MORNING GLORY: Celebrate the Supreme Court, our Constitution and America at 250
The Supreme Court ended its 2025-2027 term Tuesday and many of its members will soon leave the Beltway for the summer. There are courses to teach, lectures to give and seminars to lead — and perhaps a book to work on as they enjoy their annual break. The justices long ago adjusted their rhythms to the facts of the District of Columbia’s summer, but this year, they, like many other Americans will also be celebrating our nation’s 250th birthday.
Robes, gavels and the necessary secrecy aside, the Court is a very human institution peopled by Americans of exceptional accomplishment and dedication. Even when followers of the Court are disappointed or even outraged by this or that decision, the Court continues to outpace the other branches of government when it comes for respect for the institution and its long and steady support for the Constitution.
On three occasions, the Court has left terrible stains on American history. The "anti-cannon" trio of terrible decisions — Dred Scott, Plessy v Ferguson and Korematsu v. United States — have all been reversed, with members of the Court repeatedly expressing shame for their predecessors that penned or signed on to those decisions.
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Many people quarrel with this or that decision every time one is issued. Of the seven most controversial decisions rolling out from One First Street, NE at this term’s end — decisions dealing with status of appointees atop federal administrative agencies, the tenure of governors of the Federal Reserve, "Temporary Protected Status" of immigrants inside the country and the availability of asylum to immigrants outside of it but at the border, the First Amendment and spending by political parties, state laws prohibiting biological boys participating in girls’ sports and birthright citizenship — very few approved of the majority in all seven cases. (I did, but that’s the scorecard of an outlier in the lists of punditry, the result of having taught Constitutional Law for 30 years to law students at the Fowler School of Law at Chapman University. My perspective is that of an institutionalist who prizes text, history and tradition as well as the much overlooked virtue of common sense.)
The passionate folks who are activists on one or two issues — gun rights, abortion access, religious liberty, who is "an American" are at least entitled to stay in the country — are often the most vocal in the aftermath of a decision they don’t like. The results are occasional days of rage on X, periods of anger which too shall pass. What ought to remain as we approach our 250th birthday is an appreciation for the institution that is the embodiment of our commitment to the rule of law.
The Declaration of Independence is, as President-elect Abraham Lincoln put it long ago (borrowing from the Book of Proverbs in the Bible) the "apple or gold" at the heart of our country’s being. Lincoln added —continuing to borrow from Proverbs — that the Constitution was the "frame of silver" protecting the Declaration’s promises of freedom and equality before the law.
Every decision the Court renders ought to be issued to advance the polishing and strengthening of that frame. Certainly the majorities in every case of constitutional significance (as opposed to, say, interpretations of bankruptcy statutes) quest to "get it right." Dissenters are often very explicit in their arguments about every decision. But whether writing for a majority or dissenting from one, the justices all reduce their arguments to writing and let the public judge the results.
It is far from an easy job and particular cases like that of President Trump’s executive order on "birthright citizenship" produce avalanches of words and, in that case, six different opinions explaining the various justices’ views. It’s a lot for a layman to take in. So they don’t. Many take their cues from social media. Rarely, if ever, can even the longest series of posts explain even one serious opinion.
Step back from any particular decision and the online reactions to it, however, and every citizen should take deep pride and satisfaction in the structure of our government and the requirement that even its highest court —and the final word on how it operates is obliged to explain itself to the people over whom it exercises such immense control. (Those "final words" can sometimes be reversed or modified but even the quickest return trip to the Court for a precedent takes many years and that’s if a turn in the settled law is moving exceedingly fast.)
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"We the people" are owed answers and "in the course of human events" we get them — whether or not any particular decision generates applause or boos from the 330 million Americans they bind.
What a glorious thing, this "rule of law" which we too often take for granted because it has almost always been there in our lifetimes. Only rarely in the 53 years since Roe v. Wade (overturning all state laws on abortion) and the 48 years since University of California v. Bakke (upholding the use of race to award benefits or inflict penalties) has the Court been so tragically wrong as to set back dramatically the march of ordered liberty based on equality before the law in our carefully constructed system of checks and balances and federalism which are designed to preserve, first and foremost, individual liberty. The Supreme Court is not perfect, of course, but it gets most things right and it carefully and surely corrects its errors over time.
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Tempers are blazing right now over this decision or that, depending on the deeply held beliefs of partisans from left or right.
The Supreme Court remains, however, despite its annual roller-coaster of controversy, the glory of our American system. The Court embodies the rule, not of kings or despots or even this Congress or that President, but of our laws — collectively argued about until adopted — and our Constitution, which is intentionally difficult to amend but capable of dealing with brand new technologies and unforeseen scientific advances.
We are uniquely blessed of all the people in recorded human history to have such an institution so empowered and so populated with decent, hard-working people of good faith and a patient, enduring commitment to offer their best assessments of what "the law" requires.
Toast the Declaration on Saturday of course, but add another for "this honorable Court" which labors in every case and controversy that comes before it to protect that "apple of gold" and that "frame of silver."
Hugh Hewitt is a Fox News contributor and host of "The Hugh Hewitt Show" heard weekday afternoons from 3 PM to 6 PM ET on the Salem Radio Network, and simulcast on Salem News Channel. Hugh drives Americans home on the East Coast and to lunch on the West Coast on over 400 affiliates nationwide, and on all the streaming platforms where SNC can be seen. He is a frequent guest on the Fox News Channel’s news roundtable, hosted by Bret Baier weekdays at 6pm ET. A son of Ohio and a graduate of Harvard College and the University of Michigan Law School, Hewitt has been a Professor of Law at Chapman University’s Fowler School of Law since 1996 where he teaches Constitutional Law. Hewitt launched his eponymous radio show from Los Angeles in 1990. Hewitt has frequently appeared on every major national news television network, hosted television shows for PBS and MSNBC, written for every major American paper, has authored a dozen books and moderated a score of Republican candidate debates, most recently the November 2023 Republican presidential debate in Miami and four Republican presidential debates in the 2015-16 cycle. Hewitt focuses his radio show and his column on the Constitution, national security, American politics and the Cleveland Browns and Guardians. Hewitt has interviewed tens of thousands of guests from Democrats Hillary Clinton and John Kerry to Republican Presidents George W. Bush and Donald Trump over his 40 years in broadcasting. This column previews the lead story that will drive his radio/ TV show today.