Fair and Balanced Courts

            The topic of discussion for this Constitution Monday concerns the court system of the United States. When the Founders of the nation organized the government, they structured it with three branches – executive, legislative, and judicial. The three branches were meant to be independent in order to “check” each other. The executive and legislative were political in nature, but the judicial was supposed to remain neutral in order to judge fairly by the law. This is no longer the case.

            President Donald Trump signed several executive orders to limit the numbers of refugees entering the nation and deny funding to cities that refuse to obey federal immigration laws. The executive orders were ruled unconstitutional by left-leaning judges. The San Francisco-based 9^th Circuit Court of Appeals is well-known for its liberal decisions, and it struck the first blow to President Trump’s attempts to protect Americans. The 4^th Circuit Court of Appeals also leans left. Both courts heard arguments about Trump’s orders.

            How did we end up with so many courts with liberal judges? According to an article posted by Josh Siegel, many of the judges were appointed during the Obama administration. “Today, nine of the 13 circuit courts have a majority of justices appointed by a Democrat, compared to only one when Obama took office.”

            Siegel’s article deals mostly with the changes to the 4^th Circuit Court, but his chart shows that most of the courts have turned liberal under the Obama administration. The makeup of the courts clearly shows the importance of elections. President Trump was successful in appointment a strict constitutionalist to the Supreme Court, but he has much work to do with the circuit courts in order to make them fair and balanced once again.