Three co-equal branches of government. It seemed like a good plan on the drafting table. What could go wrong? The Executive, given wide authority within it's proscribed duties and wielding, at need, the force of arms. The Legislative, which is granted sweeping powers, yea indeed, the duties of oversight. Their purview of oversight extends across three branches; they may make laws; may authorize a declaration of war; may impeach and act as prosecutor of duly elected parties, but paramount of all these is their power of the purse. The Executive and Legislative are indeed co-equals, not only in theory but as well in fact: each wields some instrument of power by which they may exert their will.
Then we are left to consider the Judicial. They are co-equal in theory only. The only true power that they hold is that they may render judgments. They have no enforcement arm to strongarm those in offense of their judgments. They have no legal authority to write law, though they have tried. Their fingers come nowhere near the Treasury. The Judicial have no means of enforcing their will. They are the wind of mouths and the scratch of ink on parchment. It is not they themselves, collectively "The Court", that is supreme. The Constitution is the supreme law of the land. The sworn duty of this court is to see that in all law and execution of law that the Constitution is upheld. That is their only sworn duty.
Instead of getting into the legal weed bed of Constitutional debate, I will enjoy the opportunity to teach by illustration. Let us say, for purpose of illustration only mind you, that the three co-equal branches of government were cast as super heroes in the latest Marvel Universe epic. The Executive would have the superpower of summoning an entire ultra high-tech air force of destructive power at the snap of his fingers. The Legislative would have not one, but TWO really awesome superpowers. The first is that they always carry a fistful of credit cards, none which have any credit limit or expiration. Their other superpower is their unlimited stable of lawyers, all of whom are readily at their disposal to keep you, the common simpleton, in court hearings from now until the next ice age. They have a potent one-two punch that is tough to counter. Now as before we come to the Judicial. Their superpower? Their superpower is to sit upon high benches, in robes scandalously short and with very questionable tastes in undergarments. Their shoes are ugly and dirty; they smell of moth balls and sour milk; a veritable symphony of flatulence and incontinence. They snort and squawk derisively like boars and roosters penned together. That's it. That is the scope of their superpowers. Now in the bigger scheme of things perhaps these powers have some great role to play, not for us to know lest we should be a spoiler.
Now if that's still too abstract for you, let's reduce it to the realm of animation. I have frequently said in recent years that it seems that only within the realm of animation may the truth still be told. I stand by that and still consider it to be largely true. If we are to reduce our three co-equals explained in animated analogy I might first call upon the considerable talents of Mr. H. Jon Benjamin. Who in North America does not know this booming baritone of the understated? Most readily recognized today for his role as the father figure in FOX network's Bob's Burgers, I call upon some of his earlier work on the FX series Archer. If you are familiar with the series then follow this.
The Executive is the Grand Dame, Mallory Archer. Next, for the Legislative, Cyril Figgis. The bean counter, voiced by the archetypal sub beta male figure, Chris Parnell. And the Judicial would best be represented in this troupe by Cheryl Tunt, the wealthy heiress and completely incompetent secretary, whose favorite hobbies are self mutilation and sniffing glue.
Hopefully we've got everybody on the same page. Like a track meet or a horse race, there are defined lanes. The contestants are expected to remain in their lanes. It is well understood by all that there will inevitably be those times when lanes may cross one another, or contestants may bump against one another in the course of a race. If any of the parties concerned should move that such instances need be remedied there is some course available through the law. This does not, however, prevent or erase those occurrences and any resulting consequence. The damage, if there is any, is done. The Judiciary may only remain in the slow lane of this race, a pace car in the great derby that is our federal government. They have no magic wands, no supernatural abilities. They may not, as remedy, lay across the lanes of traffic to halt the race. There seem to be a number of partisan appointees who are attempting to do just that.
This very set of circumstances was foreseen and debated at some length as our Constitution was being shaped. Even such an elitist prick as Hamilton was aware and expressed concerns that a court might act to usurp the supremacy of the Constitution and assume that authority as their own. This was clearly a shortcoming in their design which could easily leave their young Republic vulnerable to the whims of kritarchy. The door was left open for the tyranny of Judges.
Kritarchy, the rule of judges, is not unprecedented in recorded history. There are not a lot of examples and few of them can boast of stellar records. The best example of the ideal would be the system of Brehon Law which prevailed for roughly a thousand years in Ireland. This was a system of local, popularly selected judges who administered a sort of magistrate court system and was aligned with the parochial order of their society. From what I have found this seems to be the gold standard for a kritarchy, at least in longevity if not in function. Any other example you will find ultimately descends into a shit show, the Sanhedrin to serve as a case in point.
This, I think, is an apt segue to the Old Testament. The Book of Judges. This book chronicles the time of Israel from Joshua to the beginnings of the House of David. “In those days, Israel had no king and everyone did what was right in their own eyes” (Judg. 17:6, 18:1, 19:1, and 21:25). It was a lawful lawlessness. Sound familiar? Now to be clear I should state that the judges from this book were not quite judges in the sense that we may understand in our system. A better word to describe the role they filled would be chieftain, or perhaps Capo. Call them what you will, the tale is still illustrative to our present day "Constitutional crisis".
Our title as a central theme is based in a true fact. When Judges ruled the nation of Israel there was indeed famine. And worse. Much worse. The Book of Judges chronicles this bloody chapter of Israel's history. It is a cautionary tale of a time marked by moral corruption and bad leadership. Today, we as a nation, are emerging from an age which has suffered under those very same afflictions. Israel was finally relieved of this with the arrival of their King. While there are those who accuse this President of acting like a King, he surely is not, nor do I believe that he thinks he is a King. He is, however, quite certainly fulfilling the role. And as those familiar with the Old Testament would know, David was not an angel either.
With each passing day there are still further revelations being made by Mr. Musk and his erstwhile team of cyber geeks. When you hire a contractor who delivers the job under budget and ahead of schedule it is very ungracious to question the tools that he uses for the job. Reining in waste is always good, in any endeavor. There has been more waste and corruption than any of us could have conjured at our worst. Waste is largely remedied in it's own discovery, but corruption may only be remedied by corrective action. The bad actors must be removed and, when warranted, tried, convicted and sentenced. The President is the CEO of USA, Inc. He is also the Commander in Chief. He is also, lest anyone ever forget, the Chief Magistrate of the USA. The President is the top law enforcement authority of the nation. He is duty bound to perform his oath, accepted upon taking office. He has the authority to remove bad actors wherever they may reside.
There are only two things to be done about these activist, political hacks masquerading in robes. First, take a page from Andrew Jackson's book: simply ignore their corrupt orders and carry on. Upon Justice Marshall's decision in the Worcester vs. Georgia case in 1832, Jackson simply responded with "John Marshall has made his decision, now let him enforce it". For good or ill he was not wrong. As far as I can tell the only parties to have suffered from the whole affair are the Cherokee, but that is a can of worms for another occasion. No harm will come from having these corrupt idealogues removed from the bench. Ignore them and remove them. Further, they should be disbarred, lest their poison infect any lower or state courts.
The final words of the Book of Judges: Israel has no King (Judges 21:25). Neither have we a King, but this rule of judges must end. The famine of truth which has plagued this land shall also end.
