The Separation of Powers Is A Thing

May 05, 2023

The unmitigated arrogance of Senate Democrats is on full display as they – once again – try to sideline the US Constitution to claw more power to themselves. This time it comes in hearings that the Senate Judiciary Committee is holding to “order” the US Supreme Court to take action on misperceived ethics violations.

Let’s be quite clear on one point. The United States Supreme Court is a co-equal branch of the US federal government. It does not answer to the Legislative Branch, no matter how the political Left and mainstream media frame the issue.

The Constitution Says…

Article I, Section 8 of the US Constitution lays out – plainly – the limitations the Legislative Branch has in addressing the Judicial Branch:

“The Congress shall have Power To…constitute Tribunals inferior to the supreme Court…”

And Article III, Section 1 makes it clear that the Judicial Branch – and specifically the US Supreme Court, is autonomous in the authority over the Judicial Branch:

“The judicial Power of the United States, shall be vested in one Supreme Court, and in such inferior Courts as the Congress may from time to time ordain and establish…”

And Article III, Section 2 states:

“The judicial power shall extend to all cases, in law and equity, arising under this Constitution…to all cases affecting ambassadors, other public ministers and consuls…In all cases affecting ambassadors, other public ministers and consuls, and those in which a State shall be party, the Supreme Court shall have original Jurisdiction…”

Nowhere in the entirety of the US Constitution does it give the Legislative Branch purview over the day-to-day operations of the Judicial Branch, at any level. And nowhere in the document is the Legislative Branch empowered with dictating what the Supreme Court “shall” do or not do.

The Assumption Of Power Is Just That

So, how do US Sens. Dick Durbin (D-IL), Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), – among others, have the audacity to assume they can convene a committee to strong-arm a co-equal branch of government to take a knee to their authority? The only conceivable explanation is this. They are executing the action to see if they can get away with it.

As The Epoch Times reports:

“Senate Democrats want the US Supreme Court to adopt stricter guidelines for disclosing their income sources and potential conflicts of interest, and at least 14 Democratic senators see withholding funds from the court as a way to get their demands…
“The letter, led by [Whitehouse ], states…‘In the absence of [the Supreme Court’s willingness to accept new ethics rules], Congress has broad authority to compel the Supreme Court to institute these reforms, which would join other requirements already legislatively mandated,’ the letter reads. ‘And Congress’s appropriations power is one tool for achieving these changes.’”

This exercise in governmental overreach – without question – violates the Separation of Powers that mandates the Executive, Legislative, and Judicial Branches of the US federal government to be established as co-equal branches of government with specific duties and unique and exclusive authorities.

The Legal Information Institute of the Cornell University Law School explains the Separation of Powers thusly:

“Separation of powers is a doctrine of constitutional law under which the three branches of government (executive, legislative, and judicial) are kept separate. This is also known as the system of checks and balances because each branch is given certain powers so as to check and balance the other branches.
“Each branch has separate powers, and generally, each branch is not allowed to exercise the powers of the other branches.”

This doctrine of constitutional law, combined with the explicit wording of the US Constitution, renders the actions by the Democrats in the US Senate a violation of the Separation of Powers. They are executing a power grab in real time – and to an egregious extent – to see if the people are so distracted that they pay no attention to their actions.

Can They Get Away With This?

The contemporary federal elected class has demonstrated their disdain for the limitations placed upon them by the US Constitution and the Bill of Rights. Whether it is the manipulation of the tax codes to bleed the people of wealth to fund preferred private interests and the enrichment of their political benefactors, the degradation of the wealth of the citizenry via the manipulation of the monetary system to subsidize globalism, the oppression of the people under the guise of public health, or the decimation of free speech through the establishment of unqualified “hate” laws and censorship, there appears to be no end to what the political class won’t attempt to circumvent the limitations placed upon it by the Founding Documents.

But can they get away with this?

Sadly, the answer is yes. Not because of any legal gerrymandering or constitutional loophole, but because of the electorate’s complacency fueled by a propagandist mainstream media complex that has now assumed a seat at the table of power in collusion with those who would claw power away from the people.

Durbin, Van Hollen, and Whitehouse know they haven’t the constitutional authority to force the Supreme Court to do anything. But with a complicit media leaving that fact unaddressed in the public square, a constitutionally illiterate population wouldn’t know any better, now would they?

Some Things Can Be Done

Of course, We the People could raise enough of an outrage over this unconstitutional action by the power-addicted elected class but that would require that the people press pause on their Communist Chinese TikTok app videos of fuzzy kittens and actually provide the oversight to government that citizenship requires.

I’m not sure that we should hold our collective breath for that to happen. After all, little Portnoy’s soccer game (in which no score is tallied) is much more important than paying attention to what our government is doing to us.

But, the US Supreme Court could deem any legislation coming out of this effort as unconstitutional rendering it moot. One has to wonder whether the Justices have enough regard for themselves, the institution, and the Constitution to exhibit spine enough to do just that.

If they do it’s a victory for the Constitution, the country, and the American people. A victory that only costs the people the misallocated tax dollars spent in pursuing this endeavor; an endeavor that the elected class knew was unconstitutional from the get-go.

One would believe that to be an impeachable offense, but hey…