General

We make a tragic mistake when we view the decisions of the Supreme Court as either final or wise. After all, they are decisions made by nine fallible people who sometimes get it wrong as all human beings do.

American history contains a number of SCOTUS blunders.

The recent same sex marriage decision announced on June 30, is a case in point. I believe the justices got it wrong–very wrong. And when the Supreme Court errors, millions of people suffer.

Here are four examples.

I’m not a lawyer, constitutional scholar or an ardent follower of the Supreme Court. But I am a student of history and understand a few things about the rise and fall of nations and how civilizations destroy themselves.

We are currently witnessing that prospect in the Western World and in particular, in its pillar nation, the United States of America. 

The recent Supreme Court decision in Obergefell v. Hodges, which legalizes gay marriage, is a decision that greatly hastens the decline of the American nation.

That subject we will take up in a future article.

Regarding the Obergefel v. Hodges case, the right outcome wouold have been based on a simple trinity: 1) Marrriage is God-created between a man and a woman for the procreation and nurture of children, 2)  God-ordained marriage and family is the social bedrock of all wise and prosperous nations, and 3) All sex outside God-designed marriage is immoral and ultimately hurts people.

This decision, like other historical mistakes, will cause many people to suffer.

It’s happened before. The Supreme Court has made a number of erroneous decisions over the past 200 years that have greatly hurt the American people. Two of them were overturned through decades of struggle. The other two are ongoing battles.

The Court is never the final word. We the People are–in concert with the favor and power of God.

Here are four of the worst decisions ever made by our highest Court. I will place them in historical order.

Dred Scott v. Sandford – 1857

In perhaps the Court’s most infamous case prior to 2015, Dred Scott, who was born a slave but brought to live in a number of states where slavery was illegal, was not only returned to slavery by the Court, but held to have no rights. All Americans of African descent were not citizens, contrary to the laws of several states and the federal Missouri Compromise.

Dred Scott was a dreadful decision that kept millions of black people in chains and lead to hundreds of thousands of deaths in the Civil War.

The Court got it wrong and millions suffered and thousands died. 

Plessy v. Ferguson – 1896

I learned more about this decision while watching Bill O’Reilly’s Legends and Lies television series recently on the Fox Network. The story was told on a segment which featured the probable inspiration of the Lone Ranger character–a black U.S. Marshall named Bass Reeves.

Yes, the Lone Ranger was not a white man with a black mask. He was a black man! And a very courageous one at that who rode a white horse and had an Indian sidekick. And at the end of his life, the Plessy decision hurt him very badly.

In Plessy v. Ferguson the Court foolishly upheld a Louisiana law requiring forced segregation by train car on the East Louisiana Railroad. This enshrined racial discrimination in state laws under the “separate but equal” doctrine and would remain in place until Brown v. Board of Education in 1954.

Plessy was an incredible setback for social justice. During reconstruction, though difficult in the southern states, much progress had been made toward liberating and bringing blacks as equal partners into American society. This is sometimes forgotten by our history books.  

Plessy destroyed that progress by not just allowing for self-segregation or discrimination by private individuals. It expressly upheld the right of states to force segregation upon others.

This incredible error by the Court caused nearly seventy years of racial struggle in the United States, not fully being corrected until the Civil Rights laws of 1965.

If the Supreme Court had ruled rightly in 1896, there would have been no need for Dr. Martin Luther King. This very bad Supreme Court decision caused millions of African Americans to suffer for seven decades.

Roe v. Wade – 1972

The battle for life itself began in Texas, which outlawed any type of abortion unless a doctor determined that the mother’s life was in danger. The anonymous Jane Roe (later known to be Norma McCorvey who became a strong pro-life advocate) challenged the Texas law, and the case made its way to the highest court in 1972.

The Supreme Court struck down the Texas law, and essentially the right to life enunciated in the Declaration of Independence by an incredible 7-2 vote. Seven justices got it horribly wrong.

Using the same reasoning as the Griswold v. Connecticut decision, the majority of the justices maintained that a right to privacy was “implied” by the Ninth and Fourteenth Amendments–a crazy stretch of imagination now criticized for decades. 

Fifty-five million human beings have been slaughtered through abortion since 1972 in the United States as the result of Roe. It is one of the greatest genocides of all time. 

NFIB v. Sebelius 2012 and King v. Burwell – 2012

Two of the worst SC decisions of all time relate to Obamacare, in 2012, and again last week.

