To: The United States House of Representatives and The United States Senate
RESTORE THE RIGHT OF FEDERAL REVIEW
CONGRESS STOLE OUR RIGHTS!!!
Imagine if you will, going about your daily life, be it work, school what have you…and you look for your purse or your wallet and discover that it’s gone…all of a sudden you realize your credit and debit cards, driver’s license and all other forms of precious personal information and things of value that you carry with you…are gone.
That’s the shock I felt when I discovered that the U.S. Congress stole my right to federal review. It wasn’t just my “right” it was the right of every single American citizen in this country.
What is the “right of federal review” you may ask? And that is a fair question because if you didn’t know you had a “right” of federal review, you of course would not have known it had been stolen from you. The “right of federal review” is one of the fundamental rights that the founding fathers insisted on including in the U.S. Constitution for all citizens of this country. The “right of federal review” would only come into play when you, a citizen, encountered an issue with one of the 50 state governmental entities and the outcome was against you and contrary to the protections contained in the U.S. Constitution and the laws formed under the Constitution.
For instance, say you spent several years preparing yourself to go to medical school and after great effort and expense you are admitted to a medical school with AMA certification. You complete the course requirements and go on to your internship. Then it is time for your medical board examination. You prepare diligently, take the examinations and pass. Now comes licensing by a state agency. They deny you a license to practice medicine. Not because you aren’t competent but because they say you have a “character” issue. You appeal the ruling. It comes back against you. Then you discover, that this “character” issue is based on nothing more than conjecture and personal animosity of someone on the board that doesn’t like you or because someone made a political decision that you don’t look like a doctor or your accent is not understandable or there aren’t many of “your kind” in the medical field, or some other crazy notion that they can come up with.
Whatever the reason for the absurd outcome, this type of decision would violate both the Equal Protection and Due Process clauses of 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. So you appeal the adverse decision to the State Supreme Court and to your great dismay, they refuse to hear your case or worse yet, the affirm the decision made by the state officials.
The founding fathers of this nation knew all too well that the varied states were susceptible to tyranny against its own citizens in the same way as illustrated above. Therefore, to make sure that rights protected by the Constitution and laws of the United States were not washed away by state agencies and rubberstamped by judges and justices of the 50 different state courts, the “right of federal review” was included as a fundamental right of each and every citizen. This “right” gave every citizen of this nation, the unfettered “right” to have his or her case reviewed by the U.S. Supreme Court when the highest state court had made a decision that violated the U.S. Constitution or laws created there-under.
That was the fundamental “right” that Congress stole from the American People in June, 1988 and no one ever knew it. Not a word was uttered to let us know that they had “ripped us off” but they did it and every lawyer in America let it pass without a whimper. Every member of Congress that voted for this piece of legislation violated his or her oath of office to uphold, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States. Every newspaper and 24 hour cycle of monotonous news, CNN, FOX, ABC, NBC, CBS, and none of the “talking heads” we see and hear constantly…no one told the American People that a theft of such monumental proportion had taken place.
And how did this “theft” occur you may wonder? Through an innocuous bill entitled “The Supreme Court Case Selection Act of 1988.” I was dumbfounded because Article III, Section II defines the selection of cases for the U.S. Supreme Court. It reads in pertinent part as follows: “The judicial Power shall extend to all Cases in Law and Equity, arising under this Constitution, the Laws of the United States and Treaties made, or which shall be made, under their Authority;-…In all Cases affecting Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, and those in which a State shall be a party, the supreme Court shall have original Jurisdiction….”
Now wait a minute, why would Congress need to pass a law “selecting” Supreme Court cases when the U.S. Constitution has already set forth and established that criteria for them when the Constitution was drafted, debated, ratified and enacted into Law? The reasons offered seem even more unreal. It appears that somebody felt that the U.S. Supreme Court was being “overworked” and that its case load was far too ...
Imagine if you will, going about your daily life, be it work, school what have you…and you look for your purse or your wallet and discover that it’s gone…all of a sudden you realize your credit and debit cards, driver’s license and all other forms of precious personal information and things of value that you carry with you…are gone.
