While Conservative Criticize Liberal Justice Ginsburg, We Should Heed Her Recent Warning

by A.F. Branco

Bill Smith, Editor: God grants us certain inalienable rights and one of those is free speech and this right can be used in a wise or unwise manner. Our country physically borders Canada and Mexico. Exercising ones inalienable right in Canada can land you in prison. Doing the same in Mexico could land you in a grave. Neither country has the same understanding of "free speech" that is in our Bill of Rights.  Neither do they understand the restraint on our "Federal" government established by the American people through the U.S. Constitution.

Recently a Supreme Court Justice used her free speech and evidenced her desire for a more powerful judiciary than the one limited by our US Constitution. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg visited Cairo last week. Supposedly, she was there to speak with legislators and judges in Egypt on the future efforts of establishing a new Egyptian constitution.

There is no evidence that she was there to defend the nineteen American democracy and rights workers who are facing trial by a revolutionary government. Instead as reported by Fox News report she was encouraging the "Egyptian revolutionaries not use the U.S. Constitution as a model in the post-Arab Spring." "I would not look to the U.S. Constitution, if I were drafting a constitution in the year 2012," Ginsburg said in an interview on Al Hayat television last Wednesday. "I might look at the constitution of South Africa. That was a deliberate attempt to have a fundamental instrument of government that embraced basic human rights, have an independent judiciary. It really is, I think, a great piece of work that was done."

Was Ginsburg advocating support of a judiciary which is not responsible for their actions if and when they violate the Constitution? Was she supporting a court called to "embrace human rights" based on International opinion verses the ineligible rights granted by our Creator and the limits placed by the people on its federal / central government and thus on its courts? Does she advocate a living breathing changing Constitution from the one originally established? These issues drive conservative Constitutionalists to fear people with Ginsberg's liberal beliefs as evidenced in the A.F. Branco cartoon included with this article.

While her comments sent a mixed message, she praised our founding fathers wisdom but also criticized them in their time and culture. However, she acknowledged that the American citizens amended the constitution over our history. She addressed the "First Amendment's guarantee of free speech and a free press to the Fourteenth Amendment's equal protection clause that she, as a lawyer in the 1970s, convinced the court to expand to protect women's rights."

However, the following words by Justice Ginsburg to the Egyptians should also stand as a warning for all Americans. It was reported by the Huffington Post and confirmed by viewing the video of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg Interview with Al Hayat TV. When asked by the interviewer how best to draft a constitution and protect it from contemporary political pressures (perhaps alluding to Islamic parties' dominance in the new parliament's lower house), Justice Ginsburg answered,

"A constitution, as important as it is, will mean nothing unless the people are yearning for liberty and freedom."

"If the people don’t care, then the best constitution in the world won’t make any difference," she said.

"The spirit of liberty," she continued, "has to be in the population."

While I disagree with Justice Ginsburg vision of an "independent judiciary" or making decisions based on a constitution on global "human rights" when these rights exceed those granted by the Creator and are fluid depending on "evolving" human opinion, or the opinions of the elites or even the majority (the mob). However, I d agree that if the "The Spirit of Liberty" dies in America, "then the best constitution [the U.S. Constitution] in the world won’t make any difference."

In considering these words, we can also understand the importance of today's TEA party movement, the patriot groups, and conservatives in general who are standing for the "Spirit of Liberty" and arming themselves with the documents and positions of our Founding Fathers and the history underlying the amendments to our Constitution.

Finally, we cannot ignore our history. The United States like all other countries has no claim to perfection. Unfortunately, there have been times and situations in our history when and where "We the People" failed. Both evil and good remain in the heart of human kind. Choice and free will remain as part of our heritage. Thus as a free people, each of us can choose to give in to the dark side of our human nature by avoiding the guidance of the Creator who is the source of our Liberty.

As conservatives seek to stir up the "Spirit of Liberty," may we choose wisely and not seek the liberty of godlessness. Instead may we follow the example of our forefathers in pledging "our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor" to the cause of freedom. And in the words of Abraham Lincoln, let us proceed "with malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in ...."
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Source Info:
Ginsburg to Egyptians: I wouldn't use U.S. Constitution as a model
Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg Talks Constitution ...
Video: U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg Interview with Al Hayat TV in Egypt

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