THE SUPREME ABORTION

American history has always been a fight between gov't (Democrats) and freedom (Republicans). Accordingly, Democrats (called Federalists in the beginning) originally wanted a powerful gov't, including a powerful Supreme Court, while Jeffersonian Republicans wanted the opposite having observed that powerful gov't was responsible for the mass slaughter that had always characterized human history. Since the last Century (the 20th) was the bloodiest in history, reasonable people assume the Republicans were right. Moreover, they assume that the same totalitarian megalomania that naturally leads big govt to mass slaughter, makes them, at best, wholly incompetent at less deadly or even benign enterprises. And, this is not to mention the massive inefficiencies that normally handicap any huge bureaucratic monopoly not directly accountable to constituents or consumers, that often will lack a clear organizational purpose and discipline.

Here's what the Republicans said about the Supreme Court in 1787: "This power in the judicial, will enable them to mold the gov't, into almost any shape they please." In fact, 150 years later Thurgood Marshall, a Supreme Court Justice said, "you can do anything around here you want as long as you've got 5 votes for it." Eventually, that included ordering 40 million abortions even though such a thing was not remotely imagined, let alone spoken of, in the Constitution. When trying to explain how abortion could be derived from language in the Constitution the Court merely expressed its vague feeling that abortion was good, the Constitution was good, and so therefore the Constitution supported abortion. The Democrats wanted a gov't by men who openly scoffed at the Constitution and their oath to preserve, protect, and defend it, while the Republicans wanted a gov't by impartial law.

This rather short journey toward judicial, Democratic, irrational monarchy started when the Constitution was ratified, but picked up steam when Jefferson (whose small gov't philosophy defined America and prevailed until 1932) was elected President in 1800 over his hated Democratic opponent, John Adams the incumbent President. Adams, who rode around in regal horse drawn carriages reminiscent of George 111, was derided as a royalist or monarchist. He appointed several Democratic "midnight"Justices of the Peace, but the appointment process had not been fully completed when Jefferson took office. Marbury, one of the Justices, sued for his appointment. The case came before John Marshall, the Democratic Chief Justice who was afraid to finalize the appointments in fear that Jefferson would simply ignore the writ to finalize the appointments and thereby weaken the power of the Democratic Court.

Instead, Marshall, a brilliant Democratic schemer, ruled that the enumerated powers expressed in the Constitution did not allow him to make the appointment, and to do so would have been contrary to the Constitution. It was a huge case, the most important in American history according to Justice Rehnquist , in that it dramiticially, although not quickly, established the Court's authority to rule on what was not Constitutional, and by extension, what was Constitutional. In time, it came to be that any law passed by any legislature and any action by any citizen, abortion for example, could be overturned or affirmed as unconstitutional or constitutional regardless of whether that law or action was intented to be governed by the Constitution. In sum, one non-elected branch of gov't, accountable to no one, with only nine members, all of whom had lifetime appointments, then had more power than was ever imagined in what was supposed to be a free Republican country established for the express purpose to limiting gov't and promoting freedom.

If Justice Rehnquist retires this summer, as is widely anticipated, a battle royale will ensue. It will be the same battle that Jefferson fought against Adams to keep America free from Democratic gov't. We should expect a long, bloody, and heroic battle from the Republicans who know that this may be their last best opportunity to ever take back America from the Democrats who maniacally, reflexively, and eternally have wanted more and more power further and further away from the people and their frequently elected legislatures.