That’s the shock I felt when I discovered that the U.S. Congress stole my right to federal review. It wasn’t just my “right” it was the right of every single American citizen in this country.
What is the “right of federal review” you may ask? And that is a fair question because if you didn’t know you had a “right” of federal review, you of course would not have known it had been stolen from you. The “right of federal review” is one of the fundamental rights that the founding fathers insisted on including in the U.S. Constitution for all citizens of this country. The “right of federal review” would only come into play when you, a citizen, encountered an issue with one of the 50 state governmental entities and the outcome was against you and contrary to the protections contained in the U.S. Constitution and the laws formed under the Constitution.
For instance, say you spent several years preparing yourself to go to medical school and after great effort and expense you are admitted to a medical school with AMA certification. You complete the course requirements and go on to your internship. Then it is time for your medical board examination. You prepare diligently, take the examinations and pass. Now comes licensing by a state agency. They deny you a license to practice medicine. Not because you aren’t competent but because they say you have a “character” issue. You appeal the ruling. It comes back against you. Then you discover, that this “character” issue is based on nothing more than conjecture and personal animosity of someone on the board that doesn’t like you or because someone made a political decision that you don’t look like a doctor or your accent is not understandable or there aren’t many of “your kind” in the medical field, or some other crazy notion that they can come up with.
Whatever the reason for the absurd outcome, this type of decision would violate both the Equal Protection and Due Process clauses of 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. So you appeal the adverse decision to the State Supreme Court and to your great dismay, they refuse to hear your case or worse yet, the affirm the decision made by the state officials.
The founding fathers of this nation knew all too well that the varied states were susceptible to tyranny against its own citizens in the same way as illustrated above. Therefore, to make sure that rights protected by the Constitution and laws of the United States were not washed away by state agencies and rubberstamped by judges and justices of the 50 different state courts, the “right of federal review” was included as a fundamental right of each and every citizen. This “right” gave every citizen of this nation, the unfettered “right” to have his or her case reviewed by the U.S. Supreme Court when the highest state court had made a decision that violated the U.S. Constitution or laws created there-under.
That was the fundamental “right” that Congress stole from the American People in June, 1988 and no one ever knew it. Not a word was uttered to let us know that they had “ripped us off” but they did it and every lawyer in America let it pass without a whimper. Every member of Congress that voted for this piece of legislation violated his or her oath of office to uphold, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States. Every newspaper and 24 hour cycle of monotonous news, CNN, FOX, ABC, NBC, CBS, and none of the “talking heads” we see and hear constantly…no one told the American People that a theft of such monumental proportion had taken place.
And how did this “theft” occur you may wonder? Through an innocuous bill entitled “The Supreme Court Case Selection Act of 1988.” I was dumbfounded because Article III, Section II defines the selection of cases for the U.S. Supreme Court. It reads in pertinent part as follows: “The judicial Power shall extend to all Cases in Law and Equity, arising under this Constitution, the Laws of the United States and Treaties made, or which shall be made, under their Authority;-…In all Cases affecting Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, and those in which a State shall be a party, the supreme Court shall have original Jurisdiction….”
Now wait a minute, why would Congress need to pass a law “selecting” Supreme Court cases when the U.S. Constitution has already set forth and established that criteria for them when the Constitution was drafted, debated, ratified and enacted into Law? The reasons offered seem even more unreal. It appears that somebody felt that the U.S. Supreme Court was being “overworked” and that its case load was far too ...
Why is this important?
This Petition is to restore the right of federal review which Congress stole from the American People by way of the Supreme Court Case Selection Act of 1988.
In this legislation, Congress amended 28 USC 1257(a) and took the "right of appeal" to the U.S. Supreme Court to compel review from the highest decision of a State Court which infringed upon rights, privileges and immunity protected by the Constitution and Laws of the United States.
In this legislation, Congress amended 28 USC 1257(a) and took the "right of appeal" to the U.S. Supreme Court to compel review from the highest decision of a State Court which infringed upon rights, privileges and immunity protected by the Constitution and Laws of the United States.