ATTENTION: Please SCROLL DOWN this page to find the article titled on this post in LARGE BRIGHT BLUE CAPITAL LETTERS. Thank you.)
"Obama’s Disappointing Decision to Skip Scalia’s Funeral" - Katrina Trinko/
Feb.18,2016;http:/dailysignal.com/2016/02/18/obamas-disappointing-decision-to-skip-scalias-funeral/
PRAYER MATTERS:"To clasp the hands in prayer is the beginning of an uprising against the disorder of the world." - Karl Barth; "Prayer is inviting God into a seemingly impossible situation and trusting Him to accomplish His perfect and loving will." - Stan
PERSONAL PRAIESE/PRAYER REQUESTS – 2/13 – 1) PTL! My cat PURRTY - she is healing well and has finally completed her treatments; also,someone anonymously gave enough to pay all her vet bills!, 2) Still hoping to determine the cause of a water overflow problem (?) on my property, and 3) for help in figuring out why a section of my blog site suddenly disappeared the other day!
7/24 - ASIA BIBI CONVICTION OVERTURNED! PRAY THAT SHE (IN VERY POOR HEALTH) MIGHT BE RELEASED WHEN HER CASE IS REVIEWED SOON. - A Christian mom had been sentenced to death in Pakistan for her faith. Asia Bibi was falsely accused of “blasphemy” – speaking against the prophet Muhammad. Now this wife and mother of five will hang for her Christian faith.She would be the first woman executed under Pakistan’s Shariah blasphemy law.This is the ultimate human rights violation. We’re mobilizing our international affiliate – the European Centre for Law and Justice – and its partner in Pakistan to stop this atrocity. Go to http://aclj.org/persecuted-church/breaking-pakistans-supreme-court-accepts-petition-to-hear-asia-bibis-appeal;please add your signature to over 300,000 others AND continue to pray for Asia Bibi.
http://dailysignal.com/2016/02/16/fight-to-replace-scalia-proves-supreme-court-has-become-too-powerful/ [AS I SEE IT: We need to be praying that whoever fills Justice Scalia's seat on the Court will also exercise judicial wisdom and restraint. Pray that the next justice will consistently uphold the Constitution and not seek to make new law. For our sake and that of generations to come. - Stan]
The bench of late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia is seen draped with black wool crepe in memoriam. (Photo: Carloss Barria / Reuters/Newscom)
The stakes are high—very high. Finding a replacement for deceased Supreme Court Associate Justice Antonin Scalia will be a battle royale. But why should one government official’s position be so existentially important? Yes, control of the Supreme Court hangs in the balance, but that raises the question as to why the Court itself is so powerful. Could it be that the answer to that question tells us something about our increasing inability to govern ourselves as a free people?
Let’s face it. Ever since at least the 1960s (and frankly even before) we have increasingly allowed the Supreme Court to decide controversial issues we have been unwilling to solve legislatively.
From civil rights to abortion to the issue of gay marriage, the high court has ruled on key issues well outside the legislative process. New constitutional rights were created out of whole cloth. If abortion couldn’t be legalized at the ballot box, or if gay marriage could not be made lawful by Congress or the states, a majority of the Supreme Court—a mere five people—would step in and do it for us. Using the power of judicial review, a new policy would be imposed simply by redefining it as a constitutional right.
The practice of judicial fiat is so commonplace we seldom realize how radical it is. We are, quite simply, losing our sovereign power to govern ourselves. We have allowed the courts in general but the Supreme Court in particular to become too powerful.
No single government official outside the president should be so important that his or her replacement could shift the course and destiny of the nation. And yet that is precisely the case with finding a replacement for Scalia. No matter which way it goes, the next Supreme Court justice will decide the balance of power of an institution that has arguably become more powerful than the Congress and as powerful (at least) as the presidency.
This was not what the Founders intended. Sure, we live in the modern age where a lot of water has flowed under the bridge of judicial review, but that’s precisely the problem. We have allowed those waters over time to become a flood, swamping in some cases the high court’s main purposes of safeguarding our existing rights and preserving the rule of law.
