By Thomas Sowell
Tuesday, June 30, 2015
Many people are looking at the recent Supreme Court
decisions about Obamacare and same-sex marriage in terms of whether they think
these are good or bad policies. That is certainly a legitimate concern, for
both those who favor those policies and those who oppose them.
But there is a deeper and more long-lasting impact of
these decisions that raises the question of whether we are still living in
America, where “we the people” are supposed to decide what kind of society we
want, not have our betters impose their notions on us.
The Constitution of the United States says that the
federal government has only those powers specifically granted to it by the
Constitution — and that all other powers belong either to the states or to the
people themselves. That is the foundation of our freedom, and that is what is
being dismantled by both this year’s Obamacare decision and last year’s
Obamacare decision, as well as by the Supreme Court’s decision imposing a
redefinition of marriage.
Last year’s Supreme Court decision declaring Obamacare
constitutional says that the federal government can order individual citizens
to buy the kind of insurance the government wants them to buy, regardless of
what the citizens themselves prefer.
The Constitution gave the federal government no such
power, but the Supreme Court did. It did so by citing the government’s power to
tax, even though the Obamacare law did not claim to be taxing.
This year’s Obamacare decision likewise ignored the
actual words of the law and decided that the decisions of 34 states not to
participate in Obamacare exchanges, even to get federal subsidies, would not
prevent those federal subsidies to be paid anyway, to exchanges up by the
federal government itself.
When any branch of government can exercise powers not
authorized by either statutes or the Constitution, “we the people” are no
longer free citizens but subjects, and our “public servants” are really our
public masters. And America is no longer America. The freedom for which whole
generations of Americans have fought and died is gradually but increasingly
being taken away from us with smooth and slippery words.
This decision makes next year’s choice of the next
President of the United States more crucial than ever, because with that office
goes the power to nominate justices of the Supreme Court. Democrats have consistently
nominated people who shared their social vision and imposed their policy
preferences, too often in disregard of the Constitution.
Republicans have complained about it, but when the power
of judicial appointment was in the hands of Republican presidents, they have
too often appointed justices who participated in the dismantling of the
Constitution — and usually for the kinds of social policies preferred by
Democrats.
Chief Justices appointed by Republican presidents have
made landmark decisions for which there was neither Constitutional authority
nor either evidence or logic. The first was Earl Warren. When Chief Justice
Warren said that “separate educational facilities are inherently unequal,” he
was within walking distance of an all-black public high school that sent a
higher percentage of its graduates on to college than any white public high
school in Washington. As far back as 1899, that school’s students scored higher
on tests than two of the city’s three white academic public high schools.
Nevertheless, Chief Justice Warren’s unsubstantiated assumption led to years of
school busing across the country that was as racially divisive as it was
educationally futile.
Chief Justice Warren Burger, also appointed by a
Republican president, gave us the “disparate impact” notion that statistical
disparities imply discrimination. That notion has created a whole statistical
shakedown racket, practiced by government itself and by private race hustlers
alike.
And now Chief Justice John Roberts, appointed by George
W. Bush, gives the federal government the power to order us to buy whatever
insurance they want us to buy. With that entering wedge, is there anything they
cannot force us to do, regardless of the Constitution?
Can the Republicans — or the country — afford to put
another mushy moderate in the White House, who can appoint more mushy moderates
to the Supreme Court?
No comments:
Post a Comment