by First Liberty Institute • 5 min read
America recently observed Constitution Day. On September 17, our nation celebrated the signing of the most remarkable document in our nation’s history. 236 years later, the Constitution is the world’s longest surviving written charter of government. It remains a guide and protector of our God-given rights and freedoms as Americans, including religious liberty.
While many celebrate this foundational document, we can’t ignore those who want to desecrate and destroy the Constitution. Today, this is perhaps most clear in the radical Supreme Court Coup—the brazen scheme by extremists to take over the Court.
A scan of headlines shows the judiciary is under assault like never before. Not a day goes by without an attempt to smear the reputation of Supreme Court justices. This also includes a concerted effort to push dangerous schemes such as court-packing, codes of “ethics,” judicial term limits or even stripping the Court of its power of judicial review.
What’s the reason behind these attacks?
Writing for National Review, William Duncan of the Sutherland Institute explained that it’s because of a misunderstanding of the Constitution and what it says about the role of the courts:
“Americans are developing a distorted view of the proper role of the U.S. Supreme Court, thanks to an ongoing torrent of criticism from the press, politicians, and activist groups. To protect the constitutional order, it’s time for voters to reacquaint themselves with the true purpose of the nation’s highest court…The justices are meant to apply the law as written by Congress or ratified by the people, not to reflect public opinion, engineer policy outcomes, or carry out the agendas of politicians or activists.”
Attacks on the Supreme Court are only a symptom. The real problem boils down to a thirst for raw power. It’s really about radical groups that dislike how the Constitution operates and the role it set out for the courts. The so-called need to “reform” the Supreme Court is nothing more than an attempt to get around the rules, even if it means destroying one of the institutional pillars that keeps our Republic standing.
For many years, some in politics became accustomed to the Supreme Court rubber-stamping their agenda. If they couldn’t achieve the results they wanted in the legislature, they could turn to the liberal majorities on the Supreme Court to “legislate from the bench.”
But that’s no longer the case. For the first time since the 1930s, the nation’s highest court has a reliable majority of justices who are applying the Constitution consistent with its original, plain meaning. It is correcting decades of bad law and harmful precedent, and returning to a more commonsense and historically faithful interpretation. Bottom line? Our nation is getting back to the Constitution.
As First Liberty legal experts explain, this is really evident in the multiple victories for religious liberty that have taken place at the nation’s highest court in recent years. Because of these wins, Americans have more religious freedom now than they’ve had in 50 years.
That appears to be the reason behind the attempts to “restructure” America’s courts. Some of the nation’s most radical politicians and activist organizations have made clear “everything is on the table” in this scheme. They want to rig the Court by any means necessary—even if it means destroying the Court’s legitimacy and its independence, which have taken centuries to build. They prefer to trash the Supreme Court, if the alternative is for it to remain outside their control.
Two centuries after its ratification, we should be tremendously grateful for the Constitution. As President Calvin Coolidge once said: “To live under the American Constitution is the greatest political privilege that was ever accorded to the human race.” And that means we cannot let our guard down.
If the Constitution and our legal system are going to endure another 200+ years, we need to expose the lies of the Supreme Court Coup. This is the time when we need to spread the truth with our family, friends, neighbors and coworkers. More Americans need to know that court-packing and attacks on the Supreme Court will ultimately destroy our constitutional order.
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