Give Him 15 is joining a 40-day national call to prayer before the 2018 Midterm Elections. Here is today’s Focus:
Day 17 – Filling Empty Judicial Seats
“Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness… Woe unto them that decree unrighteous decrees… that write grievousness which they have prescribed…” (Isaiah 5:20; 10:1; KJV)
Founding Father Alexander Hamilton wrote in the Federalist Papers, #78:
Whoever attentively considers the different departments of power must perceive, that, in a government in which they are separated from each other, the judiciary, from the nature of its functions, will always be the least dangerous to the political rights of the Constitution; because it will be least in a capacity to annoy or injure them…the general liberty of the people can never be endangered from that quarter; I mean so long as the judiciary remains truly distinct from both the legislature and the Executive.
However, instead of exercising judicial restraint, over the past 60 years the U.S. Supreme Court has become a super-legislature and an oligarchical dictator that has departed from the Constitution, the Declaration, Natural and Revealed law, in addition to losing any sense of obligation to the standards or authority of the Supreme Judge of the Universe.
It has declared the murder of the unborn a woman’s right, contrary to the Constitution. It has redefined marriage, with utter disregard for morals, religion, history, or the laws of God and man. It usurped the citizens of 31 states by overturning their laws and carefully amended Constitutions intended to protect Marriage. Long ago, it drove the Bible, prayer, the Ten Commandments, and religious free speech out of our public schools.
And yet, our elites wonder why our educational ranking among the nations has plummeted and our classrooms have become uncontrollable. Indeed, it has done precisely what Isaiah warned would bring woes to any people. Moreover, our federal and state court systems have fed one another in this ever-expanding lack of restraint.
The federal courts are the pool from which most SCOTUS Justices are chosen. God-fearing originalist judges will work to restrain the courts, not to further expand their activist bent and power. Only 51 Senate votes are needed to confirm them. President Trump could shape the courts for generations with good judges who will serve for life. The courts face cases pertaining to abortion, conscience rights, religious liberty, gun control, sexual rights, the environment, and property rights, all in a divided nation with multiple groups seeking to control our laws and culture with philosophies antithetical to the Constitution and a Biblical worldview. Who is fit for this? Only originalist Judges with the wisdom greater than Solomon (see Mt 12:42).
John Jay, the first Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, wrote in 1816, “Providence has given to our people the choice of their rulers, and it is the duty, as well as the privilege and interest, of our Christian nation to select and prefer Christians for their rulers” (see The Life of John Jay).
Points for Prayer:
May we pray as exhorted by John Jay, the nation’s First Chief Justice!
- Pray that God will help President Trump and his advisors choose the very best of the best: truly God-fearing conservative, originalist justices and judges to populate the Supreme Court and all of our federal courts.
- May God’s people continue to aggressively pray to support the President, now under vicious attack from many quarters – his person, his family, his work and decision-making. May he grow in wisdom and in relationship with the Lord. May he and his cabinet have great success and win the hearts of a hostile bureaucracy and many Americans who did not vote for him. May he be given health, longevity in life and in office, and may he leave the legacy of a judiciary revived and restored by the Founders’ blueprint.
By Pierre Bynum
Family Research Council
See FRC’s Issue Analysis: “Filling Justice Scalia’s Seat and Beyond.”