The irony should not be lost on us that it has been primarily liberal activists who have tried to hijack the court to get by judicial fiat what they could not obtain legislatively. For all their professed love of “democracy”—rule by the people—they have resorted to tactics that actually overturn laws passed legitimately by democratic legislatures.
The very insularity that the Founders had intended to protect the high court from the political passions of the times now serves those passions outright. It is not uncommon for Supreme Court justices to decide cases based on what they think—perhaps “divine” is a better word—the people or legislators really want. Perhaps based on opinion polls, for example, Associate Justice Anthony Kennedy may have thought he was merely delivering what the people wanted when he decided in favor of gay marriage. But in doing so, he was overturning actual democratic votes that over the past ten years showed a 60.93-percent to 39.07-percent majority against gay marriage when the issue had been placed on the ballot. Should not actual votes count more than opinion polls?
As I explain in my forthcoming book, “The Closing of the Liberal Mind”: "Ultimately judicial activism is harmful not only to constitutional government but to democratic self-governance. When judges try to ram through their policy preferences by contorting texts, abusing precedents, and making up new constitutional rights, they undermine the credibility of both the Constitution and democracy."
That is why, now more than ever, the next Supreme Court justice must be someone who respects not only the original intent of the Constitution—what Scalia called “originalism”—but the need to restrict the policy activist role played by the court. Nothing less is at stake than our ability to govern ourselves as a free people.
[bold, italics, and colored emphasis mine]
Kim R. Holmes, a distinguished fellow at The Heritage Foundation, oversaw the think tank’s defense and foreign policy team for more than two decades. He's the author of the upcoming book, "The Closing of the Liberal Mind." Read his research.Pre-Order Kim Holmes’s New Book, “The Closing of the Liberal Mind: How Groupthink and Intolerance Define the Left”
"How Scalia’s Death Will Impact Cases on Immigration, Abortion, Religious Liberty" -
Josh Siegel/February 16, 2016;http://dailysignal.com/2016/02/16/how-scalias-death-will-impact-cases-on-immigration-abortion-religious-liberty/
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"The Qualms before the Storm" - Tony Perkins, Washington Update,Feb.18,2016;http://www.frc.org/get.cfm?i=WA16B11&f=WU16B04
"Obama’s Disappointing Decision to Skip Scalia’s Funeral" - Katrina Trinko/
Feb.18,2016;http:/dailysignal.com/2016/02/18/obamas-disappointing-decision-to-skip-scalias-funeral/
PRAYER MATTERS:"To clasp the hands in prayer is the beginning of an uprising against the disorder of the world." - Karl Barth; "Prayer is inviting God into a seemingly impossible situation and trusting Him to accomplish His perfect and loving will." - Stan
PERSONAL PRAIESE/PRAYER REQUESTS – 2/13 – 1) PTL! My cat PURRTY - she is healing well and has finally completed her treatments; also,someone anonymously gave enough to pay all her vet bills!, 2) Still hoping to determine the cause of a water overflow problem (?) on my property, and 3) for help in figuring out why a section of my blog site suddenly disappeared the other day!
PRAY FOR AMERICA: THANK GOD for His many blessings on America throughout it's history. May we then ask that AMERICA once again be a blessing TO GOD, by once again submitting to HIS will in our affairs - both personal and national - that He may truly "heal our land." (2 Chron. 7:14) Short of that, we should not be saying "God Bless America"but instead "God be merciful towards America!" - Rev. Franklin Graham once delivered this insight to his Facebook friends: "I do know that the president defends Islam and chastises Christians, rebukes our allies and befriends our enemies, and fully supports gay marriages and abortion but denies the religious freedoms of those who don't agree. Our nation is ridiculed abroad and morally crumbling within. We are in trouble. We have turned our back on God.")
PRAY FOR OUR NEXT SUPREME COURT JUSTICE: We need to be praying that whoever fills Justice Scalia's seat on the Court will also exercise judicial wisdom and restraint. Pray that the next justice will consistently uphold the Constitution and not seek to make new law. For our sake and that of generations to come.
PRAY FOR OUR LEADERS: Let's be praying that they might be Spirit-filled, leading us with Godly wisdom and integrity; that the Congress and the the President will find only pass legislation and enact policies that will benefit America today and future generations and NOT do any lasting harm.
