[Mb-civic] An observation on our courts

[KMBushy at aol.com]

In light of the changes occuring at the Supreme Court, the nation's  
attention is briefly focused on the judiciary.  That focus is usually  short-lived and 
we tend to think about a somewhat dysfunctional judiciary when a  case or an 
issue about which we are concerned seems to go awry.  Then it  fades again 
from our conscious thinking. 
 
While I certainly don't agree with every thought Thomas Jefferson had,  these 
comments by him in 1821 seemed to recognize the state of our justice  system 
in 2005~!
 
At the time our nation was founded, there were strong  concerns about a 
strong President running roughshod over the Congress and  the judiciary and a 
strong Congress doing the same. Very few had concerns about  the judiciary, 
particularly Hamilton in the Federalist Papers. He showed very  little concern about 
a judiciary getting out of control. One exception to that  was Thomas 
Jefferson. It was not at the time of the writing of the  Constitution but years later, 
after a few court decisions had been handed down  which gave power to the 
courts, which I am not sure many of the writers of the  Constitution envisioned. 

But having given them power as a result of  earlier court decisions, 
Jefferson wrote in 1821, ``The germ of destruction  of our Nation is in the power of 
the judiciary, an irresponsible body working  like gravity by night, and by day 
gaining a little today and a little tomorrow  and advancing its noiseless 
step like a thief over the field of jurisdiction  until all shall render 
powerless the checks over one branch over the other, and  will become as venal and 
oppressive as the government from which we  separated.'' 
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