Washington, D.C. - Mr. Speaker, all of us are privileged to serve in the people’s House. As part of that service, we swear an oath to uphold the Constitution of the United States – in effect, to declare ourselves faithful stewards of the principles that form the foundation of American democracy.
The legislation before us today is a direct assault on those principles and a betrayal of the Constitution we have sworn to uphold.
Let’s be clear: This isn’t about gay rights, gay civil unions or gay marriage. No matter what your position on those particular issues, you should be outraged by this legislation. Why? Because this Republican House leadership has apparently decided it no longer has any use for three co-equal branches of government. Not content with control of the White House and the Congress, they now seek to deny citizens the ability to protect their rights through the courts. This legislation slams shut the courthouse door by stripping federal courts of their power to determine whether a law violates our rights under the Constitution. It’s like a team demanding to be its own referee – because it can’t stand the possibility the calls might not always go its way. More than two hundred years of checks and balances? We hardly knew you.
And don’t imagine it stops here. This is an extremely dangerous precedent. Left unchecked, the problem with this kind of abuse of power is it only gets worse. Today, we tell the federal courts they can’t rule on the Defense of Marriage Act. Tomorrow it may be laws Congress passes to end the freedom of religion, freedom of speech, racial equality – or whatever the majority conviction of the moment might be. The basic right of every citizen to his day in court gets progressively sacrificed on the altar of political expedience. The courthouse doors swing shut. And the light of liberty grows dimmer.
Barry Goldwater understood this and warned all of us – including and especially his conservative brethren -- against the temptations of this kind of constitutional mischief when he called court-stripping “a frontal assault on the independence of the Federal courts…[and]…a dangerous blow to the foundations of a free society.”
Mr. Speaker, we would do well to listen to Barry Goldwater today. I ask my colleagues to come to their senses, reflect on their oath of office and stop this assault on our Constitution.