themarketswork

a common sense approach to a liberal world

Celebrating Our Declaration of Independence

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There is something beyond the establishment of a new nation, great as that event would be, in the Declaration of Independence which has ever since caused it to be regarded as one of the great charters that not only was to liberate America but was everywhere to ennoble humanity.

It was not because it was proposed to establish a new nation, but because it was proposed to establish a nation on new principles, that July 4, 1776, has come to be regarded as one of the greatest days in history.

Three very definite propositions were set out in its preamble regarding the nature of mankind and therefore of government. These were the doctrine that all men are created equal, that they are endowed with certain unalienable rights, and that therefore the source of the just powers of government must be derived from the consent of the governed.Continue Reading

Trump’s Supreme Court Victory

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The Supreme Court granted President Trump what amounts to a crucial, although partial, stay of lesser court rulings on the Administration’s Travel Ban. The ruling was unanimous at 9-0. I have previously written on the Travel Ban, and, like many, am unsurprised at the ruling. The court will take up the case in October when it reconvenes – maybe.

You can find the full ruling by the Supreme Court here.

But first, it’s worth recalling exactly what the Travel Ban was attempting to accomplish. The second Executive Order’s Travel Ban contains four significant pronouncements:

  1. Directs the Secretary of Homeland Security to conduct a global review to determine whether foreign governments provide adequate information about nationals applying for United States visas.
  2. Directs that entry of nationals from six countries – Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen – be suspended for 90 days from the effective date of the order.
  3. Suspends the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP) for 120 days following its effective date.
  4. Citing the President’s determination that “the entry of more than 50,000 refugees in fiscal year 2017 would be detrimental to the interests of the United States,” the order suspends any entries in excess of that number for fiscal 2017.

Continue Reading

The Beauty of Negative Rights

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“The Constitution is a charter of negative rather than positive liberties” – Judge Richard Posner

Yesterday I stumbled across a quote from Senator Rand Paul that someone had posted in a Facebook Group. The quote comes from a Subcommittee Hearing on Healthcare on May 11, 2017. You can find a video of the hearing here. The quote made by Paul starts at 1:37:05. It reads as follows:

“With regard to the idea of whether you have a right to health care, you have realize what that implies. It’s not an abstraction. I’m a physician. That means you have a right to come to my house and conscript me. It means you believe in slavery. It means that you’re going to enslave not only me, but the janitor at my hospital, the person who cleans my office, the assistants who work in my office, the nurses.

Basically, once you imply a belief in a right to someone’s services — do you have a right to plumbing? Do you have a right to water? Do you have right to food? — you’re basically saying you believe in slavery…

I’m a physician in your community and you say you have a right to health care. You have a right to beat down my door with the police, escort me away and force me to take care of you? That’s ultimately what the right to free health care would be.”Continue Reading

Free Speech, Acquiescence & Weaponized Compassion

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The other day, David French wrote an article for National Review, in response to twitter outrage over an earlier article he’d written on Chelsea Manning – the trans soldier pardoned by Obama.  French’s refusal to use the pronoun “her” when describing Chelsea Manning – previously Bradley Manning – sparked the outrage. And prompted a twitter response by another journalist, Glenn Greenwald of The Intercept:

“Does @DavidAFrench also bravely walk up to adoptive parents & tell them their kids aren’t *really* their “children”?”

Greenwald’s tweet led to my own, including:

“At the core – two fundamentally opposing views. @DavidAFrench is advocating for free speech. @ggreenwald wants to stifle free speech.”

It also led to my article, An Illustrative Twitter Chat with David & Glenn. The reaction was equally illustrative.Continue Reading

The Blue Slip Rule – A Senatorial Roadblock to Judicial Appointments

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Yesterday I wrote about President Trump’s many court vacancies – and the vast promise they hold for our courts.

Democrats previously invoked the Nuclear Option – a process that allows a simple majority vote in place of a three-fifths vote on presidential nominations for federal court judgeships. That rule has since been expanded by Republicans to include Supreme Court Justices. And Republicans hold a slight majority at 52 to 48 in the Senate.

All good, right?

