AMERICA'S IMPERIAL COURTS

A list of just some recent and appalling usurpations of power by the courts -- from Qando.

* A Federal Judge in Missouri ordered Kansas City to raise property taxes in order to pay for his court-ordered remedies. Several state courts are now embroiled in similar controversies over court-ordered tax increases.

* By invoking a non-existent "right" to privacy, the courts have increasingly legislated social outcomes from the bench, including finding a right to abortion in the 14th Amendment, and most recently, a right to homosexual marriage in some jurisdictions such as Hawaii and Massachussets.

* Federal Courts have repeatedly struck down voter referenda, such as Prop 209 in California, that ended affirmative action through race-based classifications, or Prop 187, which would have denied taxpayer benefits to illegal immigrants. Federal courts in Washington overturned a state referendum to ban assisted suicide.

* Federal Courts have ruled that states may not compose their state senate of representatives from geographical districts, but must proportionally represent the state's population. Essentially this says that it is unconstitutional for states to fashion their legislatures in the same manner that the Constitution requires the national legislature to be composed.

What lots of people fail to realize is that these judgments have happened only because Congress has let them happen. Congress can legislate to limit the power of the courts in any way it likes. Article III of the constitution says so. Maybe they will start to use that power now that there is all-round control of the U.S. government by the GOP. The courts are certainly doing all they can to push Congress into doing something.

Qando has much more

And the latest rubbish verdict: The Supreme Court "ruled that workers can sue for age discrimination without proving that the discrimination was intentional". So you can now be sued for something you did not know you were doing!

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