Democracy created, supported, and protected by the Constitution of the United States must be defended regardless of whether you are a Libertarian, Republican, Democrat, or whether you align yourself with any other party supporting your personal beliefs. We must all protect the core values that have flowed since America began from our freedoms protected by separation of the legislative, judicial, and executive branches of government. Each branch protects us from the tyranny that can be imposed upon us by one, absent the beautiful balance over time by each branch of government gatekeeping for the other branches.
As an associate member of the American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA), I am deeply concerned that many expected and prominent contenders in the 2012 elections have stated that if elected they will disregard Supreme Court rulings with which they disagreed, eliminating entire courts removing judges from office if they dislike their rulings, and will direct United States Marshals to apprehend judges and compel them to submit to congressional questions about their rulings.
The TEX-ABOTA opposes all attempts to undermine the independence and integrity of the judicial and has therefore passed a resolution regarding this issue. The resolution of the Texas Chapters of American Board of Trial Advocates has resolved as follows:
The Texas Chapters of American Board of Trial Advocates is strongly opposed to any proposed governmental action or policy that would undermine the constitutional structure of three separate and independent branches of government, including any governmental action or policy that would: (1) ignore Supreme Court rulings; (2) eliminate courts or remove judges from office because of their rulings; and (3) force judges to face congressional questioning regarding their rulings.
Every extremely conservative or irrevocably committed left-winged person in this country has at one time or another, from their prospective, extremely benefited or felt personal extreme detriment from a ruling of a county, state, federal district court, federal district appellate court, or the Supreme Court of the United States.
Can you imagine how an ultraconservative person would feel if a left-wing Democratic president undermined a Supreme Court ruling that abortion is illegal?
Can you imagine how a left-wing democrat would feel if a conservative president could undermine and reverse a Supreme Court ruling that employees have no rights of recovery when terminated from employment due to racial or gender related discrimination?
The issue to consider is not what a court orders, renders, or adjudicates on a particular matter of concern to you in your life. The issue is whether we should have courts of law or a government whose arbitrary decisions controls your life depending on who happens to be in power at any particular time in the future.
For my part, I’m going to take my chances with democracy based on checks and balances as opposed to an existential political belief of any given ruler, executive, or body based on one particular moment in time.
Mark Nacol, Attorney
Board Certified in Civil Trial Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization
Nacol Law Firm P.C.
