Today is the 239^th anniversary of our founding. We Americans are going through some of the toughest times we have seen since the Civil War. From recollection of my study of history the Civil War did more to fundamentally change the way the United States conducted business than any other time in our history up until the current administration.

Before the Civil War the world, and more importantly Americans, referred to our country as “The United States are….” This implied, and for the most part was true, that all of the states were independent but united under one Constitution. After the Civil War our country became “The United States is;” bringing about the admission that all of the states were completely united with each other and no longer individual entities.

You may see this as merely an exercise in semantics, but I would disagree. This turning point in our history made it clear to the world that the United States government had, in fact, taken over the authority of the states. The states now had to bow down to the government in Washington DC. Federal law had to be taken into consideration when passing state laws, despite the Tenth Amendment which states:

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

Article VI, clause 2 states:

This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof; and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land, and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby, any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding.

This clause is generally referred to as the “federal preemption” of any state law where there may be a conflict. This preemption became ever-hardening concrete with the conclusion of the Civil War. On the face of it, this does not seem like such a big deal until you look at the laws and, more importantly, the areas of laws that the federal government has taken as their purview especially when viewed in the light of the Tenth Amendment. The federal government has taken as its area such things as gun control, health care, labor practices, education, and many others that had been under the jurisdiction of the states; not because the Constitution said these things were for the states to decide, but rather because these powers were not enumerated to the federal government.

Looking at the new major fundamental change to our way of life and governance we now have a Supreme Court that has now taken on the role of legislature. Instead of going through the legislative process of passing a bill and having it signed into law by the president, the Court has now set the precedence of dictating law.

There has never been a law passed out of Congress that redefines marriage as anybody plus anybody can get married (we won’t go into the polygamy area but that’s next). In fact, there is a law on the books that defines marriage as between one man and one woman. However, five Supremes decided, on their own, what marriage really means.

I have just heard an excerpt from a talk by Dr. Michael Youssef discussing this situation from a Biblical perspective. He made a rather astute observation (actually several, but I will only talk about one). Biblically, Christ told us to “render unto Caesar that which is Caesar’s….” (Mark 12:17) The Romans and their subjects swore allegiance to Caesar because they lived under a dictatorship. We do not live under a dictatorship and therefore we do not pledge allegiance to the president, the Supreme Court, or Congress. We pledge our allegiance to the Constitution and many of us have sworn to uphold and defend this Constitution.

At what point will the citizens of this once-great nation stand up and be counted as defending the Constitution and our way of life? This discussion is not about the actual decision of the five Supremes, but rather that these individuals put themselves above the Constitution. I have read the Constitution many times and do not see any mechanism other than impeachment to remedy the actions of the five Supremes. It is incumbent upon us to hold Congress accountable and bring impeachment proceedings against those Supreme Court justices who put themselves above the Constitution.