Judicial Restraint

The Constitutional Restoration Act has little to do with restoring the Constitution. Rather, it prohibits the federal judiciary from hearing any cases challenging a government agency's or official's "acknowledgment of God as the sovereign source of law, liberty, or government."

While innocous at first face, this is profoundly dangerous legislation for two reasons.

First, it radically redefines the separation of church and state by allowing personal religious statements to enter the public sphere.

Second, it legitimizes legislative cherrypicking of the federal judiciary's authority. Conservatives shrewdly point out slippery slopes in liberal government expansion, but in this case, supposed conservatives are in fact creating a dangerous slippery slope that may reshape the time-tested role of the judiciary.

On judicial restraint, strict restraint is a judicial straightjacket: judicial restraint also means deference to all prior court precedent, even when it is outside the national interest.