“This amendment is basically a defense of the Constitution.” 

The Family Foundation applauds Senate Committee passage of amendment restricting judicial activism

LEXINGTON, KY - The Family Foundation today applauded the approval today in a State Senate committee of Senate Bill 236, an amendment to the Kentucky Constitution that would prevent activist judges from imposing their liberal political views on Kentuckians and that would force them to adhere to the Constitution.

“This amendment,” said Martin Cothran, senior policy analyst for The Family Foundation of Kentucky, “is basically a defense of the Constitution against activist judges who in recent years have turned our courts into centers for left-wing social activism and playgrounds for political correctness.”

In addition to a general restriction on courts from usurping the powers of popularly elected lawmakers, SB 236 explicitly prohibits courts from striking down Ten Commandments displays, from requiring the legislature to raise taxes, and from issuing specific policy edicts that have traditionally been the province of the people’s elected representatives.  The amendment would also prevent municipalities from unilaterally granting special civil rights entitlements on the basis of “sexual orientation.”

“SB 236 is a sunshine law for left-wing social activist groups like the ACLU,” said Cothran.  “With this amendment, the ACLU will no longer be able to bypass the will of the people and impose their liberal political agenda on the rest of us through state courts.  They will have to conduct their political business like the rest of us have to: by convincing elected legislators of the rightness of their position in the broad light of day.”

“This amendment does not prevent anyone from pushing whatever political agenda they might have.  What it does do is prevent anyone—conservative or liberal—from using the courts for purposes that short circuit the democratic process.”

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Martin Cothran is the senior policy analyst for The Family Foundation, a nonprofit public policy organization that works on behalf of the family and the values that make families strong.