Today the United States Supreme Court ruled on two cases. I won’t go into details here – I may at a later date, but I don’t think readers of this blog want to wade that deep into the law. If you do feel like wading, here are a couple good places to do so: SCOTUSblog and The Volokh Conspiracy. My intention here is to make a broader observation, especially in light of the fact that Independence Day is just a few days away. Begin Observation: The U.S. Supreme Court consists of nine Justices and is the people’s last line of defense against an overreaching Congress or President or in this case, both. Often, as today, cases are decided with a one justice majority, i.e. 5-4. In my informed opinion, four of the Justices are reliably pro-government and believe in essentially unlimited government power, regardless of Constitutional text. Since I cannot see into their hearts to divine their true intentions, I give them benefit of the doubt and assume their motives are benevolent, and their goal is to build a utopian society where all forms of entitelments are “rights”, certain favored classes have more rights than others and the government is the source and sole provider of those rights. Should a fifth Justice join them to form a pro-government majority, we can kiss our free country goodbye since individual liberty would be impossible in such a society. I find the prospect of their benevolence frightening, especially in light of the fact that any means they choose to achieve their ends would be done with the blessing of their conscience.
No matter your ideaology, remember that a government big enough to give you everything you want can also take from you everything you have. And take it will…because Government has nothing to give anyone that it hasn’t first taken from someone else.