OPINION
THE TRIUMPH OF
BY LARRY J. SCHWEIGER - PITTS
A
ssociate Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote a book entitled: “A Republic, If You Can Keep It." In it, he wrote, "The separation of powers and its role in protecting individual liberty and the rule of law can sound pretty abstract. I confess it seemed that way to me in my high-school civics class. I came to appreciate the genius of the Founders’ design more fully only years later, when as a judge I saw what happens to real people in real cases when the separation of powers goes unattended.” The trend is increasingly troublesome. The Supreme Court was exercising far-reaching legislative powers when they gutted key provisions of the Voter Rights Act essentially claiming that racism in elections no longer exists. The majority opinion asserted that "based on 40-year-old facts having no logical relationship to the present day" they stripped key provisions protecting voters. In 1965 after years of civil rights protests, Congress enacted, and President Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act. Congress examined the evidence and reconfirmed the need for continued Federal intervention as vital for fair and open election in 1970, 1975, 1982, 1992, and 2006. Turning the clock backward and ignoring the long deliberative Congressional work on voter rights, the Supreme Court severely damaged minority voting rights in the case of Shelby County v. Holder. It is now painfully clear that voter suppression targeted at minority communities is again fully operational in several states held by conservatives.
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President Donald Trump nominated Neil Gorsuch in 2017.
When the High Court concluded that free speech equals money and corporations are people, they dismantled the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act that passed Congress, and the President
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signed. We now deal with a flood of dark money and the influence it buys. As Gorsuch stated in his book "separation of powers," the principle needs reexamination
especially in light of the Thanksgiving decision. Far from having separated powers, the executive, legislative, and judicial branches are entangling in ways that are