[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 44 (Thursday, April 14, 2005)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E653]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




             THE AMERICAN JUSTICE FOR AMERICAN CITIZENS ACT

                                 ______
                                 

                             HON. RON PAUL

                                of texas

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, April 14, 2005

  Mr. PAUL. Mr. Speaker, I rise to introduce the American Justice for 
American Citizens Act, which exercises Congress's Constitutional 
authority to regulate the federal judiciary to ensure that federal 
judges base their decisions solely on American Constitutional, 
statutory, and traditional common law. Federal judges increasing 
practice of ``transjudicialism'' makes this act necessary. 
Transjudicialism is a new legal theory that encourages judges to 
disregard American law, including the United States Constitution, and 
base their decisions on foreign law. For example, Supreme Court 
justices have used international law to justify upholding race-based 
college admissions, overturning all state sodomy laws, and, most 
recently, to usurp state authority to decide the age at which criminals 
becomes subject to the death penalty.
  In an October 28, 2003 speech before the Southern Center for 
International Studies in Atlanta, Georgia, Justice O'Connor stated: 
``[i]n ruling that consensual homosexual activity in one's home is 
constitutionally protected, the Supreme Court relied in part on a 
series of decisions from the European Court of Human Rights. I suspect 
that with time, we will rely increasingly on international and foreign 
law in resolving what now appear to be domestic issues, as we both 
appreciate more fully the ways in which domestic issues have an 
international dimension, and recognize the rich resources available to 
us in the decisions of foreign courts.''
  This statement should send chills down the back of every supporter of 
Constitutional government. After all, the legal systems of many of the 
foreign countries that provide Justice O'Connor with ``rich resources'' 
for her decisions do not respect the same concepts of due process, 
federalism, and even the presumption of innocence that are fundamental 
to the American legal system. Thus, harmonizing American law with 
foreign law could undermine individual rights and limited, 
decentralized government.
  There has also been speculation that transjudicialism could be used 
to conform American law to treaties, such as the U.N. Convention on the 
Rights of the Child, that the Senate has not ratified. Mr. Speaker, 
some of these treaties have not been ratified because of concerns 
regarding their effects on traditional American legal, political, and 
social institutions. Judges should not be allowed to implement what 
could be major changes in American society, short-circuit the 
democratic process, and usurp the Constitutional role of the Senate to 
approve treaties, by using unratifed treaties as the bases of their 
decisions.
  All federal judges, including Supreme Court justices, take an oath to 
obey and uphold the Constitution. The Constitution was ordained and 
ratified by the people of the United States to provide a charter of 
governance in accord with fixed and enduring principles, not to empower 
federal judges to impose the transnational legal elites' latest 
theories on the American people.
  Mr. Speaker, the drafters of the Constitution gave Congress the power 
to regulate the jurisdiction of federal courts precisely so we could 
intervene when the federal judiciary betrays its responsibility to 
uphold the Constitution and American law. Congress has a duty to use 
this power to ensure that judges base their decisions solely on 
American law.
  Therefore, Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to do their 
Constitutional duty to ensure that American citizens have American 
justice by cosponsoring the American Justice for American Citizens Act.