, especially considering the Constitution clearly places this entity under the Executive authority.

To be sure, Jefferson had his eccentricities, but on the dangers of an unchecked judiciary, he was right on the money.

"We supposed we possessed fixed laws to guard us equally against treason and oppression; but it now appears we have no law but the will of the judge." -Thomas Jefferson