Voice support for Thomas Lee as next US Supreme Court justice
Published 11:29 am Monday, December 5, 2016
The pivotal election in the history of twenty-first century American is over. The national media is now focused on the selection of President-Elect Trump’s cabinet. However, one of his first official actions may well have much greater impact, Shortly after taking office President Trump will nominate our next Supreme Court Justice.
Christian Americans want to make our nation great again. To achieve our goal the Supreme Court must be turned in a conservative direction. It is undeniable that most of the damage inflicted upon our society has been at the hands of liberal activist judges. Now that we have an opportunity to correct this we, the American people, have a patriotic and moral obligation to seize this opportunity.
The Supreme Court was established by the founding fathers as a co-equal branch of our national government to protect our nation’s core values and ideals. There is no actual evidence supporting the liberals use of the courts to reshape our national values and ideals as being legitimate. A student of our history can not truthfully argue that James Madison nor any other person involved in the adoption of the Bill or Rights actually intended to prevent prayer in schools. Likewise, these men never envisioned the use of the courts to remove Christian symbols from government buildings and national memorials.
No one actually applying the original intent of the drafters of our Constitution and the Bill or Rights could reach the conclusion that abortion is somehow a right protected by our Constitution. Equally absurd was Hillary Clinton’s statement that “the Supreme Court got it wrong” when holding that the Second Amendment was intended to protect the right of individual citizens to own firearms.
President Trump can begin correcting the past errors of activist judges and repairing the damage inflicted upon our society when nominating the next supreme court justice. The importance of his selection can not be overstated as this person will likely impact American society for decades. All American citizens should work to ensure that this person is someone who will serve to protect the original intent of the Constitution.
Prior to his election the President-Elect released a list of twenty-one possible nominees to the Supreme Court. Among them is Thomas Rex Lee, who currently serves on the Utah Supreme Court. Everyone on the list is qualified to fill the current vacancy on the United States Supreme Court. The attribute that makes Lee the best choice is that he is an originalist,
An originalist understands that the Constitution and other laws should be viewed and interpreted as they were when written. Thomas Lee wrote in the Utah case of State v. Bagnes, that “Our role in interpreting the statute is to give its words the meaning they would have had in the mind of the general public at the time of enactment.”
This is exactly how a judge should view his or her role. The legislature is elected by the people and enacts laws supported by the majority of citizens. Laws are written using language intended to be given a certain meaning by the people at that time, This original meaning is the only meaning which should ever be applied..
The notion that activist jurists should later twist the meaning of the law to satisfy the desires of one special interest groups is absurd and contrary to the view of the courts for most of our national history. The trend of activist judges imposing their individual will upon the American people must be stopped and then rolled back. If the election of 2016 is to be a turning point in American history patriotic Christian conservative American citizens must make it so.
This is a task we can accomplish. We currently have the attention of Washington and while they are listening we must make our will known. Our Representatives in Congress have the ability to influence the President-Elect and they are paid to represent us. We should each write, telephone or email them asking that they recommend Thomas Lee as the next Supreme Court Justice. Our Senators have even greater influence because they actually vote on the nominee. Again we should voice our support for Thomas Lee as the best choice for this position to our Senators by every means possible. If we are truly interested in making American great again then we must each do our part.
ray garrett is a columnist and local blogger who can be reached at flyovercountrycitizen.com.