STUMPTALK: No one is above the law

Opinion

January 14, 2013

STUMPTALK: No one is above the law

By Jim Sykes Chronicle contributor The Crossville Chronicle Mon Jan 14, 2013, 12:45 PM CST

CROSSVILLE — Almost everyone understands and believes the truth of the statement “no one is above the law.” Why then do we allow judges, congressmen, the president, bureaucrats and even law enforcement officials to continue to violate the provisions of the Constitution, as they have been doing for more than 100 years?

We are told that opinions rendered by judges, at every level of our judicial system, become “Case Law.” That is totally false! Judges’ opinions are nothing more than their opinions and apply only to the facts and circumstances of the case on which they render their opinion. If you are not “personally” a party to that particular lawsuit, the judge’s opinion has absolutely no application to you.

When we are told that the opinions of the U.S. Supreme Court are applicable to everyone in the United States and become the “supreme law of the land,” we are being mislead and misinformed. Those opinions apply only to the individuals, or other parties, named in the case. It’s true that other courts will probably follow that opinion when other cases with similar, or identical, facts are presented to them using the doctrine of “stare decisis” but until these other cases are presented to other courts and other judges render their opinion, even the opinions of the U.S. Supreme Court are not applicable to any other individual or case.

The simple fact is that only the legislatures have the authority to make laws and even then the law must be presented to and receive a majority of the votes of the members of the legislature and be signed by the president or governor, or otherwise allowed to become enforceable by provisions of the appropriate Constitution. After laws are passed and become law, the people still have the authority to decide if the law is constitutional simply because the people in the United States, and each individual state, created the state governments and the federal government. The people are the “sovereigns” and have ultimate authority and power to determine if each law is authorized and enforceable. If the people determine a law is not authorized, then it becomes null and void and of no effect the same as if it had never been written.

At the current time, we have hundreds of laws and court opinions that violate the provisions of the U. S. Constitution and many that violate the provisions of our state constitution. We must insist that our legislators correct this situation by giving us the ability to prevent the enforcement of unconstitutional laws or court opinions within the borders of Tennessee.

Please demand that your state representative and senator correct this violation of our rights by enacting legislation that will allow the people of Tennessee to prevent the unlawful enforcement of all unconstitutional laws or court opinions within our state border. We must stand up for our natural God given rights and exercise our God given responsibilities if we are to leave our children and grand children the great country that we inherited from our ancestors.

If you have any doubt, see: http://www.apatheticvoter.com/ViolationsConstitution.htm.

• • •

Stumptalk is published weekly in the Crossville Chronicle. The opinions expressed in this column are not necessarily those of the Chronicle publisher, editor or staff. To contact Stumptalk, email coordinator Phil Billington at stumptalk@charter.net.

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