Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Separation of Powers

How much electric do you think we could get out of Thomas Jefferson's grave right now, given he has to be spinning pretty fast down there! One of the hallmarks of the writing of the US Constitution by Jefferson is the establishment of the Separation of Powers between the three branches of our government. Today there is so much nepotism between the three branches that you can hardly tell where one starts and ends.

There was also the implied adversarial relationship between the three branches that would almost guarantee the checks and balances that Jefferson desired and felt was crucial to the long term existence of the Republic. This has failed too and now our country is close to ruin, politically speaking of course.

Today, the Congress trespasses all over the Constitution. Take this Health Care Reform initiative that has consumed political debate over that last couple of months, well most of the debate. All the arguing about racism kind of intrudes on true health care discussion. But when you look into the House Bill (HR3200) and compare it to past Bills one of the stark differences is that there is very little preamble. It is here that usually Congress embeds their Constitutional authority (references to Article 1 and sections therein) for the measure contained herein. Not in HR3200. They give a short abstract of the Bill and then a Table of Contents. Nowhere in the Bill do they cite where they draw their authority for drafting this bill. In every other Bill that I have read there is usually more pages of these legal disclaimers and declarations to the Constitution than there is in narrative of the Bill itself.

How much of this Bill could survive a constitutional challenge? With members on the Supreme Court like Ginsberg and Sotomayer I would guess much of it would be passed along since both are noted for their policy making from the bench. And this is where the current separation of powers fails us, with the blending of lawmaking with judicial activism there is no check or balance. There is no honest broker here to keep the Congress in check.

The Administration is the source of the activists that are put onto the Supreme Court. There is a premeditated quid pro quo that goes on between the Administration and the Leaders of the Congress to get federal appointments to the high bench. In turn these new appointee's uphold and craft the unconstitutional laws into policy. Chipping away at a base element of the foundation of this country.

Being a Constitutional Lawyer no one knows this better than the PresBO and that is why he is hell bent to get his agenda passed into law, any kind of law before the people actually wake up and takes the congress back. With even a place holder Bill on the books the PresBO can push his socialist agenda but he needs the law first. Once passed he is assured of a pass from the Supremes.

Ben Franklin was asked what he gave us after the constitutional convention. His response: "we have given you a Republic, if you can keep it."

I wonder how much longer we can hold on.

BT: Jimmy T sends.

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