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2005 Ron Paul Chapter 41
Not linked on Ron Paul’s Congressional website.
Congressional Record [.PDF]
The American Justice For American Citizens Act
14 April 2005
HON. RON PAUL
OF TEXAS
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
Thursday, April 14, 2005
2005 Ron Paul 41:1
Mr. PAUL. Mr. Speaker, I rise to introduce the American Justice for American Citizens
Act, which exercises Congress’s Constitutional
authority to regulate the federal judiciary to ensure
that federal judges base their decisions
solely on American Constitutional, statutory,
and traditional common law. Federal judges
increasing practice of “transjudicialism” makes
this act necessary. Transjudicialism is a new
legal theory that encourages judges to disregard
American law, including the United
States Constitution, and base their decisions
on foreign law. For example, Supreme Court
justices have used international law to justify
upholding race-based college admissions,
overturning all state sodomy laws, and, most
recently, to usurp state authority to decide the
age at which criminals becomes subject to the
death penalty.
2005 Ron Paul 41:2
In an October 28, 2003 speech before the Southern Center for International Studies in
Atlanta, Georgia, Justice O’Connor stated:
“[i]n ruling that consensual homosexual activity
in one’s home is constitutionally protected,
the Supreme Court relied in part on a series
of decisions from the European Court of
Human Rights. I suspect that with time, we will
rely increasingly on international and foreign
law in resolving what now appear to be domestic
issues, as we both appreciate more
fully the ways in which domestic issues have
an international dimension, and recognize the
rich resources available to us in the decisions
of foreign courts.”
2005 Ron Paul 41:3
This statement should send chills down the back of every supporter of Constitutional government.
After all, the legal systems of many
of the foreign countries that provide Justice
O’Connor with “rich resources” for her decisions
do not respect the same concepts of
due process, federalism, and even the presumption
of innocence that are fundamental to
the American legal system. Thus, harmonizing
American law with foreign law could undermine
individual rights and limited, decentralized
government.
2005 Ron Paul 41:4
There has also been speculation that transjudicialism could be used to conform
American law to treaties, such as the U.N.
Convention on the Rights of the Child, that the
Senate has not ratified. Mr. Speaker, some of
these treaties have not been ratified because
of concerns regarding their effects on traditional
American legal, political, and social institutions.
Judges should not be allowed to implement
what could be major changes in
American society, short-circuit the democratic
process, and usurp the Constitutional role of
the Senate to approve treaties, by using
unratifed treaties as the bases of their decisions.
2005 Ron Paul 41:5
All federal judges, including Supreme Court justices, take an oath to obey and uphold the
Constitution. The Constitution was ordained
and ratified by the people of the United States
to provide a charter of governance in accord
with fixed and enduring principles, not to empower
federal judges to impose the
transnational legal elites’ latest theories on the
American people.
2005 Ron Paul 41:6
Mr. Speaker, the drafters of the Constitution gave Congress the power to regulate the jurisdiction
of federal courts precisely so we could
intervene when the federal judiciary betrays its
responsibility to uphold the Constitution and
American law. Congress has a duty to use this
power to ensure that judges base their decisions
solely on American law.
2005 Ron Paul 41:7
Therefore, Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to do their Constitutional duty to ensure
that American citizens have American
justice by cosponsoring the American Justice
for American Citizens Act.
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