Excellent opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal Online by Steven G. Calabresi.

Calabresi begins his article commenting on how the Democrats have been hugely successful blocking President Bush's lower federal court appointments. He explains how with empty seats Bush nominee Peter Keisler has been denied even a committee vote for two years for the DC circuit court of appeals - amazingly the same amount of time since the Democrats took control of Congress. With an Obama win and a super majority, all of Obama's appointments will go unchallenged. This will result in the legal left having a majority on 9 of the nation's 13 circuit court of appeals.

Six of the current nine SCOTUS justices will be 70 years old or older on January 20, 2009.  The next President could very possibly make no less than four appointments to the SCOTUS in his first term. The concern is Obama's extreme left-wing views regarding the roles of judges. He believes that judges ought to decide cases with the empathy they feel for the little guy in a lawsuit. (say what?) With this view, we would see more wins for the plaintiffs, for criminals against the police, citizens against the government, etc. Empathy, not justice should  be the mission of the federal courts, and the redistribution of wealth should be their mantra.

In 2001 Obama lamented that the SCOTUS didn't break free from the "essential constraints that were placed by the Founding Fathers in the constitution". What he means by this is he noted the US Constitution as written is only a guarantee of negative liberties from government, not an entitlement to a right to welfare or economic justice.

Calabrisi raises the question of whether Obama can in good faith take the Presidential Oath to "preserve, protect and defend the Constitution" as he must do if he is to take office. He asks if Obama supports the Constitution as it is written, or does he support amendments to guarantee welfare. Calabrisi asks if Obama's "tax cuts" to millions of non tax paying Americans a foreshadowing of constitional rights to welfare, health care, social security, vacation time, and redistribution of wealth. These are excellent questions for us to ponder before the elections.

Calabrisi forms the picture of Obama tearing the blindfold off the the traditional view of justice as a blindfolded person weighing legal claims fairly, and allowing justice to rule for the party he most empathizes with.

This thought provoking article is summarized with a frighening view of the future of our court systems and constitution under an Obama presidency.  We could very well end up with our Founding Fathers' constitutional vision unrecognizable at the end of an Obama administration. We should think long and hard about our choices next week. Our Constitution as we know it is at stake.

"Nothing less than the very idea of liberty and the rule of law are at stake in this election. We should not let Mr. Obama replace justice with empathy in our nation's courtroooms."

AMERICA FIRST - MCCAIN/PALIN '08