Judicial Activism
If you want to write laws, run for office.
Laura Ingraham
By Dr. Jim Ferguson
I’ll admit at the start of this essay that I’m not a legal expert, and perhaps I’m in over my head with this topic. But that’s OK because I’m writing from the perspective of a layman and a citizen rather than a titular expert.
In my 74 years, I’ve had very little contact with the legal profession, aside from lawyer friends. And given the current state of affairs, I’m thankful for that.
I practiced medicine for 45 years and was never sued. Perhaps I was lucky or fortunate, a word derived from the Roman god Fortuna. I was careful and maintained rapport with my patients. I documented my decisions and discussions with patients. In other words, I tried to practice good medicine and avoid lawyers.
It astounds me that seemingly every decision made by our duly elected president is met with a lawsuit. Perhaps Mr. Trump is used to court battles from his days as a developer in New York City or in his other business ventures. I can’t imagine he finds it pleasant to be repeatedly attacked by Democrat activists, corrupt prosecutors like Letitia James, or corrupt judges like Engoron or Boasberg. Despite two attempts to assassinate Trump, the despicable Boasberg just released a woman from jail who was threatening to kill the president. Boasberg should have been required to take this nut-job home with him instead of releasing her to the street.
Trump might say that lawyers, judges and lawsuits are the price of doing business in our litigious society. But I find it appalling and alarming to watch the entire legal system drug into the toilet by activist lawyers and a cadre of non-elected scurrilous federal judges who practice lawfare.
Like so many other institutions, the Democrats have sullied (FBI, CIA, IRS, DOJ, etc.), the entire legal system is now on trial, and the American people are the jurors. Don’t talk to me about stays, remands, injunctions, etc. I can speak medical-eze and did so more clearly than the mumbo-jumbo of legalese that flows from the mouths of attorneys. The legal system needs to speak plainly, police its ranks and stop the insanity, or the American people may be forced to do so out of self-preservation. No one is safe with an out-of-control judicial system.
Let me offer a few examples besides the most recent, reckless Boasberg decision. A federal judge says President Trump cannot use tariffs, which are bringing businesses and cash back to America as well as promoting an America First geopolitical foreign policy. A three-judge appeals panel had to overrule a DC judge who said 20 billion dollars had to be released for worthless climate change projects. And another legal beagle said billions must go to USAID to support ridiculous activism in foreign countries and surreptitiously fund Democrats. Even Supreme Court justices have railed about judges who ignore their rulings. I could go on, but those who aren’t brain-dead read of such abuses almost every day. Even the deportation of illegal gang-bangers is blocked by robed activists.
Obviously, I approach the legal system as a layman. But the ominous line from the movie “Apollo 13” underscores America’s judicial mess: “Houston, we have a problem.”
Most have heard the famous line from Shakespeare’s play “Henry IV” where the villainous character Dick says, “The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers.” Of course, I don’t ascribe to this. Nor did Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens, who agreed with the notion that Shakespeare meant, “society can’t have fairness and peace without the protection of the law and its guardians.” But scholar Daniel Kornstein held that Shakespeare was “criticising lawyers who were professionals committed to securing the interests of the wealthy” (or powerful). I side with Justice Stevens.
Unfortunately, we have seen abuses of the legal system where American justice is not blind as it is ballyhooed and promoted. People have seen the powerful escape and the system twisted to suppress the common man. Of course, no man is guilty unless found so in a court of law. But murderers, rapists and child predators have used lawyers to beat the system.
As a physician, I cared for disreputable persons, but I could not defend a pedophile. And that same “just” legal system’s poster-child Judge Engoron (suffering from TDS, Trump derangement syndrome) imposed such vindictive fines on Trump that the president’s Constitutional rights were violated. The whole trial was a sham pushed by a corrupt NY district attorney. So even the powerful can be victimized by a more powerful, activist and weaponized justice system.
Judicial activism is a thorny issue. But as citizens, it is our responsibility to struggle with such problems using the Constitution as a guide. Unfortunately, we have a problem in the legal system which we cannot ignore because it is allowing perversions of justice, violating common sense and is moving to exert its will over both the executive and legislative branches.
You may be surprised to learn that this turf war began in 1803. Thomas Jefferson had just been elected president, and his secretary of state, James Madison, refused to honor the justice of the peace appointment given by outgoing President John Adams to William Marbury. Marbury sued, and it went to the Supreme Court, where Chief Justice John Marshall ruled that Marbury was entitled to the commission. However, Marshall further ruled that the court did not have the power to grant the commission. But far more importantly, Marshall’s ruling established the precedent of judicial review with which we now struggle. As a result, the rest of the government, if not the will of the people, is often held hostage by an increasingly dysfunctional and corrupt legal system, where a non-elected judge can trump the duly elected president of the United States.
This is our country. It does not belong to experts, judges, professors, lawyers, doctors, etc. It belongs to We the People. I trust the American people more than any politician, journalist, doctor, professor, media panelist, etc. It’s past time to say, enough is enough. The “robed resistance” must end.
