Ted Poe's Latest HuffPuff

Has the Supreme Court Lost its Way? - Ted Poe

Congressman Ted Poe posits:

As a former felony court judge in Houston, Texas for over 20 years, I used the Constitution and made decisions that affected real people ? defendants, victims, and the community. I took the same oath as our Supreme Court justices and never rendered a ruling based upon the sentiments of another nation. I determined whether individuals should lose their property, liberty, and freedom. On occasion, my decisions even resulted in those individuals forfeiting their lives. Nonetheless, every ruling was rooted in the United States Constitution, which those who came to my court unquestionably knew constitutes the basis of all American law... not the judge?s personal opinion or the holdings of a foreign nation; not the British way or the European way; but rather the American way. Had I used any other law but that of the Constitution, I would have been removed from the bench and rightfully so.

Having been down in the mud, blood, and beer with real people, I have witnessed the Constitution?s impact on the lives of Americans. I submit that looking to foreign court decisions is as relevant as using the writings of Reader?s Digest, a Sears and Roebuck catalog, a horoscope, my grandmother?s recipe for the common cold, tea leaves, star gazing, or the local gossip at the barbershop in Cut N? Shoot, Texas.

This is a stunningly godawful analysis of the role of the judiciary from a 20 year veteran of the courts. For one, Poe expresses the predictable outrage over "foreigners" making our law by "out of control judges." Fine, Poe's settling into the partisan nonsense of DC just fine and dandy, it seems. So, if relying on the legal thinking expressed abroad, I'm somewhat curious what Poe's thoughts are on the Constitution and Declaration of Independence themselves. Seems there was heavy French influence on both. Or am I just being presumptuous to think Poe's recollection of Jean-Jacques Rousseau's influence on Thomas Jefferson might be, what we fine folks of Harris County consider "accurate?" If Ted Poe were around in the late 1700s, would he not bemoan that heathen, Jefferson, for plaigerising Rousseau's "The Origin of Civil Society?"

The second biggest problem with Poe's analysis, however, is that he fails to realize the difference between the US Supreme Court and a State District Judge. If laws were written perfectly and no inconsistencies ever existed in the laws and constitutional principles, then I suppose it's worth thinking there'd be no need for a Supreme Court, and likely no other bench for that matter. But the very existence of a high court is to deal with JUST those inconsistencies. That's a far cry from being a judge who relishes in making prisoners clean toilets with a toothbrush.

But what do I know? I'm just down here in the mud, blood, and beer with real people in the mean streets of Houston instead of blogging about the need to detain a few harmless folks in Guantanimo and defending the right to barbeque a thirteen year old.