Pray DAILY:1) For the NATIONAL ELECTIONS IN NOVEMBER. Pray that Americans will elect leaders at the state (Governors, state legislators) and national(Congress and President)levels who have Spirit-filled wisdom, integrity, and a Biblical world-view, who will know and do what is best for us today as well as for future generations. 2) For the the SUPREME COURT-Pray that the justices (including the one who will succeed Justice Scalia) will demonstrate more judicial RESTRAINT rather than judicial activism as it has the past few years, esp. on issues having negative impact for generations yet born. Pray in particular that religious liberty will be defended rather than eroded by any decision handed down."5 Cases To Watch At the S.C. In 2016" - IFA, On Watch in Washington, 2/3/2016;http://www.getamericapraying.com/blog/on-watch-in-washington-february-3-2016/#CASES
World-Wide Prayer Requests:
UPDATE ON PASTOR SAHEED: "Prayer Need Is Great as Abedini's Consider Their Future" - CBN News,01-28-2016;http://www1.cbn.com/cbnnews/us/2016/January/Prayer-Need-is-Great-as-Abedinis-Consider-Their-Future;"Free at Last, Free at Last!" - Tony Perkins, Washington Update, Jan.26,2016; http://www.frc.org/updatearticle/20160126/free-last
UPDATE/1-15: "Asia Bibi Forgives Persecutors from Pakistani Prison" - CBN News; 1-15-2016;http://www1.cbn.com/cbnnews/world/2016/January/Asia-Bibi-Forgives-Persecutors-from-Pakistani-Prison
PRAY FOR OUR NEXT SUPREME COURT JUSTICE: We need to be praying that whoever fills Justice Scalia's seat on the Court will also exercise judicial wisdom and restraint. Pray that the next justice will consistently uphold the Constitution and not seek to make new law. For our sake and that of generations to come.
PRAY FOR OUR LEADERS: Let's be praying that they might be Spirit-filled, leading us with Godly wisdom and integrity; that the Congress and the the President will find only pass legislation and enact policies that will benefit America today and future generations and NOT do any lasting harm.
Pray DAILY:1) For the NATIONAL ELECTIONS IN NOVEMBER. Pray that Americans will elect leaders at the state (Governors, state legislators) and national(Congress and President)levels who have Spirit-filled wisdom, integrity, and a Biblical world-view, who will know and do what is best for us today as well as for future generations. 2) For the the SUPREME COURT-Pray that the justices (including the one who will succeed Justice Scalia) will demonstrate more judicial RESTRAINT rather than judicial activism as it has the past few years, esp. on issues having negative impact for generations yet born. Pray in particular that religious liberty will be defended rather than eroded by any decision handed down."5 Cases To Watch At the S.C. In 2016" - IFA, On Watch in Washington, 2/3/2016;http://www.getamericapraying.com/blog/on-watch-in-washington-february-3-2016/#CASES
World-Wide Prayer Requests:
UPDATE ON PASTOR SAHEED: "Prayer Need Is Great as Abedini's Consider Their Future" - CBN News,01-28-2016;http://www1.cbn.com/cbnnews/us/2016/January/Prayer-Need-is-Great-as-Abedinis-Consider-Their-Future;"Free at Last, Free at Last!" - Tony Perkins, Washington Update, Jan.26,2016; http://www.frc.org/updatearticle/20160126/free-last
UPDATE/1-15: "Asia Bibi Forgives Persecutors from Pakistani Prison" - CBN News; 1-15-2016;http://www1.cbn.com/cbnnews/world/2016/January/Asia-Bibi-Forgives-Persecutors-from-Pakistani-Prison
PRAY FOR THE CRISIS HAPPENING NOW IN IRAQ & Syria (see post #907) Pray that coalition forces will be able to destroy the leadership and infrastructure of ISIS. (see post #964)
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"FIGHT TO REPLACE SCALIA PROVES THE SUPREME COURT HAS BECOME TOO POWERFUL" - Kim Holmes/February 16, 2016/----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://dailysignal.com/2016/02/16/fight-to-replace-scalia-proves-supreme-court-has-become-too-powerful/ [AS I SEE IT: We need to be praying that whoever fills Justice Scalia's seat on the Court will also exercise judicial wisdom and restraint. Pray that the next justice will consistently uphold the Constitution and not seek to make new law. For our sake and that of generations to come. - Stan]
The bench of late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia is seen draped with black wool crepe in memoriam. (Photo: Carloss Barria / Reuters/Newscom)
The stakes are high—very high. Finding a replacement for deceased Supreme Court Associate Justice Antonin Scalia will be a battle royale. But why should one government official’s position be so existentially important? Yes, control of the Supreme Court hangs in the balance, but that raises the question as to why the Court itself is so powerful. Could it be that the answer to that question tells us something about our increasing inability to govern ourselves as a free people?
