Apparently Newt Gingrich doesn’t believe in our system of checks and balances.
Continuing his crusade against the courts, Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich railed against judges “imposing secularism” on the country on this morning’s Face The Nation. Arguing that “activist judges” who make disagreeable decisions should be held accountable before Congress, he told Bob Schieffer that he would send a U.S. Marshal or Capitol Police officer to arrest judges if that’s what it took to reign them in, and then encourage impeachment:
SCHIEFFER: One of the things you say is that if you don’t like what a court has done, that Congress should subpoena the judge and bring him before Congress and hold a Congressional hearing… how would you enforce that? Would you send the Capitol Police down to arrest him?
GINGRICH: Sure. If you had to. Or you’d instruct the Justice Department to send a U.S. Marshal.
So would a judge who overturned Roe v Wade be considered an activist judge? What about a majority of the Supreme Court if they overturned Brown v Board of Education? Newt’s proposal sounds a lot like what the former President of Pakistan would do when he disagreed with judicial rulings. And remember, he took power in a military coup.
If you’re not scared of a Gingrich presidency, you should be.