Notes to Consider… Current Events: State (Putting the Judicial Branch in its Place)

Early in my classroom teaching days, my sainted mother purchased for me a large tapestry of the original US Constitution. It hung from the back of my classroom wall and from time to time, I would have students turn in their seats to look at the document. “What do you notice about each of the first three articles?” I would ask students. Invariably, one would make the observation: “Article Three sure is short.” In the investigative world, that's referred to as a “clue.”

I am strongly of the opinion that the Founding Fathers had a hierarchy for our three branches of government; not the “co-equal” scheme most Americans believe is defined in the document itself (right up there with the US Supreme Court’s mythically exclusive power of “Judicial Review.”) Was it a coincidence Article I was so lengthy? Article II half the length of I, and Article III only half again? I think not.

This past state legislative session, the Kentucky House of Representatives impeached Fayette County Circuit Judge Julie Goodman. For what reason did the House impeach the judge? For whatever reason they so chose, as the US and Kentucky Constitutions grant to the legislature the power to impeach for infractions as minor as “misdemeanors.”

How did the Kentucky State Supreme Court react? Like a petulant child, attempting to invent the authority to halt legislative impeachment proceedings, and with one justice going so far as to threaten lawyer legislators with disbarment.

In the end though, the Kentucky Senate refused to try and remove the rogue judge; a terrible abdication of responsibility, as was the even more egregious failure to impeach and remove Andy Beshear for his Official Misconduct and Deprivation of Rights Under Color of Law in 2020 when he sent KSP troopers (themselves obviously ignorant of their constitutional oaths) to harass Easter Morning parishioners.

The Founders clearly gave to the legislative branch the most power in our republican system. What they cannot grant beyond the tomb is backbone.

Next Week: Local

Shane Morris is a retired soldier and teacher. Contact at sigm11@yahoo.com (Subject: NtC)