… does the pope have? This question is sometimes attributed to Napoleon Bonaparte, way back in 1810 or so. Stalin (yes, THAT Uncle Joe) cribbed it in 1945, asking “how many divisions does the Pope of Rome have?”
Whether it is battalions or divisions, our question today is “how many battalions does the Supreme Court have?”
With all the various seemingly anti-establishment decisions handed down the past couple of weeks, it is essential that we need to understand that when it comes to government – federal, state, tribal, or local – compliance with the SCOTUS’ decisions is virtually voluntary. IF, indeed, governments and people comply.
Yep, there is a US Marshal’s Service, with 94 US Marshals in the 94 federal judicial districts, with less than 5,500 people total and a budget of about 1.5 billion bucks. Although they do end up arresting a lot of nasty (and not so nasty) people on various things, most of their action is actually protecting about 40,000 various officials from threats. They boast of “enforcing court orders” but that seems a bit limited. Protecting witnesses, delivering paperwork and prisoners. Busting people for contempt of court. Oh, and stealing things: asset forfeiture. A very brave and honorable profession, eh?
But no attack aircraft. No armored vehicles (except maybe prisoner transport buses?). No combat troops.
So if a State or a county or city or tribe decide to ignore a court decision – a court order – the Supremes apparently can do little but issue a citation for contempt of court. And if the cited person refuses? Well, apparently no SWAT team or much else.
So how does the vaunted US Court System enforce its decisions? Well…
Apparently through “moral suasion” it seems. Or to put it another way, by tradition of bowing the knee, intimidation, winning “public opinion” (which means the mainstream media and now social media and loud populist politicians and activists), and – more court actions until finally someone with guns (local cops, maybe, or the FBI/DEA/armed USFS and IRS agents?) goes to arrest someone. Oh, and of course, steal anything they can by asset forfeiture and/or tax liens. But only IF the “political will” is there. Otherwise, the scofflaws (or the powers-that-be that don’t agree with the decision) go ahead and do whatever they want to.
What a kind, gentle, efficient, compassionate and above all MORAL way of handling matters.
Which is apparently exactly where things are going down with three of the recent decisions:
- The EPA loss of power
- NY edicts for prohibiting concealed-carry knocked down
- Overturning Roe v. Wade
David Horowitz, in his own commentary, concentrated on the gun decision. Not only have a number of States proclaimed intent to “protect” their citizens by ignoring the Nazgul (Maryland, Mass, Delaware, among others), some have brazenly defied the Nazgul by quickly moving to implement MORE unconstitutional, immoral, and insane anti-gun, anti-liberty, anti-self-defense laws and regulations: New York, California, even Colorado (not mentioned by Horowitz).
Why? Because they can get away with it. Just as they dragged their feet for years after the Heller decision. And unlike all the various pork-laden laws of Congress, they don’t even have purse-strings as an “enforcement” measure. And because the feet-draggers can pretend that a plurality of “the people” can agree or at least won’t fight back.
Horowitz does directly compare the past law-making by the Nazgul regarding so-called “same-sex” marriage (the Obergefell decision) overturning millennia of human understanding and centuries of law, with the Dobbs case. “Same-sex” marriage was rammed down the throats of States and local government within days if not hours: no time to revise laws, go to court to resolve related issues, etc. Just as with the Heller decision but unlike Obergefell, the Dobbs decision has already spawned dozens of court cases, massive demands and outrageous claims, and more. In many, it is federal judges who are clearly resisting their own supposed hierarchy.
In the same way, the SCOTUS ruling that EPA does NOT have authority to implement some of the current regime’s key mandates to “fight global warming is being resisted. Not just by States, who have the legal and constitutional right and power to do that – but by the EPA and other government agencies. Including (as with abortion and gun control) the White House itself.
And who has the battalions? Is it the State of South Dakota or a potentially-federalized National Guard together with the USAF, to open illegal abortion clinics on Camp Rapid, Joe Foss Air National Guard Base, and Ellsworth AFB? And possibly even such clinics at VA medical centers in Fort Meade and Sioux Falls, and Indian Health Service facilities on Pine Ridge, the Rosebud, Cheyenne River, Sisseton-Wahpeton and Flandreau? The former (and future?) Republic of Texas or an entire Armored Corps at Fort Hood (no doubt to soon be renamed Fort Wilson or some such?).
Please understand, we here at TPOL are NOT advocating for the Supreme Court or the Marshal’s Service to be given commands of troops armed and ready to go out and enforce court decisions through aggression and violence. We are simply pointing out that the system we are saddled with is one which strongly favors TAKING LIBERTIES AWAY. Not seeking to defend them (whatever the recruiting ads say) and not allowing for enforcement of the Bill of Rights.
The Price of Liberty 
The United States, like all nations, continues to prove the old adage that all governments only exist so far as the are allowed to continue at the will of the governed. If the people of say, China, with over a billion people, were to rise up, in unison, or in Afghanistan, who are cowering under Taliban rule, were to just say no, and fight back together and to go back to the political age of 1960-1962, or so, there is no doubt that they could win. Would there be a huge loss of life, and much suffering, even wholesale slaughter? More than likely, but nothing compared to the purges done by Chairman Mao, or the oppression of the peaceful, quasi-religious Taliban, who continue to abuse women, GLBT people, Christians, etc., all under the banner of their God.
