A Judicial War on Democracy

March 29, 2012

 

Exclusive: Comments on the U.S. Supreme Court’s three-day debate over the Affordable Care Act have focused on the damage the five Republican justices are expected to do to President Obama by striking down his prized new law. But the bigger story may be their judicial war on democracy, says Robert Parry.


By Robert Parry

James Madison and other Framers of the Constitution had their concerns about the potential excesses of democracy – thus explaining the six-year Senate terms and the intricate system of checks and balances – but they also trusted in democracy and the ability of the people’s government to fashion national solutions to serious problems.

That was one of the reasons Madison and the Framers granted Congress an unlimited power to regulate interstate commerce, trusting that political leaders operating within the democratic process would recognize the needs of their time and apply this broad authority as necessary “to promote the general Welfare” of the American people.