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A Supreme In-Justice
Brad Williams, NYSILC Executive Director
 Recently, I
attended a national conference at Columbia Law School to address the
progressive rollback of civil rights by the U.S. Supreme Court. The only
"equality" to be acknowledged was that people with disabilities were losing
their rights the "same" as everyone else (i.e., people of color and/or various
ethnicities, senior citizens, women, gays/lesbians, etc.).
At the heart of the matter is a
classic clash between two mighty Amendments to our Constitution - 11th
Amendment "states rights" versus 14th Amendment "civil rights."
The 11th Amendment basically says
that a state has the "sovereign right" to make its own laws. Okay. Fair enough.
Unfortunately, some people…including at least five Justices last seen in
black robes…believe it extends even further. They question the
Constitutionality of Congress to make laws that compel states to protect an
individual's civil rights in Federal court. The U.S. Supreme Court's mandate is
loud and clear. Case after case provides the Court with yet another opportunity
to erode protections granted to citizens well over the past century.
Hmm…I don't know about you, but
this "sovereign" talk sounds a little too much like "King George" to me.
Perhaps it could be the robes and throne. This is not a new debate folks. Its
roots go back to the founding of our country. In fact, this is what the Civil
War was about. Over 600,000 Americans died to secure a strong national
government that would protect the equality of its citizenry. Even after the
14th Amendment was added in 1868, it took yet another 100 years before what was
established in law started to become practice.
As I sat in the brainstorming
session, the solution seemed very clear to me. Individuals were losing claim to
their civil rights in Federal court because the U.S. Supreme Court is stripping
authority away from Congress. Plain and simple. In the process, the Court has
upset the balance of power between these two branches of government. One way to
deal with this abuse of power would be to implement a counter check and
balance. Since the U.S. Supreme Court's conservative majority has such a
disregard for the power of Congress to make civil rights law, let alone the
rights of individual citizens, maybe its time to examine the legitimacy of the
Court's right of "judicial review." This power is not specifically stated in
the Constitution. It was implied in an early U.S. Supreme Court decision -
Marbury v. Madison. In other words, the Court bestowed this power upon
them selves. Oh, how nice. At least Congress' authority to make law is spelled
out in the Constitution. Further, the Court's slim majority would never apply
the same strict constructionist "logic" used to minimize civil rights to their
own implied power.
Think I'm being unreasonable? Is it
any less unreasonable to allow the current Court to effectively erase centuries
of American jurisprudence? Are we saying that Justices Clarence Thomas and
Antonio Scalia have a legal mind far superior to…no, I won't even go
there. As far as I'm concerned, allowing the present state of affairs to
continue is a supreme injustice. Better wake up and act fast Congress! Your
authority is being usurped. Today…civil rights, tomorrow…interstate
commerce. |
