Elections:
New Jersey's Election: What's at Stake?

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October 2002

By Toni Meyer, Sr. Research Analyst for the NJ Family Policy Council, Parsippany, NJ.

What is at stake in November’s election has been illustrated by the latest NJ Supreme Court ruling, which allowed the Democratic Party to remove Sen. Torricelli’s name from election ballots and replace it with Frank Lautenberg. The ruling swept aside the will of the people, and their duly elected representative, as well as the rule of law. According to state election law, this is not legal unless it is done no later than 48 days before an election, not 36 days, as was the case. Is the rule of law dead in America? How long will judicial powers continue to go unchecked by the American people?

The government process is designed to work as follows: The people elect legislators of their choice, those legislators are supposed to be trustworthy enough to follow existing law and to make new and just laws as needs arise. Then, judges are supposed to uphold the existing laws – not rewrite them through “new interpretation”, or as in the case of NJ’s Supreme Court, ignore them altogether. NJ State Senator Joe Palaia expressed his anger about the court’s decision and said that it “throws a complete black mark” “on why we as legislators even bother making laws” just to see them overturned at the whim of a judge. The judicial branch of government no longer functions in a balanced relationship with the executive and legislative branches as laid out in our Constitution. Instead they are overstepping their Constitutional role and crowning themselves both legislators and chief executive. This is dangerous to every citizen because it means that we will have less and less of a say in our government, as laws made by those we elect get increasingly overturned by unelected judges.

At stake in the next election are two major issues: One is the appointment of more judges, perhaps even to the Supreme Court, and the 50 bills already passed by the House, which are currently being held up in the U.S. Senate. An entire coterie of qualified, ABA endorsed judges nominated by President Bush, have been prevented from taking the federal bench by the Senate judiciary committee. The Democrats in control have used the candidate’s personal conservative attitudes – rather than their track record of upholding current law – to reject these qualified nominees. Why are they doing this? Because they know the power that can be wielded if they only appoint federal judges who will reinterpret law to advance liberal agendas, subverting the will of the people and the legislature.

Secondly, many of the 50 bills being held up by the Democratically controlled Senate have broad support among American citizens. Among the languishing 50, are bills that would permanently repeal the death tax, enhance Social Security benefits for women, mandate a penalty of life in prison for persons convicted twice for federal sex crimes towards children, prevent children from crossing state lines for an abortion to avoid parental notification, institute bipartisan patient protections regarding health care, ban partial birth abortion, permanently repeal the marriage penalty tax, and a homeland security information bill which would allow more information sharing among FBI and CIA agencies so that we can better avert disasters like Sept. 11th.

Presently, your vote can still make a difference. Make sure you cast a vote for a Senate candidate who will uphold your values as well as your economic interests. To begin restoring the rule of law to our state and country, it is also imperative that we only elect those legislators who promise to appoint judges that will strictly interpret the law and Constitution based on the original intent of the lawmakers – not judges who see them as living, breathing documents to be interpreted at their whim. Our Democratic republic is at risk. The choice is yours on November 5th.

 

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