Let’s face it. Ever since at least the 1960s (and frankly even before) we have increasingly allowed the Supreme Court to decide controversial issues we have been unwilling to solve legislatively.
From civil rights to abortion to the issue of gay marriage, the high court has ruled on key issues well outside the legislative process. New constitutional rights were created out of whole cloth. If abortion couldn’t be legalized at the ballot box, or if gay marriage could not be made lawful by Congress or the states, a majority of the Supreme Court—a mere five people—would step in and do it for us. Using the power of judicial review, a new policy would be imposed simply by redefining it as a constitutional right.
The practice of judicial fiat is so commonplace we seldom realize how radical it is. We are, quite simply, losing our sovereign power to govern ourselves. We have allowed the courts in general but the Supreme Court in particular to become too powerful.
No single government official outside the president should be so important that his or her replacement could shift the course and destiny of the nation. And yet that is precisely the case with finding a replacement for Scalia. No matter which way it goes, the next Supreme Court justice will decide the balance of power of an institution that has arguably become more powerful than the Congress and as powerful (at least) as the presidency.
This was not what the Founders intended. Sure, we live in the modern age where a lot of water has flowed under the bridge of judicial review, but that’s precisely the problem. We have allowed those waters over time to become a flood, swamping in some cases the high court’s main purposes of safeguarding our existing rights and preserving the rule of law.
The irony should not be lost on us that it has been primarily liberal activists who have tried to hijack the court to get by judicial fiat what they could not obtain legislatively. For all their professed love of “democracy”—rule by the people—they have resorted to tactics that actually overturn laws passed legitimately by democratic legislatures.
The very insularity that the Founders had intended to protect the high court from the political passions of the times now serves those passions outright. It is not uncommon for Supreme Court justices to decide cases based on what they think—perhaps “divine” is a better word—the people or legislators really want. Perhaps based on opinion polls, for example, Associate Justice Anthony Kennedy may have thought he was merely delivering what the people wanted when he decided in favor of gay marriage. But in doing so, he was overturning actual democratic votes that over the past ten years showed a 60.93-percent to 39.07-percent majority against gay marriage when the issue had been placed on the ballot. Should not actual votes count more than opinion polls?
As I explain in my forthcoming book, “The Closing of the Liberal Mind”: "Ultimately judicial activism is harmful not only to constitutional government but to democratic self-governance. When judges try to ram through their policy preferences by contorting texts, abusing precedents, and making up new constitutional rights, they undermine the credibility of both the Constitution and democracy."
That is why, now more than ever, the next Supreme Court justice must be someone who respects not only the original intent of the Constitution—what Scalia called “originalism”—but the need to restrict the policy activist role played by the court. Nothing less is at stake than our ability to govern ourselves as a free people.
[bold, italics, and colored emphasis mine]
Kim R. Holmes, a distinguished fellow at The Heritage Foundation, oversaw the think tank’s defense and foreign policy team for more than two decades. He's the author of the upcoming book, "The Closing of the Liberal Mind." Read his research.Pre-Order Kim Holmes’s New Book, “The Closing of the Liberal Mind: How Groupthink and Intolerance Define the Left”
"How Scalia’s Death Will Impact Cases on Immigration, Abortion, Religious Liberty" -
Josh Siegel/February 16, 2016;http://dailysignal.com/2016/02/16/how-scalias-death-will-impact-cases-on-immigration-abortion-religious-liberty/
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"The Qualms before the Storm" - Tony Perkins, Washington Update,Feb.18,2016;http://www.frc.org/get.cfm?i=WA16B11&f=WU16B04
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