Well, there is one hitch to the process – and it has to do with an archaic Senate process – really a tradition – and two small slips of blue paper. Allow me to explain.Continue Reading

Trump’s Judicial Vacancies – A Hope for Our Courts

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One of the most powerful and influential duties of any President is the appointment of Judges. Supreme Court appointments always take precedent – a little legal humor – but in their sheer number, appointments to the lower, lesser courts can be almost equally as important – and highly influential on our nation’s direction.

“There are 13 appellate courts that sit below the U.S. Supreme Court, and they are called the U.S. Courts of Appeals. The 94 federal judicial districts are organized into 12 regional circuits, each of which has a court of appeals. In addition, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has nationwide jurisdiction to hear appeals in specialized cases.”

A total of 13 Appeal Courts sitting just below the Supreme Court.

A primary reason for the legal – and social & cultural – influence of our lesser courts is that the Supreme Court hears so few cases – perhaps 80 per year are chosen to be argued before the court plus another 50 in which they hear no arguments. Judicial activism – and judicial errors – at the lower court levels are simply too numerous to be addressed at the highest legal level of the Supreme Court.Continue Reading

Judge Bork’s Olympians & the Danger of Judicial Activism

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“Liberals attempt through Judicial Activism what they cannot win at the ballot box” – Rush Limbaugh

“A Constitution is not meant to facilitate change. It is meant to impede change, to make it difficult to change.” – Justice Antonin Scalia

“The role assigned to judges in our system was to interpret the Constitution and lesser laws, not to make them. It was to protect the integrity of the Constitution, not to add to it or subtract from it – certainly not to rewrite it.” – Ronald Reagan

What is Judicial Activism?

Elizabeth Slattery of the Heritage Foundation offers the following from her article, How to Spot Judicial Activism:

“A simple working definition is that judicial activism occurs when judges fail to apply the Constitution or laws impartially according to their original public meaning, regardless of the outcome, or do not follow binding precedent of a higher court and instead decide the case based on personal preference.Continue Reading

Reversing the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals

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“Unless judges are bound by the text of the Constitution, we will, in fact, no longer have a government of laws, but of men and women who are judges.” – President Ronald Reagan

The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals is not actually the most overturned court at present. That award currently goes to the 6th Circuit Court which serves Ohio, Michigan, Kentucky and Tennessee, with an 87% rate. The 9th Circuit Court comes in at third place with a 79% overturn rate. This is according to an examination of data from 2010-2015.

The Ninth Circuit’s overturn rate is somewhat overblown – but not by much. It’s true the Supreme Court actually reviews very few cases and the ones it selects are likely to be contentious. But that does not change the fact that the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals consistently ranks near the top for overturn rates. During the period of 1999-2008, a study by the ABA found the 9th Circuit ranked 2nd at 80.0% – placing behind the Federal Circuit Court which came in at 83.3%. The long-run average rate of reversal was 68% by comparison.

And the 9th Circuit is often reversed by a unanimous Supreme Court vote.Continue Reading

Judge Orrick’s Judicial Activism

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“The role assigned to judges in our system was to interpret the Constitution and lesser laws, not to make them.” – President Ronald Reagan

Federal Judge William Orrick recently issued an injunction against President Trump’s proposed termination of certain types of federal funding for Sanctuary Cities through Executive Order 13768:

“The Counties’ motions for a nationwide preliminary injunction, enjoining enforcement of Section 9(a), are GRANTED. The defendants (other than the President) are enjoined from enforcing Section 9(a) of the Executive Order against jurisdictions they deem as sanctuary jurisdictions. This injunction does not impact the Government’s ability to use lawful means to enforce existing conditions of federal grants or 8 U.S.C. 1373, nor does it restrict the Secretary from developing regulations or preparing guidance on designating a jurisdiction as a “sanctuary jurisdiction.” IT IS SO ORDERED.”Continue Reading

American Nationism

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I used to identify as a Libertarian. I no longer do – although I retain many Libertarian ideals.

Libertarianism fails for me on several counts. Particularly on borders and defense.

Someone once said, “Conservatives tend to be libertarian, but libertarians tend not to be conservative”.

I think there’s a lot of truth in that statement.

So, what do I believe?Continue Reading