Monte Kuligowski, whose bio line reads that he is “a Virginia attorney whose legal writings have been published in journals by the law schools at Duke, Virginia, Richmond, Samford, and St. John’s,” posted an excellent article a couple of weeks ago at American Thinker where he addresses not only judicial supremacy and the fact that courts don’t write laws, but also that
Justices Elena Kagan and Ruth Bader Ginsburg had, prior to sitting and voting on the same-sex marriage case (Obergefell v. Hodges, 2015), officiated same-sex marriages.
That is no small issue. The law says a judge “shall disqualify himself.” In other words, Kagan and Ginsburg were required to recuse themselves from participating in the case.
Kuligowski also touches on this fact:
[W]e need judges who will follow the U.S. Constitution as written. As written, the Constitution strictly limits the jurisdiction of the federal government.
Getting the federal government back within the boundaries of the Constitution per the command of the 10th Amendment is as important as any issue facing the country…
Earlier in the article, Kuligowski wrote:
Governor Mike Huckabee’s response is creative and shocks the automated thinking of jurists. Mr. Huckabee is pointing out that Kim Davis should not have been held in contempt of court because there is currently no law a court could order her to obey. Mr. Huckabee asks the question: under what law does Kim Davis have authority to issue same-sex marriage licenses?
The argument is legally valid. The judiciary’s role is to decide individual disputes between parties. The courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court, do not write laws. The legal system sort of operates under the mistaken notion that all High Court rulings somehow automatically become the law of the land. In many instances, however, laws have to be rewritten by the legislatures to comply with U.S. Supreme Court rulings.
Kentucky law has yet to be changed to redefine marriage and to authorize its local clerks to issue same-sex marriage licenses. Until the Kentucky law is amended, clerks in Kentucky granting such licenses are doing so out of gratuitous deference, not legal obligation. If U.S. District Judge David Bunning were to give this legal reality some honest reflection, he might get the cold sweats, because he wrongly held Ms. Davis in contempt and took away her liberty.
The entire article is recommended reading over at American Thinker: Stop Saying Same-Sex Marriage is the “Law of the Land.”
Image credit: Wikipedia.
