The Judiciary Myths

October 2, 2024

We believe things about the Supreme Court, and the federal courts in general, that are simply not true. The result of that is not knowing how to deal with “judicial abuses” - situations where judges and courts are acting out of bounds. 

In today’s class we explored things like

• the unjust acts of England’s judges that were listed in the Declaration of Independence among the reasons forcing the separation from Great Britain, and therefore addressed in the Constitution
• the way the Constitution can be updated legally - by the people, not by the courts
• the relationships among the three branches of government, which are NOT “co-equal” as we often hear it said
• examples of our obedience to “the fiction of the law,” ie, what we think the law says, as opposed to what it actually says — and the damage that goes unchecked because of our lack of accurate knowledge of our Constitutionally-guaranteed freedoms
• the Constitutional provision to create, abolish, and manage the courts as needed
• the ‘bridle’ Congress has on the judiciary, how it is to be used, and why it almost never is

In our next class, on October 9th, we’ll review more “myths” about the Judiciary branch and the beliefs of the framers of the Constitution about the role, the strengths, the weaknesses, the dangers, and the proper accountability of that branch of our federal government.

A teaser question: Do you know what “high crimes and misdemeanors” meant to the men who signed the Constitution (and therefore how it should be understood and applied today)?