Thursday, August 18, 2005

"Men in Black"

Men in Black: How the Supreme Court is Destroying America by Mark Levin was the book under discussion earlier this week in the latest of the Vital Signs Minstries ongoing “Book It!” series. Quint Coppi, Matt Troutman, and the Hartfords got together to share favorite passages, ideas and action steps regarding what was clearly one of the most compelling reads of the year.

Levin has done a masterful job with Men in Black. Part judicial philosophy, part cultural commentary, and a (big) part accurate but largely unknown history, Levin didn’t need to attack the modern Supreme Court; he merely used its history and the actual remarks of the Justices to expose it. The nefarious manipulations, the outrageous egoism, the deliberate move away from the balance of powers towards judicial tyranny – Levin gives plenty of examples of how the Court members have moved far away from the Constitution in order to force their personal ideologies upon the American people.

An obvious example of Levin’s scrutiny is the Roe v Wade case. But that’s only one of thirteen chapters in the book. No, Levin takes a wide ranging journey, and in so doing, he takes his readers back to the “Counter Revolution of 1803” (Marbury v Madison), the extra-constitutional preferences of modern justices, the sodomy and same-sex marriage issues, affirmative action, immigration and citizenship cases, Al Qaeda, FDR’s Court packing scheme, McCain-Feingold, the 2000 election and much more.

I used Men in Black quite a bit in my presentation two weeks ago called “Diana Ross and ‘The Supremes’: The Prerogatives of Royalty” and I gave my heartiest recommendations to the book that night. It was good to see that last Monday, my wife and good friends were anxious to do the same. So make that four “thumbs up” for Mark Levin's Men in Black.