Washington, DC – In watching Senate Judiciary Committee members read their opening statements on the first day of Judge Alito’s confirmation hearing to the Supreme Court, I couldn’t help but notice the glaring contrast between conservative and liberal world views on life, privacy, and government.
For those who watched these Senators and listened carefully to their opening statements, it should have been a wake up call to those who don’t believe a culture war exists in our nation. The clash was evident from the beginning.
Liberal Democrats clearly revealed their belief that the Constitution is whatever nine unelected robed masters say it is—not what the original founders meant when they wrote it. Republicans, however, believe that the Constitution means what it says—and Supreme Court justices have no right to redefine the meaning of it to suit their own political agendas.
Democrats believe that because a few Supreme Court justices “discovered” a “right” to abortion in the Constitution (a right somehow hidden from view for two centuries), this “right” is now absolute and cannot be repealed because of “precedent.” Killing an unborn baby can never be considered a “right” -- any more than a 19 th Century Supreme Court was “right” in claiming that “slaves” were property. The Court was wrong on slavery two centuries ago and is wrong on abortion today.
Democrats want activist liberal judges on the court who will impose liberal social engineering on all of us. Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) made the case for judicial conservatives on the court. He stated: “I want judges on the Supreme Court who will not use that position to impose their personal policy preferences or political agendas on the American people. I want judges on the Supreme Court who will respect the words and the meaning of the Constitution, the laws enacted by Congress and the laws enacted by state legislatures.”
He noted that a Supreme Court is not a “roving commission to rewrite our laws” however they wish! This is the stark difference between liberal activist judges and judges who believe in restraint. It is evident from the writings of Judge Samuel Alito that he is a judicial conservative. This is why liberals on the Senate Judiciary Committee and their special interest allies are so viciously attacking Alito. They cannot stand the possibility of losing their stranglehold on the Supreme Court as their last bastion of control over our nation’s laws.
As Senator Cornyn so wisely pointed out, liberal special interest groups, “really don’t want a fair-minded judge who has an openness to both sides of the argument. Rather, they want judges who will impose their liberal agenda on the American people; views so liberal that they cannot prevail at the ballot box.”
What liberals want is for our nation to be ruled by what Judge Robert Bork has called “Our Judicial Oligarchy,” a gaggle of robed masters who think they know better than we do how to rule ourselves in this Republic.
Well, that liberal vision of America’s future is fading, and it is very likely that in my lifetime I will see the return of our court system to what the Founders originally intended it to be—a branch of government that understands its proper role as an interpreter—not creator—of laws. Our nation will be a far better place when the Supreme Court stops viewing itself as a judicial oligarchy. That time is fast approaching.
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Rev. Sheldon is a graduate of Princeton Theological Seminary, an ordained minister, and the founder of the Traditional Values Coalition in Washington, DC. His new book, The Agenda -- The Homosexual Plan to Change America, was recently released by FrontLine Publishers, a Strang Communications company.
