Posted by
Flatlanders on Sunday, July 06, 2008 9:53:33 PM
Sunset Judicial Activism
Congress
and the President could easily solve the problem of judicial activism
by passing a law that any rule of law decided upon by the Supreme Court
sunsets in 5 years times the number of justices in the majority and 5
years for any lower court as a maximum. One might also consider a
retroactive provision where previous judicial decisions would sunset in
a similarly organized fashion related to # of judges in majority and
age of ruling.
After a ruling sunsets, the Legislative
branch could take up these issues legislatively, or it could be
reviewed again by the Courts.
Eventually, the piles of
steaming judicial compose that have warped the nature of our
Constitution would be replaced by properly executed legislative
process. Jefferson talked about each generation have the right to
revolution. This would provide each generation a tool to reconsider
important and unsettled issues in an organized predictable fashion.
The
Judicial Branch could complain all it wants, but there isn't any
clearly defined right in the Constitution for them to have the right to
declare laws for all time that they have declared for themselves. With
two branches of government passing a law to Sunset Judicial Activism,
it seems one has two branches defining law within the reasonable
exercise of the powers clearly delineated in the Constitution.
Personally, passing something along the
same lines for sunsetting all laws Congress passes by the size of the
majority the law was passed might be worth considering to keep Congressional Compost from getting too deep. However,
such a law may need to be a Constitutional Amendment since messing with
the rules for passing laws is clearly defined in the Constitution.
However, the fine print here would be Congress would soon come to rely upon
'bureaucratic regulations' to be the new source of compost to perpetually cover the
Constitution, denying the people's right for each generation to define the
important issues from their own perspectives.
Minimally, it's all
something that may be worth occasional comtemplation. Replace the notion of "Living Constitution" with "Living Body of Law".