[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 17]
[House]
[Pages 22932-22933]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                           JUDICIAL ACTIVISM

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Franks) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. FRANKS of Arizona. Mr. Speaker, there have been many external 
threats to this Republic across the years. Recently, we have been 
highly focused on the war on terrorism and diminishing global nuclear 
threats. We have always been able to face such external threats 
successfully because our country has had a strong internal foundation.
  But, today, it is critically important to sound a past-due warning 
about the internal threat to this republic. We are going to awaken to 
the fact that our own courts, in spite of their sacred duty and charge 
to defend the United States Constitution, have now become the greatest 
threat to its survival. The rule of law itself and the underpinnings 
that hold this Nation together are now at stake.
  This undermining of our Constitution did not develop overnight. One 
hundred and eighty-four years ago, Thomas Jefferson wrote: ``The object 
of my great fear is the federal judiciary. That body, like gravity, 
ever acting, with noiseless foot, and unalarming advance, gaining 
ground step by step, and holding what it gains, is engulfing 
insidiously the special governments into the jaws of that which feeds 
them.''
  Only 3\1/2\ decades after Thomas Jefferson wrote these ominous words, 
United States Supreme Court ruled in it their Dred Scott decision that 
``all blacks, slaves as well as free, were not and could never become 
citizens of the United States.'' The Supreme Court said that blacks 
``had no rights which the white man was bound to respect; and that the 
negro might justly and lawfully be reduced to slavery for his 
benefit.''
  Mr. Speaker, we can all see the sickness and evil in that twisted 
reasoning today. It is a sickness and an evil that precipitated the 
worst loss of American life in any war in the history of this Nation, 
600,000 dead soldiers: husbands, fathers, sons, and brothers.
  In the face of these historical realities, it is astonishing today 
that we do not seem to collectively recognize the dangers represented 
by an unrestrained judiciary, especially since many of the great 
conflicts in our society's recent history have been precipitated by 
arrogant court decisions imposed by an unjust court and imposing an 
unjust mandate on the entire Nation.
  Not so long ago, our courts mandated racial segregation in our public 
schools. That was the so-called ``separate but equal doctrine.'' And 
people died on the streets reversing that obscene ruling.
  American courts have now declared that protecting viable unborn 
children from the hideous act of partial birth abortion is 
``unconstitutional.'' The courts are now beginning to attack the very 
foundation and makeup of our country and any civil society, that being 
marriage and the family itself.
  They have said it is ``unconstitutional'' to protect a 9-year-old 
girl from Internet pornography or for her to pray a certain prayer in 
school or for her to voluntarily say her Pledge of Allegiance to the 
flag of the United States using the words ``under God.''
  Mr. Speaker, are these the causes that our American heroes lying out 
in Arlington National Cemetery died for? And I am just wondering when 
those who still have breath say will enough is enough.
  As we seek to protect America from the external threats that we face 
like terrorism, we would do well to remember that it is not the water 
on the outside of the ship that sinks it. It is the water on the 
inside. And, Mr. Speaker, I submit that there is water on the inside of 
this ship.
  When courts forcefully interject false and unconstitutional notions 
that go against justice, natural law and common sense, without allowing 
the issue to go through the legislative process of debate and 
consensus, it abrogates the miracle of America and abridges the freedom 
of the people to govern themselves.
  Daniel Webster's admonition to all of us is so very appropriate. He 
said, ``Hold on, my friends, to the Constitution and to the Republic 
for which it stands, for miracles do not cluster and what has happened 
once in 6,000 years may never happen again. So hold on to

[[Page 22933]]

the Constitution, for if the American Constitution should fall, there 
will be anarchy throughout the world.''
  Mr. Speaker, the commitment to true justice in the heart of this 
Congress and in the heart of the one who occupies the Oval Office are 
now the only two remaining barriers which prevent judicial oligarchy 
and the subsequent fall of the American Constitution.
  May those of us in this Congress find the courage to assume our 
constitutional power to prevent the judicial destruction of the United 
States Constitution.
  And, Mr. Speaker, may God give the people of this Nation the insight 
and soundness of mind to maintain the presidency of the United States 
in the hands of George W. Bush, who will protect America and the world 
from such an irrelevant revocable tragedy. God bless America.

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