In 2012 the Supreme Court upheld ObamaCare (the Affordable Care Act). Chief Justice John Roberts appeared to hijack this decision by ruling that ObamaCare was a tax and not a mandate, and was therefore declared constitutional. The convoluted decision stunned the nation.

No one died as a result of this decision, but it affected millions of people who were left on a pathway to socialized medicine with the Federal Government strengthening its nanny state role while effectively taking over one-sixth of the US economy. The decision created great confusion among American businesses that are now sitting on 1.7 trillion dollars of cash that they’re fearful of investing in job creation.

And last week in a stunning decision in King v. Burwell, the Court revealed that it was illerate when it said that the word “States” in Obamacare could also refer to the “Federal Government” which was clearly not the case. The 6-3 decision was a triumph of political judiciary tyranny over the plain meaning of words. 

Millions of consumers will suffer for at least two more years as a result of these bad rulings.

Obergefell v. Hodges – 2015

Which brings us to the same-sex marriage decision. The two big constitutional questions in the case were: ” 1) Does the Fourteenth Amendment require a state to license a marriage between two people of the same sex? 2) Does the Fourteenth Amendment require a state to recognize a marriage between two people of the same sex when their marriage was lawfully licensed and performed out-of-state?” 

The Supreme Court erroneously answered these constitutional questions this week by a 5-4 decision. The results of this case will essentially be the final death knell to marriage, family, and cultural stability in the United States.

The decision will allow same-sex marriage in public documents including marriage licenses and death certificates which translate into money, benefits for families, as well as a recognition of people’s marriages. The real outcome of the case will open a Pandora’s Box of other groups and entities seeking marital status and will greatly increase discrimination and persecution of Christians.

So should we trust the Supreme Court?

Ben Howe  of Redstate.com recently reported that “many lack trust in the Supreme Court’s handling of those two issues according to a new CNN/ORC poll…Only about half say they have at least a moderate amount of trust in the court on health care (50%) or same-sex marriage (49%).

That’s wisdom on the people’s part.

The Supreme Court sometimes gets it wrong. When they do, millions of people suffer. But the people have the “next” word and the final one will come from God.

Are we on his side, and will we persevere for justice and holiness on these great issues of our day?

I’m not trying to be disrespectful when I use Bill Clinton’s line “It’s the Economy, Stupid!” with a current twist. The original phrase was coined by a United States president and aimed at another president (George H.W. Bush).  

Now, our current president has said something that deserves the same rebuttal.

On September 11, 2014, Barack Obama uttered the following words in a prime time television address:

“Now let’s make two things clear: ISIL is not Islamic. No religion condones the killing of innocents, and the vast majority of ISIL’s victims have been Muslim. And ISIL is certainly not a state.”

ISIL is not Islamic? ISIL is not a state? He’s wrong. Deadly wrong. 

It’s the Islamic State, stupid.

Here’s why.

Politicians say a lot of things to please the masses or to put a twist on their remarks to send signals to various groups of people. But sometimes they simply say ridiculous things that are not backed up by reality.

I’ve said quite a few things in my life that are stupid–but never before millions of people who are depending on me to protect them.

That’s why President Barack Obama’s words need to be examined. He is the leader of the free world which is currently being threatened and publicly humiliated by a group of jihadists who may be more evil than the infamous Nazis.

This group is called various names: 1) ISIS (the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria), 2) ISIL (The Islamic State of the Levant – a larger geographic area that includes parts of Jordan, Israel, Palestine, Lebanon, Cyprus and southern Turkey), and 3) The Islamic State–which is their own chosen moniker.

They are a part of historic Islam, and they are

Islamic

I have chosen the words “historic Islam” carefully. They should be used in media interviews, government speeches and press releases about this subject because they are the closest to the truth.

The historical origins of Islam and their leader, Mohammed, were bloody and violent. Mohammed was essentially a robber baron who lived off the booty of stealing from the Arabian trade caravans. He committed at least twenty raids in his lifetime, personally slaughtered hundreds of people with the sword, and established a religion that was built on the premise of “convert or die.”

That is historic Islam. It is backed up by Mohammed’s “recitations” found in the Koran–which contain over 100 “war verses” that encourage good Muslims to kill infidels (all non-Muslims) to advance their religious cause.

Yes, Mr. President, at least one religion does condone the killing of innocents (infidels).

Islam.

That’s a historical fact. 

They also kill other Muslims with impunity who don’t meet their demands. Sunnis and Shias have been killing each other for centuries. 

