The coming weeks will ultimately decide the future of the United States Supreme Court for decades to come. Our next President will have the opportunity to fill the vacancy left by Justice Antonin Scalia by exercising his or her most significant responsibility as expressly set forth in Article II of the United States Constitution. And the reality is, never has this decision mattered more.
Our next President will have the opportunity to choose a Supreme Court Justice either in the mold of Justice Scalia, who fiercely upheld the Constitution and the values our country was founded on, or they will choose to nominate a Supreme Court Justice that sides with liberal policy and judicial tyranny.
The Founders of our country intended that the Judicial branch would be the “least dangerous” branch of government, but over time the judiciary has morphed into a policymaking body that affects the everyday lives of all Americans. In recent years, the Supreme Court has issued decisions on contentious issues like religious liberty, the Second Amendment, and voter rights that have impacted every American family.
Our Constitution gives the Supreme Court a special role in our government and that is the power to declare if an act by Congress or the President is in violation of the the limits of powers given to each branch by the Constitution. The Supreme Court is intended to be a court of last resort, but the unconstitutional actions of the Obama Administration over the past eight years have resulted in the Supreme Court handing over 20 unanimous, nine to zero defeats on his Administration’s illegal and unconstitutional actions.
With a President like Barack Obama who has continually violated the Constitution, Congress and the Supreme Court have had to exercise the full extent of their power to stop the Obama Administration from abusing its power. Last April, I joined in filing an amicus brief against the Obama Administration after they attempted to bypass Congress and issue executive amnesty to five million illegal aliens against the will of the American people and Congress in U.S. v. Texas. In June, the Supreme Court handed down a tied 4-4 vote in U.S. v. Texas, effectively blocking President Obama’s attempt to bypass Congress and therefore returning the power to legislate back to its rightful place in Congress. I fear the outcome of that case had the balance of the court been disrupted otherwise. Just last month I joined in filing briefs with the Supreme Court in order to reverse a dangerous lower court ruling in the Gloucester County School Board v. GG case that allows unelected bureaucrats at the Department of Education to redefine the word “sex” to how a person feels about his or her “gender identity.” This case is yet to be heard, but it is expected to be considered before the Supreme Court in the near future and could potentially be a case that is decided with the new Supreme Court appointee.
It is unacceptable that Congress has had to file litigation against the President, but with a liberal Administration that continually ignores Article I of the Constitution that clearly states that only Congress has the power to write legislation not the president, Congress has had no other choice but to take these cases to the Supreme Court. The recent rulings by the Supreme Court against the unconstitutional actions of the Obama Administration demonstrates how important the role of the Supreme Court is as the ultimate protector of our Constitution.
One of the most important upcoming cases on the Supreme Court’s docket is Obama’s disastrous climate change regulations. The EPA’s Power Plan has serious implications for Missouri which gets 83% of its energy from coal power. Compliance with this disastrous new rule will cost the state of Missouri up to $6 billion dollars, is projected to cause double digit increases in electricity rates for taxpayers in 40 states, and will force the closure of coal plants in Missouri – costing us thousands of jobs. Obama’s climate change regulation was stayed by the Supreme Court in February where it was sent to the nation’s second most powerful court, the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, for arguments. This case is expected to be brought back before the Supreme Court in 2018, where it will be tried in front of at least one new justice appointed by the new President.
There are several Supreme Court rulings related to the Second Amendment and religious liberty that are in danger of being overturned if a liberal Supreme Court Justice is appointed. These cases include District of Columbia v. Heller, a 2008 decision that ruled that the Second Amendment protects a person’s right to use and keep a loaded handgun in one’s home for self-defense, and Burwell v. Hobby Lobby, a 2014 decision that protected the religious beliefs of businesses that were being forced by the government to provide abortion inducing drugs as part of their employee health plans.
We will be getting more than just a new president in a few weeks - but rather a shaping of how our Supreme Court will uphold and enforce our laws for years to come. As former President Ronald Reagan stated on the occasion of appointing the late Justice Scalia, a Supreme Court Justice “must not only be jurists of the highest competence; they must also be attentive to the rights specifically guaranteed in our Constitution and to the proper role of the courts in our democratic system.” During Obama’s presidency, 53 cases were decided by a 5-4 majority that included Justice Scalia. Justice Scalia demonstrated that one justice out of nine does have the power to tip the balance in the Supreme Court to determine how our laws will be upheld.
