The Supreme Court - Are They Reading Karl Marx?
A recent comment from a reader contained one true statement - that our form of government is a republic, not a democracy. A pure democracy is much to volatile to preserve freedom for very long. A republic, on the other hand, is democracy by way of elected representatives, which provides a firewall against rapidly changing public opinion.
The problem we’re facing right now as a republic is this: the courts, and the Supreme Court in particular, have been doing end-runs around our constitutional amendment process for decades. Amendments are the mechanism provided in the Constitution to afford we the people a way to change the Constitution via our elected representatives. But the courts have not felt constrained to merely interpret laws by viewing them through the lens of the Constitution. Instead, they have taken it upon themselves to amend the Constitution without relying on the amendment process.
Hence, we get rulings like the 1989 Texas vs. Johnson in which the Supreme Court ruled that burning American flags should be protected by the First Amendment as political expression. This, of course, required that the word "speech" be expanded to include expression.
Perhaps the American flag issue is not a big deal (although I am partial to the subject of American flags), but it becomes a very big deal when the same sort of mischief by the Court is applied to other subject matter.
The recent Kelo vs. the City of New London ruling effectivly changed the term "public use" to "public benefit" and has roots in very disturbing soil. Prior to Kelo, your property only be taken for public projects like schools or highways. The Court has paved the way to allow your property to be seized by another private citizen for any use at all as long as your local government declares the confiscation to be of public benefit.
Our republican form of government has as it’s cornerstone, the right of the individual to keep property without fear of confiscation. Some forms of government, on the other hand, take a completely different view of property rights.
The theory of the Communists may be summed up in the single sentence: Abolition of private property. - Karl Marx