Thomas Sowell On Iowa Voting Out Activist Liberal Judges

This made news a little while ago, but I love Professor Sowell's take on it:

It was a surprise to many (and a shock to media liberals) when three judges on Iowa's Supreme Court were voted off that court in the same recent elections in which a lot of politicians were also sent packing. 

These judges had taken it upon themselves to rule that the voters of Iowa did not have the right to block attempts to change the definition of marriage to include homosexual couples. Here again, the particular issue -- so-called "gay marriage" -- was not as fundamental as the question of depriving the voting public of their right to decide what kinds of laws they want to live under. 

That is ultimately a question of deciding what kind of country this is to be -- one ruled by "we the people" or one where the notions of an arrogant elite are to be imposed, whether the people agree or not. 

Those who believe in gay marriage are free to vote for it. But, when they lose that vote, it is not the role of judges to nullify the vote and legislate from the bench. Judges who become politicians in robes often lie like politicians as well, claiming that they are just applying the Constitution, when they're in fact exercising powers that the Constitution never gave them. If they're going to act like politicians, then they should be voted out like politicians. 

Media liberals, who like what liberal judges do, spring to their defense. The media spin is that judges were voted off the bench because of "unpopular" decisions and that this threatens judicial "independence." 

Since this was the first time that a justice of the Iowa Supreme Court was voted off the bench in nearly half a century, it is very doubtful that there was never an "unpopular" court decision in all that time. The media spin about "unpopular" decisions sidesteps the far more important question of whether the judges usurped powers that were never given to them by the Constitution. 

As for judicial "independence," that doesn't mean being independent of the laws. Being a judge doesn't mean being given arbitrary powers to enact the liberal agenda from the bench, which means depriving the citizens of their most basic rights that define a free and self-governing people.

The people's voice only matters when it serves and protects the far-Left agenda. When it doesn't the people are well...idiots.