Thomas Jefferson sagely advised that “great innovations should not be forced on a slender majority.”
"Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s 50-to-48 Senate confirmation vote to be a justice on the Supreme Court is the tiniest majority in nearly 140 years since Justice Stanley Matthew’s razor-thin 24-to-23 confirmation in 1881. Thereby hangs a portentous tale of how radicalized and poisonous our politics has become.
"Judge Kavanaugh attracted but one Democratic vote. He lost but one Republican vote. His partisan confirmation was the flip side of the 2010 Affordable Care Act, which passed Congress without a single Republican vote. In both cases, a narrow partisan majority steamrollered the minority on a matter of high controversy.
"In neither case was the letter of the Constitution transgressed. But as Saint Paul sermonized in 2 Corinthians 3:6: “[T]he letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.” Thomas Jefferson sagely advised that “great innovations should not be forced on a slender majority.” His first inaugural address elaborated: “All, too, will bear in mind this sacred principle, that though the will of the majority is in all cases to prevail, that will to be rightful must be reasonable; that the minority possess their equal rights, which equal law must protect, and to violate would be oppression.”
"In other words, if majorities neglect to exercise prudence or restraint, the Constitution will crumble." . . .
Bruce Fein was associate deputy attorney general and general counsel of the Federal Communications Commission under President Reagan and counsel to the Joint Congressional Committee on Covert Arms Sales to Iran. He is a partner in the law firm of Fein & DelValle PLLC.
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