I have a copy of the Koran on my desk. Everyone should get one and read it. My copy is open to two of those 100 war verses that are found in Surah 8. Here they are, and they describe what ISIS is doing:

“O you who believe! When you meet those who disbelieve marching for war, then turn not your backs to them. I will cast terror into the hearts of those who disbelieve, Therefore strike off their heads and strike off every fingertip of them.”

Now you know why we call it the War on Terror. That’s what Allah of the Koran says he will bring through savage beheadings and the like. Think of Americans James Foley and Steven Sotloff. Most recently, think of British citizen David Haines.

ISIS is thoroughly Islamic–the true historical version. It’s doing what committed Muslims have always done.

(If you want to read all of the Koran’s 109 war verses, you should purchase Don Richardson’s Secrets of the Koran and turn to Appendix B for a complete listing. Richardson’s list does not include mention of war in story-telling eg. “David slew Goliath” in Surah 2:251, nor are the verses included in which Allah afflicts infidels himself–just the verse where devout Muslims do the killing.)

Yes, it is true that there are Muslims who do not practice the 100 war verses. Why?  Because a lot of people who are moderately or culturally Muslim are peace-loving and non-violent folks who overlook those sections of the Koran. That’s true in every religion. People pick and choose what they feel comfortable doing.

But if you are a true believer in Islam–a radical believer (getting to the root), then you are fully justified in using horrific violence to bring the entire world under sharia law and a global caliphate.

The Koran demands it.

Thus ISIS, or the Islamic State, is perfectly Islamic.

(As this column went to press, I received an e-mail from a person doing humanitarian aid work in Iraq. The aid worker said that the town next to his had just fallen to ISIS and he was fearful for his staff (they live ten minutes away). He also said that to plant fear in the hearts of the townspeople, ISIS had started beheading children. That’s a fact from the ground.)

For some historical context, here’s a brief history of Islam’s three attempts at taking over the world through violence and force.

The first jihad started with Mohammad when his armies conquered all of Arabia. In the hundred years after his death, they subjugated most of the Middle East, North Africa and Spain. The first jihad lasted from 622 AD until 750 AD. Scores of thousands of innocent people were killed in the name of Islam.

The second major jihad started in 1071 AD. Islamic armies toppled Constantinople and spread into Europe, India, and further into Africa. The second jihad began to decline when the Muslim army was stopped on September 11th, 1683 at the gates of Vienna, Austria. (Notice the interesting date of 9-11-1683.)

Its remnants lived on until the collapse of the Ottoman Empire after World War I. During the second jihad, hundreds of thousands were killed to advance the religion of Allah.

After that, there was a sixty year lull in Islamic expansion which ended when oil was found in Saudi Arabia. This launched the Wahhabiism era of the third jihad in the 1980s. Funded by petro dollars, militant Islamicists flexed their muscles once again, trying to remove Israel from Palestine and igniting a barrage of terrorism which continues to this day.

Think Osama bin Laden, Hamas, Hezbollah, Boko Haram, and numerous others. 

During the past thirty years, thousands more have died at the hands of jihadists and millions of people have been displaced. If those who practice historic Islam have their way in the 21st century, then millions will die and billions will be forced under global sharia law.

The big bully of the third jihad right now is ISIS–the Islamic State.

A State

President Obama spoke like a nuanced college professor when he also said that ISIS is not a state because they are not recognized by other governments or the United Nations.

Hello? Is there anybody home?

ISIS has declared themselves an Islamic state by taking over territory in Syria and Iraq that is geographically the size of Belgium. They have an organized and trained military that has grown into the thousands, control scores of cities including the Iraq’s second largest city of Mosul, have a caliph (Islamic president or dictator) Ibrahim ibn Awwad ibn Ibrahim ibn Ali ibn Muhammad al-Badri al-Samarrai, more commonly known as Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, and they are making 1-3 million dollars a day to fund their government and holy jihad through oil revenues.

It doesn’t matter what the UN thinks.  It doesn’t matter whether we “recognize” them diplomatically. That’s goverment-ese gobblety-gook.

ISIS has established an Islamic STATE. They have land, leadership, military and money. No amount of nuancing can take away that fact.

One of the first rules of warfare (confronting and defeating evil) is to be able to clearly define your enemy. If you can’t define them (their motivation, strengths, geography and plans), then you can’t defeat them.

It’s time to stop being stupid in foreign affairs. 

The Islamic State has declared war on the Middle East and the world. Because nuclear weapons exist and can get into the wrong hands, we do not have the luxury of saying this is a regional war, we can’t afford to have boots on the ground, or that others should take the lead.

