Sunday, December 18, 2011

Just Call Him Nullification Newt.


WASHINGTON — Picking up where he left off in last Thursday's Republican presidential debate, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich on Saturday continued to rail against the federal judicial system, accusing it of overstepping its constitutional role and arguing that the president and Congress can ignore court decisions.

In a conference call with reporters that sounded alternately like a campaign pitch and a law school lecture, Gingrich said, "The courts are too aggressive, and the courts have been trying to impose an elitist value system on a country that's inherently not elitist."

"The founding fathers were very distrustful of judges," Gingrich went on. "Saw them as an elite instrument of government designed to oppress the people. And, as a result, (they) consciously made the judicial branch the third branch and the weakest branch."

In order to restore balance between Congress, the White House, and the courts, Gingrich recommended ignoring rulings, impeaching judges, subpoenaing justices to have them explain their rulings and, as a last resort, abolishing the courts altogether.

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2011/12/17/133409/gingrich-rails-at-courts-and-suggests.html
Snip

Yes, by all means, let's get rid of those pesky courts. Who needs constitutional interpretation after all? I'm sure that neither the Executive or the Legislative branch would dare abuse their powers once the check of the courts were eliminated.

3 comments:

Paul Sunstone said...

Your link does is not working.

Unknown said...

Fixed the link, at least in firefox.

Paul Sunstone said...

Thanks! It's working now.