Sunday, April 17, 2005

Scalia needs to learn Constitutional Law.

Newsday has an interesting editorial on whether the Ten Commandments should be permitted to be displayed in government areas. One line, however, struck me strongly. The Supreme Court was recently hearing arguments on the subject, and (from the editorial) ”During the oral argument in the Ten Commandments case, Justice Antonin Scalia noted that our government derives its authority and its laws from God”.

If Scalia really believes this, he should resign or be impeached from the Supreme Court. The US government derives its authority from the Constitution, which derives ITS authority from the people of this nation.

The Supreme Court exists to ensure that the Congress acts only within that authority delegated to it by the Constitution, which is the will of the people.

God has no FORMAL authority in our government. Any Justice who believes otherwise is completely unsuited for a job in our court system.

For an extended discussion of this, see this dKos Diary on the subject of the role of the Supreme Court to protect the people from the tyranny of the legislature.

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