As the world’s lone superpower, the United States must have the clarity and the will to lead a coalition of free nations that will fight tyranny just as we did during World War II. Sixty years ago we defeated Nazi Germany and imperial Japan and helped rebuild and revive both Europe and Asia.

During this new era, we must defeat historic Islam and its most recent expression–the Islamic State.

That’s the role of government–to protect people from evil.

The rest of us should pray for the Muslim world, support missionaries in those nations, and help Muslims everywhere reject the false teachings of the Koran and come into a saving relationship with one of the Koran’s leading figures–Isa (Jesus)–who is the Prince of Peace.

That’s wouldn’t be stupid–it would be wise.

It would bring salvation.

We all learned during childhood that to form words and give them real meaning, it was necessary to learn our ABCs.

At the present time we have an illegal immigration crisis on our southern boundary. Nearly 50,000 people a month, twenty percent of them unaccompanied minors, are crossing over and overwhelming the officials that are supposed to protect us.

Most of the illegals are from Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala.

What are the ABCs of the crisis and what do we do about it?

Let’s use the English alphabet to describe the players, terms, and concepts that we must understand to solve our current immigration nightmare. Problems can be solved when you 1) Define the players, 2) Design a solution, and 3) Have the will to implement it.

Some of the alphabet will have one name or concept, and others will have multiple entries.  At the end, I will give my proposal to end the crisis that is vexing our nation.

A – Z

A. Aliens. A biblical term to describe “foreigners” that come to live in another country. Put together with another word, illegal alien is a person who unlawfully enters another sovereign nation. It is a better term than “undocumented worker” since some do not work, and we don’t call people who break into our places of residence “undocumented visitors.”

Amnesty. The bad idea of treating those of break the law the same as those who keep it. Ronald Reagan, considered the best president since WWII, believed that the amnesty law of 1986 (that didn’t seal the border) was one of his worst mistakes.

B – Borders. Nations have borders for the same reason that houses have walls and fences. They are there to protect the rightful owners or inhabitants from those who would unlawfully abuse them.

C – Compassion. God’s command for his people to care for those who encounter unfortunate circumstances in their lives, including strangers. To be compassionate means to “suffer with” someone else in their adversity. Individuals and churches do best at showing God’s compassion on earth.

Chamber of Commerce. The American business group that is pushing amnesty for millions of illegal aliens for the cheap labor they provide.

D – Democrats. The party in power in the White House and US Senate who are responsible for the current crisis. Their push for “comprehensive immigration,” lax security and lack of deportations is for the primary purpose of gaining votes from future entitlement-dependent foreign immigrants.

Dreamers. The children of illegal aliens who are not responsible for the wrong choices of their parents, grew up in America, and should be provided a path to citizenship.

Deportation. Sending illegal aliens back home. For years the Obama administration reported they were deporting more illegals than George W. Bush and other past presidents. However, we now know that they changed the definition to “cook the books” which helped create the crisis. President Obama is currently asking for more money to process and deport the masses crossing the border. But that is not realistic since 90% of illegals don’t show up for their deportation hearings.

E – E-Verify. A national computer system to certify citizenship that will screen out illegals from working in the United States. It’s never been fully implemented because of the resistance of the Democratic Party and Chamber of Commerce. A person should not be able to work in a nation if they are not a citizen or have a legal work permit.

Elections. What the American people need to use in 2014 and 2016 to get rid of either wimpy or bad leaders who have brought the illegal immigration problem upon us.

F – Fence. The building of a wall to protect private property or national sovereignty. Critics say that our 2000 mile southern border is impossible to fence. However, this is the first step we should take in solving the immigration problem–and where any new monies from the federal government should be spent. When your basement is flooding, you don’t waste your time and money buying buckets. You stop the leak first.

Freedom. Freedom in an individual or nation is always in direct proportion to self control (boundaries). Right now neither illegal immigrants nor the American people are “free” to pursue their dreams and livelihoods because of the out-of-control situation which drains jobs and resources and raises taxes.

G – Government. Its primary function is to protect its citizens. The refusal to defend and guard the southern border by our federal government is a total abdication of its constitutional responsibilities and is the main driver of the rising anger in the nation.

H – Homeland Security. A monstrous federal bureaucracy that is failing the people of the border states.

I – Illegal. See “Alien” above. No matter if the motive for crossing a border is food, provision, or a better life, it is wrong to break the law. The end does not justify the means. People in desperate circumstances must look to God for deliverance, not to criminal acts that hurt others.

