More Evidence of the Need for A 28th Amendment

By Rich Kozlovich 

First off, Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana humiliated a Biden judicial nominee, Charnelle Bjelkengren, by asking her:

“Tell me what Article V of the Constitution does,” Kennedy asked as he began his round of questioning. “Article V is not coming to mind at the moment,” Bjelkengren replied. “How about Article II?” Kennedy asked. Bjelkengren replied that didn’t come to mind for her either.

Okay, let's be clear, the average American might know what Article V is about as it's been in the news a lot over the last ten years, but most probably wouldn't the able to answer the Article II question.  But that's not the job of average Americans, and a condemnation of our education system, but it is part and parcel of America law.  So, let's do a little review.  

How many Articles are there and what do they do?  There are seven.  First off, we need to understand the Constitution was set up to balance the power between the three branches, and the states.  All of which has been destroyed by the 16th and 17th Amendments. 

Article I establishes the Legislative Branch to make laws governing the nation, and more. All money bills must start in the Congress, starting with the House of Representatives, including the borrowing of money, and only Congress can declare wars, all of which has been usurped in one way or the other. 

Article II establishes the Executive branch, with the goal of managing the affairs of the nation and the laws passed by Congress, via agencies of the government.  The President is the nation's chief executive officer.  However, the founders never wanted the Executive to have the power we're seeing today, and would be horrified.   The oath where the President of the United States takes to '"faithfully execute" the responsibilities as President and to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States", has become a joke under Biden, and he's not alone, he's just the worst of the worst. 

Article III establishes the Supreme Court, and is the only Constitutionally mandated court.  All others are creations of Congress and can be dismissed, and many years ago, Congress did such a thing.  The founders, after much debate, made the mistake of giving federal justices lifetime tenure. However, it also gave the Legislature the power to determine the jurisdiction of all federal courts, including the Supreme Court, which, as far as I can tell, they've failed to exercise since the late 19th century, so now the federal judiciary thinks it can not only self-determine where their jurisdiction lies, they outrank the Legislature and the Executive, and can, and do, legislate from the bench. 

Article IV is called the Full Faith and Credit clause in order to shape and form a united nation.  It's become a problem because the nation is no longer a unified nation with unified values and principles, so coupling that with the Commerce Clause of  Article I, has made virtually everything a federal issue, including how much water can be flushed down your toilet. 

Article V describes the legal means of altering the Constitution, including a Convention of States. Now, this has been a very public issue for years, and I'm willing to bet a huge number of people in America know what Article V is all about, even if it takes a bit of memory jabbing.  For a member of the judiciary at any level not to know what Article V is all about is disgraceful testimony to their incompetence, and their unfitness to be a federal jurist, or for that matter, a jurist at any level.

Article VI is about debts, supremacy, oaths, and establishes the Constitution is the supreme law of the land and requires all:

 "Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the Members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States."  

That's also become a joke as there has never been a more anti-American, anti-Constitutional leadership in the existence of this nation, all of whom represent a very real existential threat to this nation.

Article VII – Ratification. This article details all those people who signed the Constitution, representing the original 13 states.

Okay, if asked on the street, would have been able to answer what the first five were, but I would have been stumped by six and seven.  But I'm a bugman, who writes articles, not an attorney, so I know about the first five because I've written about them in one way or the other. But for graduate of university specializing in law to not know all seven of those articles is disgraceful.  Every first year law student should absolutely know the answers Senator Kennedy asked this nominee.  

Below is a speech about the insane picks by the Biden administration for the federal judiciary by Ted Cruz that may be one of the greatest speeches ever made by a member of the Senate. 

 

 

When Senator Kennedy was questioned about this, in what I'm guessing was probably a critical way, he responded:

"Some of these nominees that have been forced in the last two years have no business being anywhere near a federal bench – they don't have any business being anywhere near a park bench."  "I don't ask the nominees, 'Do you support this precedent or you support that precedent?' I asked them to tell me about the law, tell me what the Constitution says, tell me about the relationship between the federal judiciary and our administrative agencies. These are all very basic questions."

His goal has been to ether demonstrate just how incompetent and stupid these nominees are or how qualified.  In almost every case we're finding their intelligence must be seriously called into question, their understanding of the law must be called into question, their integrity must be called into question, and their values have been shown to be absolutely destructive to the nation. Once these nitwits and misfits are appointed, there's not much that can be done about them.....and that needs to change.  

It's time to fix the one really big error made by the Founding Fathers, lifetime tenure of the federal judiciary.  It's time to pass a 28th Amendment creating age and term limits for the federal judiciary, and if possible, all federally elected officials.  If we can't have both, at least get age and term limits for the federal judiciary. 

There are three levels of the federal judiciary- the District level, the Appeals level and the Supreme Court. Each level should have a ten year limit with a review after five years requiring a majority approval by the Senate. At each level each nominee would have to go through the same process, even if nominated to a higher court before they finish their term in a lower court. If their term runs out and they’re not nominated to a higher court they may be nominated at some point in the future. 

No jurist can return to a lower court if their term runs its course at a higher level, and no jurist can ever be appointed to a court if their nomination to any court has ever been rejected by the Senate. No jurist may serve after the age of seventy.  And make 9 Justices a Constitutionally fixed number to avoid the kind of court packing Joe Biden and the Democrats are attempting to do.

Pass this 28th Amendment, repeal the 16th and 17th Amendments, and everything else will fall into place.