Tom,

While I don't expect this latest embarrassment from the 9th Circuit Court to hold up, it illustrates what I believe to be a fundamental flaw in our governmental system; the fact that there is no short term remedy for the problem of judicial activism. Politicians can be voted out based on their performance, but the only way to affect real change among the members of the judicial branch is to achieve overwhelming and unrealistic majorities in the legislature and maintain them for a period of time sufficient enough to appoint better qualified judges as slots open up. The current democratic filibuster circus proves that even a majority can't get much done if the minority wants to be stubborn (or childish) enough. Of course, this "flaw" is what helps to keep the integrity of the judicial branch, as it keeps judges from being tied to a constituency, and it keeps the legislative majority from hijacking the courts, but it would be nice if there were some kind of judicial integrity check. Now that the left is relying more and more on the courts to push their agenda that would never pass muster with the American public, the problem is becoming an epidemic.

I don't claim to have an easy solution here, but I've read The Constitution, and it seems to me that the intentions of our founding fathers are far less nebulous and subject to interpretation as the 9th Circuit court would have us believe. Perhaps there is no solution, other than an increase in judicial integrity, which isn't something you can legislate. Surely, any system of government will fail if there is a sufficient lack of integrity among it's members. The 9th circuit court is doing its best to subvert the very document that they're charged to uphold, and in the process is putting us all in danger. Perhaps if they had lost a family member to terrorism they would be able to step back and see their petty agenda for what it is. I doubt it, though.