Will 1/14/09

Judges May Downgrade Constitution

My take on George Will's latest. His column was published in the Washington Post.

Summary: Last year the California Supreme Court ruled that same-sex marriage was a fundamental Constitutional right. Proposition 8 amended the State Constitution to reverse the Court's ruling. Now the CSC will rule whether or not an amendment to the Constitution is constitutional.

Quote:

Now comes California's attorney general, Jerry Brown -- always a fountain of novel arguments -- with a 111-page brief asking the state Supreme Court to declare the constitutional amendment unconstitutional. He favors same-sex marriages and says the amendment violates Article 1, Section 1, of California's Constitution, which enumerates "inalienable rights" to, among other things, liberty, happiness and privacy.

My Views: Forget the issue of Gay Rights for just a moment. Forget that this is just California. Who's in charge of Constitutional law in the USA?

The Federal Constitution starts with the words, "We the people". Not we the lawyers. Not we the judges. The people. This idea that those Articles of the Constitution that tell how the Constitution may be changed are now nullified and that only Courts may change the Constitution, is a matter of the widest and of the gravest concern.

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George Will almost didn't make it as a syndicated columnist. His style was considered too erudite for a general audience.

Whatever one thinks of his views, read his work for use of language and for how he marshals facts and uses logic.

Here's his Wiki bio.

His latest book is at the right.