Special Interest
Pressure on Courts Spreading, Says McCain, JAS Report
Judge John
S. Martin’s Speech to the Justice at Stake 2004 Summer Workshop
Brown v.
Board of Education: What is its Legacy For the Courts?
View a
Washington Post Op-ed on Judicial Activism by Justice at Stake adviser
Peter Edelman
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newsletter
A New Attack on the Courts—and the
Constitution
For more than 200 years, our courts have been
protecting the Constitution. Their job is to review laws to make sure that
they respect the Bill of Rights and the Constitution’s other
provisions. Because our founders created courts to act as a check on
the power of the other two branches of government, America has become one of the
most stable and free societies in world history.
But some in Congress want to roll back the power of
the courts to protect our rights, and set legislators above the
Constitution. The U.S. House of Representatives is considering a measure,
H.R. 3313, that would single out one particular law for special treatment and
exempt it from any review by the federal courts.
The bill would strip the federal courts of the power
to even hear cases involving the 1994 Defense of Marriage Act, which permits
states to refuse to recognize out-of-state marriages between partners of the
same sex.
What’s going on here?
H.R. 3313 is part of a broader war on the courts that
protect our rights, and the judges who uphold the Constitution. As its
sponsor, Congressman John Hostettler puts it, “The marriage issue gives us a
great political window of opportunity into what Congress can do to limit the
courts.” Learn more
about court-stripping.
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