Today Americans go to the polls to vote on a variety of things. Most of the media attention has been focused on the races in Congress, with the Democratic Party apparently poised to take control of the House of Representatives and possibly the Senate. The key word here is "apparently." But one of the foundations of the American form of government is under attack in many states, and most Americans have no idea and probably little understanding of what's at stake. In several states there are ballot
initiatives (follow link for definition) that are aimed at making the judiciary branch far less independent. As the
Washington Post recently noted:
These dangerous "grassroots" (read: carefully and professionally coordinated) measures are boldly and brashly designed to scare judges away from making tough and sometimes unpopular decisions about some of the most controversial issues of our time. They are designed to make the judiciary bend to the will of the masses.
Several
FFA classes, most notably Common Law Legal Systems and U.S. Constitutional Law, consider the importance of an independent judiciary in the common law legal system, especially in the United States where the government is built upon the idea of separation of powers. These voter initiatives are aimed squarely at making judges far less independent, and they could change the way Americans are governed in the future. What could be more important than that?
