If you are a conservative, and you swallowed hard and voted for Mr. Trump to protect the Supreme Court, you did the right thing. The Federal judiciary has uniformly embarrassed itself and is in the throes of an open counter-attack from the left to try to murder the Constitution, federalism, and the rule of law. Tonight, your Second Amendment rights took withering fire from a partisan Court, leaving those rights wounded, but not yet dead. The gross usurpation of Federal power from Judge Robart in Washington state, to the Ninth Circuit, and back to Judge Brinkema has been shocking. Now, the Fourth Circuit Court’s ruling is a weapon of war unleashed on the Bill of Rights
This latest ruling is just plain hostile to a fundamental individual right. The Courts see no limitation to their own powers, but they find innumerable limitations on the powers co-equal branches. As for the little people over whom they rule, they are not the guardian of rights, but rather arbiter of which rights they deem worthy.
Make no mistake, these are not philosophical differences in the application of law, these are aggressive, unsupported, radical efforts to seize power from the President, Congress, and the people. Had Mrs. Clinton won, the back of federalism would be broken, and the Constitution would be held-up at gun-point, with a rogue high court creating, doling out, and eliminating rights without any check.
Today is a clarion call for free people to buy a weapon and prepare to man a post in defense of liberty, just in case Mr. Trump can’t retake this judiciary. With one state trying to secede, and federal judges working a coup against the President and the people, we have never been this close to civil war since Sumter.
The Fourth Circuit declared nearly 45 guns under a Maryland law to be “weapons of war” that do not deserve the protection of the Second Amendment. One man’s weapon of war, is another man’s tool of liberty. None of these weapons are weapons of war. They are arms, the types of which are your right to bear … a right that shall not be infringed. At the time of our founding, the weapons of war were muskets. No serious thinker believes that the individual right granted under the Bill of Rights was so weak that it permitted government to redefine the right so that government could essentially consolidate its own power while disarming her people.
What Constitutional tomfoolery.
The Second Amendment is not the Musket Amendment, any more than the First Amendment is the soap box Amendment. Without the Second Amendment, all other Amendments, and the document that they Amend would be worthless. The Second Amendment is not there for a standing army. It is not the hunter’s or sportsman’s Amendment. It was the price of the formation of the Union … a guarantee and understanding that a “well-regulated militia” that is, a well-trained and vigilant citizenry, was the best and indeed last line of defense against enemies both foreign and domestic.
Of all the rights you have guaranteed to you by the federal Constitution, only two have come under constant fire by the left and statists. The 10th Amendment died when Judges decided that silence in the Constitution would be resolved by them, not by the people as was the purpose of the 10th Amendment, which expressly reserved to the people through the States their infinite rights. By destroying states’ rights, the left hoped to consolidate power to the federal government, a concept completely at odds with our founding.
Now, they are coming for your guns. When the left claims they are not gun-grabbers, it’s like watching them riot in the street with obscene signs, burning flags and breaking laws in the name of tolerance. They lie with a wanton disregard.
Our federal judiciary is filled with the radical left. Indeed, most lawyers and law schools churn out leftist, social-warrior radicals looking to rewrite from the bench laws that the people do not want or have fully rejected. The entire profession is left to hard-left, save a small segment of lawyers. Thus, even during republican administrations, picking reliable Constitutional conservatives for the bench who will defend federalism and the Constitution has been a disappointment. When the left took over, they eliminated the filibuster and then packed our courts from top to bottom with reliable, far-left judges. These judges apparently don’t understand standing, immigration law, national defense, or even the Bill of Rights.
How close did the United States come to falling to this rise of the Judicial State? Go back and look at those paper thin margins in Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania.
President Trump has certainly started his administration roughly in some respects, and the hard left has been on the streets since the day of inauguration trying to overturn the election. But, it is in the courtrooms where their loyal soldiers are trying to stop Trump. They work against him from the bench, the plaintiff’s table, and in some cases, even on behalf of the United States. The deep state, including the entrenched liberal lawyers in the Federal government, is working at odds with this President. The President needs lawyers and judges … now.
The folly of the Fourth Circuit will not stand. America lost a rock solid Circuit during the Obama Presidency, but this brutal, seriously flawed, openly hostile assault on Second Amendment rights will fail. The ruling is a leftist temper-tantrum by radical in robes. It knows no basis in law or fact.
The Second Amendment was wounded in this skirmish by a dastardly sniper attack, using the weapons of civil war … and abuse of power. It will be overturned.
Ultimately, however, Trump must fulfill his one promise that brought home conservatives. He must fill the federal bench, at every level, with strong, unapologetic, Constitutional conservatives. Until he does, however, the #resistance will continue unabated, even from the bench. It might be that the rise of the judiciary state will be liberty’s greatest threat.
Author: Richard Kelsey
Richard Kelsey is the Editor-in-Chief of Committed Conservative.
He is a trial Attorney and author of a #11 best-selling book on Amazon written on higher education, “Of Serfs and Lords: Why College Tuition is Creating a Debtor Class”
Rich is also the author of the new Murder-Mystery series, “The ABC’s of Murder,” book one is titled, “Adultery.”
Rich is a former Assistant Law School Dean and Law Professor. At Mason Law Kelsey conceived of, planned, and brought to fruition Mason’s Center for the Protection of Intellectual Property, known as CPIP, drawing on his expertise as a former CEO of a technology company specializing in combating cyber-fraud.
In 2014 he was elected by the graduating class as the faculty speaker at their graduation.
He is a regular commentator on legal and political issues in print, radio and on TV. Rich has appeared on hundreds of stations as a legal expert or political commentator. He provided the legal analysis for all stages of the Bob McDonnell trial and appeal for numerous outlets including NPR and WMAL.
Rich also writes on occasion for the American Spectator and CNSNews.com.
In his free time, Rich is part of the baseball mafia of Northern Virginia, serving on numerous boards and as a little league and travel baseball coach.
His Twitter handle is @richkelsey.
