Nullification: Don't Tell Me About the Law; Tell Me About the Judge

 

STATEMENT TO THE HAMPTON SCHOOL BOARD

(Considering the Warrant Article giving a taxpayer money, an annual stipend, to a local church, the Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal Catholic Church.)

One of the most cynical, and yet truest pieces of advice ever given a President was this: "Do not tell me about the law. Tell me about the judge."

Law, of course is abstract. People are flesh and blood. Unless people follow the law, there is no law.

When I visit New York City, Manhattan, I often cross the street when I see an electric sign in red letters: Don't Walk, but I walk anyway. I can look down the grid in both directions and see no car, and I walk. And I'm often accompanied by a policeman walking next to me, and a dozen citizens, all of us violating a law. We ignore the law, and in doing so we nullify it. In Washington, DC there is a street called "L Street" and after a certain hour you can see women walking along that street wearing nothing but high heels and underwear. They are selling sex: prostitutes. Nobody intervenes in their trade. Another instance of ignoring the law, nullification.

In the case of crossing against the light you'll say: well, there's no moral dimension to that. In the case of prostitution: well, maybe.

The Supreme Law of the Land, which overrules all others, is the Constitution of the United States, and the very first words of the First Amendment say government shall not establish a church or any religion. And what can "establishment" mean? Well, as far as I know, either simply stating a church is the official state church--the Church of England is the state church of England, or Miraculous Medal is the official church of Hampton. That's one way to establish a church or religion. The other is to give money to a church, just as you might establish a college by giving money.

Now, Justice Alito and Justice Thomas have said separation of church and state is unconstitutional--this is not my observation: Justice Sotomayor said this. And so this is an instance of nullification from the Court. Doesn't matter what the law says--the justices say different. Nullification.

Don't tell me about the law; tell me about the judge.

Well, here in Hampton, New Hampshire, we cannot change the Supreme Court of the United States.

But as a member of the Hampton School Board, you can say "No." You can say, "the law matters." It may be abstract, but embodied in the First Amendment is something we care about, something we think is a good thing: separation of church and state.

You can vote, right here in New Hampshire to embrace rather than nullify, you can choose to resist those who nullify, who violate the Constitution, now matter how exalted their rank, you can, as a citizen say: Enough! 

You can say nullification of the law can in some instances be benign, but in other instances it is not benign; it can be a willful act of anarchy, an insurrection against principles we have held dear, and which have served us well over the course of our nation's history, the temporary tenures of Supreme Court justices notwithstanding.

You have, at least, that much power. 

But unless you use it, there is no law and no power available to you.