Men in Black: How the Supreme Court Is Destroying America, Mark R. Levin

The dis-oriented author is a Constitutional Originalist. I do not, however, read many current issue books. I have not read Anne Coulter, Sean Hannity or Rush Limbaugh's recent books. Likewise I had not planned on reading, Mark Levin's Men in Black.

I was in Colorado a few weeks ago visiting an old friend who is a gay, conservative, Christian Republican. (Believe me I couldn't make this up!) We were talking about books and he asked if I had read Men in Black. He said that until he read Levin's book, he did not understand Marbury v. Madison. Marbury v. Madison, decided in 1803,  was the beginning of the usurpation of the Constitution by the Supreme Court.

I knew that I had to read this book.

I have always been a close follower of the Supreme Court. I remember the summer of 1978 when I was doing a job that only an illegal alien would do. I was working out in the soybean fields with a hoe, killing weeds. (In the Farm Belt this is called Bean Walking) While my co-workers were listening on their radios to The BeeGees, The Commodores and Queen, I was listening to the news.

I was waiting for the Supreme Court to announce its decision in the Bakke case. In Regents of the University of California v. Bakke the court ruled on affirmative action in college admissions. In Bakke, Allan Bakke applied and was denied admission to the UC Davis medical school. At the time US Davis had two separate admissions policies, one for whites and one for minorities. At issue was reverse discrimination, had Bakke been a minority he would have been admitted. I cheered when the court threw out racial quotas but the side effect, the court ruling that race could be a factor has had negative repercussions to this day.

In this book, Levin points out many areas and specific examples where the Supreme Court has looked outside or beyond the Constitution to rule and effectively make laws. From Marbury v. Madison comes the idea of judicial revue. Today it means that as few as five un-elected judges can unilaterally decide that the actions of the Executive or legislative branches are un-constitutional. Sometimes, they throw out decisions with little pretense-text to their constitutionality.

Now you may be asking, doesn't the Constitution make the Supreme Court the final arbiter of what is and is not constitutional in this country? The answer is a resounding no! Not only is there no such power granted in the Constitution, In Federalist 78, Hamilton writes:

This simple view of the matter suggests several important consequences. It proves incontestably, that the judiciary is beyond comparison the weakest of the three departments of power; ...

Unfortunately, Mr. Hamilton was wrong. By taking for itself the power of judicial review and applying it to the Executive and Legislative branches, the Supreme Court has become the most influential arm of government.

This book is a call to arms.

Men in Black gets 5 of 5 dis-oriented smileys

Purchase Men in Black  from Amazon.com.