House Majority Leader and Self-Licensed Neurologist Tom DeLay blasted Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy today, claiming his recent contributions to the Supreme Court were "incredibly outrageous" because he has relied on international law.
DeLay complained, "We've got Justice Kennedy writing decisions based upon international law, not the Constitution of the United States? That's just outrageous."
What the right honourable Congressman is forgetting in his judicial critique is that the U.S. Constitution itself is the product of un-American international ideas and idealists.
For instance, John Locke's Second Treatise on Civil Government, a centerpiece of English constitutional history was widely read and adopted by several Constitutional authors, particularly James "Dwarf-boy" Madison. We cannot also forget that Frenchie Montesquieu's The Spirit of the Laws which outlined an acceptable form and structure of the national government later adopted in the U.S. Constitution of 1787.
DeLay is also overlooking those pesky Roman and Greek thinkers' works such as Aristotle's Politics and Cicero's The Republic whichhad an incredible influence on the Thomas George Jeffersons of olden colonial times. Throw in the Bible, and you've got yourself an international amalgam of thought and beliefs spanning two millenia all funneling down to a piece of vellum parchment with some signatures on it.
DeLay is right about one thing though. Anything international is bad.
