“I have been thinking,” said Arthur, “about Might and Right. I don’t think things ought to be done because you are able to do them. I think they should be done because you ought to do them.” – T.H. White, The Once And Future King.
By Norman Baggs
SUGAR HILL, Ga. | The minute-by-minute chaos besieging the foundations of our national government put us all in the position of the “boy who cried wolf,” fully aware that if we respond to every feat of inanity our voices of protest will become irrelevant.
Baggs
But a recent comment by the omnipresent Elon Musk demands examination.
The richest man in the world may possess a brilliant mind, but he has a basic misunderstanding about the role of the nation’s courts.
In bemoaning court rulings with which he disagrees, Musk wrote that judges are “acting in stark contrast to the will of the American people.”
That may or may not be true, but it is irrelevant.
Judges are supposed to interpret the law. They are not supposed to be swayed by public opinion. The will of the American people is not supposed to be a factor in determining what the law says and how it is to be administered.
Ours is not a pure democracy where the “will of the people” determines issues. We are a nation of laws, not political polls and public opinion surveys. Or at least we are supposed to be.
Yes, there are judges on both sides of the political spectrum who allow their personal opinions to skew their rulings. But there are also processes of appeal built into our legal system to address any such abuse by individual judges.
Were the courts to take into consideration the “will of the people,” would we have integrated the South in the 1960s? If the “will of the people” was the determining legal precedent, would we truly have religious freedom in our country?
Even if Musk was right, what is the “will of the people?’’ In the 2024 presidential election, more people voted against Donald Trump than voted for him. So, is it the will of the voting majority that Musk would like to see driving the courts? I suspect not.
While the actions of the current president have been the cause of much handwringing and many prophecies of doom, and the spineless ineptness of Congress a revelation in its scope, it is in the courtrooms where the nation’s future will be determined. We will either be a nation ruled by law, or a nation where those in power do as they please and the law is ignored. It was our president, after all, who posted that “He who saves his Country does not violate any Law.”
If the power to determine what is legal and what is not is shifted to the executive branch of our government, then our nation will have fallen regardless of who is in the oval office.
- Have a comment? Click here to send an email.
Follow Us