Impeachment. What Sarah Palin suggested for President Obama’s dereliction of duty over immigration. I don’t disagree that he is committing impeachable offenses, but I would wait until after the November elections to not distract from the tepid economy, the noose of Obamacare, and numerous other scandals engulfing this administration. 

J – Jobs. in the midst of the weakest recovery in seventy years, the illegal immigration invasion is hurting low income Americans who must compete in many industries. It is a myth that Americans will not do the work.

Justice. What is NOT being done on the southern border or in the towns where the feds are dropping off new illegal entrants into the country.

K – Krauthammer. As in Charles, a syndicated columnist, who recently quipped when critics said a fence would never work: “If fences don’t work, then why is there one around the White House?”

Katrina. The hurricane that flooded New Orleans in 2006 that was poorly managed by the Bush Administration. Some Democrats are now saying that the current crisis at the border could be “President Obama’s Katrina.”

L – La Raza. A pro-Hispanic extremist group that is pushing for Open Borders and helping to fuel the illegal alien invasion. They have strong influence in the Democratic Party.

M- Mexico. Our southern neighbor who has strict laws regarding its own border security and national sovereignty, but is encouraging and aiding the mass exodus of Central American illegals across the  border. We should threaten to cut off all aid to Mexico until they stop supporting the pipeline.

Murrieta, CA. A town in southwestern Riverside County, California that has made the news recently when their citizens resisted the efforts of the federal government to ship illegal aliens their way. They are akin to Lexington and Concord during the Revolutionary War when patriots rose up to stop the unlawful British invasion.

N – National Guard. The name suggests they should be sent immediately to the southern border to help stop the flood. They are back from deployments in Irag and Afghanistan. Rotate them into the 2000 mile border for training and security purposes. At this moment, could there be any wiser use of the US National Guard?

O – Obama. From Reagan onward, no president has dealt well with the problems at the southern border. But Barack Obama has exacerbated the situation by lax federal enforcement and deportations, denying states the rights to protect their people, breaking the law with executive orders, and possibly using the current crisis as a distraction from his other domestic and foreign policy failings.

Open Borders. The ridiculous and anarchic idea that nations should just do away with borders and let anybody come in. I’d like the Open Borders crowd to model their philosophy for us in their own homes. Remove all locks and doors and invite anybody who wants to come in, use the fridge, electricity, spend the night etc. and to do so at will. Hint: If it doesn’t work at home it won’t work in the nation.

P – Pelosi. Probably the strangest leader in American history who said yesterday she would like to take all the children that are coming here illegally in the name of compassion. Memo to Homeland Security: Send all the buses of illegals to Nancy Pelosi’s homes in San Francisco and Washington, D.C. That will solve the problem.

Q – Quickly. It is way past time to solve America’s vexing illegal immigration disaster. The people need to continue to speak out and our leaders need to act swiftly.

R – Republicans. Have been guilty of squishiness and duplicity on this issue. We need to vote for leaders with both compassion and spine.

S – Secure. The main purpose of government: “To secure these rights, governments are instituted among men…” (Declaration of Independence). Our government is failing in its basic responsibility.

T – Terrible. The idea that we should now throw 3.7 billion more taxpayer dollars at the problem created by our fickle politicians.

U – Undocumented. A way to make illegal sound okay.

V – Visas. Ninety percent of the illegal immigration problem in this nation is people coming legally to America and then staying beyond their visas. This must be stopped and prosecuted.

W – Welfare. The welfare/entitlement state is a main driver of illegal immigration. If these things were not offered, then people wouldn’t come. We should not be giving entitlements to non-citizens.

X – Exceptional. What America used to be when it came to justice and mercy. No longer. We are looking more like a banana republic everyday.

Y – You. We need to care about this issue and elect people who will do something about it.

Z – Zombies. We must vote out our “zombie” politicians and elect people who will honor and defend the Constitution and principles of the United States.

Here’s my plan:

1. Mobilize the National Guard to the southern border and have half of them protect it and the other half build the fence (that’s where we spend any new taxpayer money).

2. Require E-verify in all fifty states.

3. After completing the fence, require all remaining illegals to register with the government within 60 days, pay a fine, and go to the back of the line in terms of applying for a work permit, green card, or citizenship.

4. Police and patrol our borders in accord with the US Constitution.

5. Continue to lead the world in inviting legal immigrants to our nation to experience the blessings and responsibilities of liberty.

How do you spell that solution?

F – R – E – E – D – O – M.