We need only look so far as our own country to find the exact same problems, and the Democrats are not the only party guilty of doing it. As likely anyone reading this knows, the more laws that the government makes, at any level from federal to state to local, the less freedom citizens tend to have, no matter the intent. That is because it makes no difference how the laws are written, it is a simple thing to twist them in order to make them used to take freedom away from a free people, all in the name of safety.
A case in point is the so called “Patriot Act”. First enacted in the follow up of 9/11, it was purportedly to make it easier for the federal government to both communicate between different agencies and also to observe and record communications coming from possible foreign terrorist actors, to people in the United States, in order to keep from having another incident such as the however convenient WTC attack. I don’t want to go into the conspiracy theories of the 9/11 attacks, or how I personally don’t believe they were real, since I am a minority, and don’t want to be labeled a nut, by those who love labels. So let’s just say for the sake of argument that the attacks were what the government says they were.
When the “Patriot Act” expired, it was not only reapproved, but it was done so, with even more unconstitutional provisions, including at the least, anti 4th amendment issues. And while there were a couple of people complaining, it passed overwhelmingly. The passing was mostly notable for how former president George W. Bush signed it. This was the time that a president included a signing statement, I think for the first time. In it, he said basically, I am signing it, but if I don’t like the limits that some of the changes have placed on the “Patriot Act” from the first version, then we won’t follow them. I really don’t know why he felt the need to say that, since they never felt the need to say that with the first version, but went as far as they wanted to with that version.
On a sort of unrelated note, but still in the same vein, I listen to the podcast of Michael Bane most every week. He usually speaks on guns, plus the events of the week. http://www.michaelbane.tv This week, one of the things that he said was that we are now in a cold civil war. That term has stuck with me, and now as I continue to consider, I have to agree with it as being the best description of just where we stand, with the antifreedom government/leftists of America.
He spoke of the shooting in Highland Park, and how, in the distant past, we all could go to events like that without a care in the world. But that he cannot even remember the last time he went to a food court in a mall. Not even the last time he was at a mall. Because of the large gathering spot of people. And the fact that it is a funnel for people, and where shooters are more likely to attack. So his point was that in order to protect yourselves and your family, you just have to change how you live, even though it is not fair. You can’t take your kids to the parade, put them on your shoulders, and stand there, oblivious to the danger, with thousands of others. It just made sense, at least to me. My wife and I used to take our young kids to parades in our small city, almost the same size as Highland Park, the only difference being that our city is much more diverse, while Highland Park is largely white, higher income, etc.
While sad that we have devolved to this, I think that it is almost predictable, given the way that we have allowed the hired help in government to continue to grow ever more powerful, unchecked, while we hold out our hands, willing to take evermore money from other citizens pockets, asking for more. Just like when we file our taxes and then look for every deduction, in order to get every dollar of ours back. How about they let us keep our money all year, and then just have us send in a check at the end of the year? When people did that just once, I predict a mass uprising, as they see just how much the government is actually taking, instead of some of them getting back up to 10,000$, and thinking that the government is a sugar daddy, while merely getting back the money that they loaned to the fed, tax free.
Yes, people are that stupid. And I am afraid that there is no cure.
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Thank you for the lengthy comments. I ask, and hope, that other readers will chime in as well.
Several thoughts come to mind going through your thoughts.
First, Michael Bane has some excellent materials on his site – thank you for suggesting him. I know his “cold civil war” idea makes sense, and it is warming up.
Second, a key point of survival today is one of the points he is fond of making (as was Mama Liberty in her training, and our company in our training): Situational awareness. We should have NEVER gone to ANY sort of event or gathering without considering all possible situations: even to our local grocery store or supermarket. BUT we also must keep an important fact in mind: every American city and town is different and presents a different situation: therefore a different type of preparation and challenge for planning and surviving. Based on the information that has come out about Highland Park since the Fourth, it is clear in hindsight that it was well up the ladder of threat level.
How someone needs to prepare and be able to respond in Gettysburg, PA, is much different than Gettysburg, SD. But there may be more similarity in threat levels in Highlands Ranch (a suburb of Denver) and Highland Park, IL – especially in the last few years. Once you could assume that the exburbs even of large urban complexes like Imperial Chicago or the Dalworthington Complex in Texas or even Metro Denver would be different than the older suburbs and the inner city. No longer.
But the big lesson Michael and you are bringing us is “DO NOT COUNT ON GOVERNMENT TO BE ANYTHING BUT A COLLECTION OF ENEMIES.”
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The most important things that Michael Bane has done, and continues to do, is collaboration with people who have the experience in defense, and how to avoid danger in situations like riots, strong arm attacks, car jackings, etc. I think that he might be working on bringing it back again.
One thing that sometimes gets me feeling both sad and angry, is that while I have sort of expected the country to get to this point of a loss of freedom and privacy, I really did not think that it would happen to this extent and this soon. We have all likely known about Claire Wolfe, and her work concerning monkey wrenching, not shooting the bastards, etc.
While I believe in working within the system when possible, I no longer have any real faith that “the system” is workable. The last election showed that neither side is trustworthy. Of course, we knew that, but it is not apparent that they don’t even feel the need to hide. God help us all.
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