Gingrich urges overriding Supreme Court
By The Associated Press
09/29/06 "AP"
-- -- WASHINGTON -- Supreme Court decisions that are "so
clearly at variance with the national will" should be overridden
by the other branches of government, former House Speaker Newt
Gingrich says.
"What I reject, out of hand, is the idea that by five to four,
judges can rewrite the Constitution, but it takes two-thirds of
the House, two-thirds of the Senate and three-fourths of the
states to equal five judges," Gingrich said during a Georgetown
University Law Center conference on the judiciary.
It takes approval by two-thirds of Congress and three-fourths of
the 50 states to adopt an amendment to the Constitution, the
government's bedrock document.
Gingrich, a Republican who represented a district in Georgia,
noted that overwhelming majorities in Congress had reaffirmed
the Pledge of Allegiance, and most of the public believes in its
right to recite it.
As such, he said, "It would be a violation of the social compact
of this country for the Supreme Court to decide otherwise and
would lead, I hope, the two other branches to correct the
court."
In 2002, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in California
ruled that the pledge was unconstitutional when recited in
public schools because of the reference to God. The Supreme
Court in 2004 reversed that decision on a technicality, but the
case has been revived.
Gingrich said "the other two branches have an absolute
obligation to render independent judgment" in cases that are "at
variance with the national will."
He spoke at Thursday's panel discussion on relations between the
executive, judicial and legislative branches of government.
Former Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota, who
spoke on the same panel, noted the high court's 5-4 decision
settling the contested 2000 presidential election in favor of
Republican George W. Bush.
"What if Al Gore had said I don't agree?" Daschle asked. "In a
sense, what we did was put the court in the position of the
American people. We were giving the court the power to make the
decision for the American people based on their best judgment
and I'm not challenging the judgment. I accept it, too, even
though I disagree."
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