Legalizing abortion, outlawing school prayer, and taking the Ten Commandments out of our courthouses and school houses. What’s the common link? They, along with many other measures, were never put through Congress for a vote. Instead they were enacted through the judicial activism that has begun to permeate our court system.

As part of a longer series on the dissolving morals and principles within America, this week’s discussion will focus on what Patrick Smith in his book Are We Losing America? The Erosion of Our Freedom and How It Can Be Stopped calls “the oligarchy of the judiciary,” rule by a few elite—in this case, rule by a few elite black-robed lawyers.

When the founders were designing the institutions that would later make up our government, they were particularly fearful of a powerful judiciary. For that reason the judiciary was made much weaker than the other branches of government. The power the founders did give to the courts was to interpret the law when cases came before them where there was dispute within the law.

Early Americans also understood the important role the courts should have of declaring laws unconstitutional. In no way were the courts designed to “legislate” or bend the Constitution to the values of the present day. The founders wanted those powers to rest with the people’s representatives. Instead, the idea was that the judiciary would act as a check in keeping the legislature’s actions within the confines of the highly vetted constitution.

The founders also designed the judicial branch of government to still be beholden to the people. In many states, judges were and still are elected to a term. In Wisconsin, judges are elected—from municipal judges through our state supreme court justices. At the federal level, judges and justices are appointed for life by the President and approved by the Senate, but the people still have a voice through Congress, which holds the power to impeach judges not maintaining good behavior.

Smith demonstrates in his book that what the founders meant by good behavior was not simply abstaining from criminal behavior, but that good behavior was also abstaining from political offenses as well. He points to the 1833 US Supreme Court Justice Joseph Story who said that impeachable political offenses included “personal misconduct, or gross neglect, or usurpation, or habitual disregard of the public interests.”

Today, however, the judiciary has many judges who believe that the Constitution is a so-called living, breathing, moveable document to be taken out of its context and original intent. Congress has all but forfeited its duty to keep the judiciary in check, and now the prediction of Thomas Jefferson has been fulfilled, the judiciary has become an American oligarchy.

When Congress believes that only criminal behavior should end the career of a judge, and when few Congressmen are pressured to bring about impeachment, and fear it for political reasons, there is no longer a check upon the courts.

This issue is not just limited to the federal government; Wisconsin has one of the most activist judicial systems in the union. In 2006, the Wisconsin Supreme Court’s decision in Dairyland Greyhound Park v. Doyle weakened the power of the 1993 Wisconsin Constitutional Amendment concerning restrictions on gaming within our state. The people soundly passed this amendment. But the majority of the state supreme court believed, 13 years later, that it was just fine for them to refine that majority-vote decision and overrule it, essentially ignoring the will of the people.

This is just one example of many within this state where the court based its actions on an agenda rather than the law. The benefit that Wisconsin has compared to the federal judiciary is that beyond being subject to the possibility of impeachment, our judges are subject to the electorate.

If we are to rein in these activist judges, we need to not only be electing public officials dedicated to upholding the original intent of the Constitution and laws, but also pressuring our elected officials to hold judges accountable. Legalized abortion and infringement upon our religious freedoms are only the beginning if we fail to end the judicial oligarchy that has sprung up in this country.

For Wisconsin Family Council, this is Julaine Appling reminding you the Prophet Hosea said, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.”