[J.P.’s Moment of Common Sense on Broad View, KRNG 101.3 FM Reno. Listen live Saturdays at 11:00 AM Pacific Time.]

Who is the most powerful man in the world?  In the 1995 movie The American President, Michael Douglas playing the title role tells Annette Bening, right before they have sex for the first time, “Hey, you know that stuff about being the most powerful man in the world is a ‘political distinction,’ right?”

In other words, “Don’t expect Superman in the bedroom.  I’m just a guy.”

Since World War II it’s been commonplace to label the President of the United States the most powerful man in the world but this week’s mishmash of contradictory split-decisions from the Supreme Court makes a good case for another man holding the title.  That man is Anthony Kennedy.

The odd thing is, for a man so powerful Kennedy is not especially good at what he does.  He won’t go down in history as one of the great Supreme Court justices.  He’s mediocre at best.  What makes him so powerful is the extreme dysfunction of the American judicial system which, for decades, has been greedily accumulating more and more authority while at the same time becoming more and more politically partisan, resulting in the current bizarre makeup of the Supreme Court itself which has four liberal justices routinely ignoring everything except what they want politically.

Those four judges are Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer, appointed by Bill Clinton, plus Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan, appointed by Barack Obama.  They form a solid voting bloc which everybody knows ahead of time—before a given case even reaches the Supreme Court—will vote for whatever the Democrat Party wants politically.  Obamacare?  You bet!  Voting Rights Act to make sure Republicans can’t stop election fraud?  Oh yeah, they love it!  Gay marriage?  Of course!  Are you kidding?  Although they haven’t admitted it publicly, Sotomayor and Kagan are almost certainly gay themselves—that’s why Barack Obama appointed them!

On Wednesday the Supreme Court declared the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) unconstitutional even though there is no right to homosexual marriage anywhere in the Constitution.  As happens so often, as everyone this side of the moon expected to happen, Anthony Kennedy was the swing vote.  The day before he was the swing vote on the Voting Rights Act, voting against the four liberals in that one.  Those eight other justices might as well go on extended vacation and let Anthony Kennedy make all the Court’s decisions because generally his is the only vote that matters.

Okay, not always.  When it came to Obamacare even Kennedy couldn’t stomach the mess Democrats were making.  For that one, John Roberts voted with the four liberals.  See, that’s the thing about the four "conservative" justices on the Supreme Court—they at least attempt to live up to their oath of office.  They aren’t a solid dependable voting bloc like the four liberals.

They act like grownups, not political hacks.

The Supreme Court overturned DOMA based on Kennedy’s reasoning that the federal government should not ignore state decisions granting homosexuals the right to marry.  That very same day, the Court refused to rule on California’s Proposition 8 by calling the state’s decision to grant the petitioners legal standing irrelevant.

On the same day, in other words, the Supreme Court ruled that state decisions do matter and do not matter.  Figure that one out.  Anybody want a pretzel?

The history of Proposition 8 is the perfect example of how powerful and arbitrary our judicial system has become.  In 2008 the voters of California passed a constitutional amendment outlawing homosexual marriage.  This was the second time in eight years the voters made the same decision but the courts declared the first resolution unconstitutional so the voters stepped up their game and made it part of the state constitution itself.  Nevertheless, a judge in San Francisco ruled it unconstitutional anyway.

Remember, Proposition 8 is actually part of California’s constitution now.  If you’re wondering how a judge can declare the constitution itself unconstitutional, well, so was everyone else.  Seems awfully illogical, doesn’t it?  Turns out the judge, Vaughn Richard Walker, was a gay man living with a homosexual partner he couldn’t marry so maybe his illogical ruling had something to do with his personal desires.

Meanwhile, thumbing their noses at voters, the governor and attorney general of California refused to appeal Judge Walker’s ruling... so the voters appealed it.  What the Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., said this week is that voters themselves have no legal standing.  Their democratically voted decision on the matter of homosexual marriage is irrelevant.

To hell with the voters.  To hell with what state and federal legislatures might say.  And to hell with all the governors and the president.  All that seems to matter anymore is what the courts decide and at the very top of this dysfunctional judicial pyramid of rapidly accumulating power, the only vote that seems to matter is Anthony Kennedy’s.  This week, he decided he didn’t like the Voting Rights Act and he decided he didn’t like the Defense of Marriage Act so they’re both history.

Bow down all you lowly peons, Anthony Kennedy is pretty much Dictator of the World.

That’s... today’s dose of common sense.

“Justice and power must be brought together, so that whatever is just may be powerful, and whatever is powerful may be just.” —Blaise Pascal

“The greater the power, the more dangerous the abuse." —Edmund Burke

“You can’t become a dictator through checks and balances." —Tommy Chong

From Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA        Tweet

October 10, 2013 - My name is Leslie Moore and I head up the content department of MasterofPublicHealth.org. A little over a year ago my team created an infographic titled: The Supreme Court Got it Wrong; Obamacare’s Unconstitutionality by the Numbers. We feel that our infographic is more important than ever as our nation is slowly approaching the total socialist take over of our healthcare system. We want to share our resource with you because your readers may benefit from it, and we believe it would make great content for your site. Feel free to share the list with your readers. Thanks and have a wonderful day. – Leslie Moore, India

J.P. replies: Consider it shared.

August 18, 2013 - Now you know how we here in Washington feel. Despite most of the state having common sense, it has pretty much become whatever King county says goes. – Devin, Washington

J.P. replies: I know it was King County vote fraud that put Christine Gregoire into the governorship in 2004.

June 29, 2013 - Over turning DOMA doesn't matter because we have a president who was refusing to enforce it anyway. Obama is the dictator, not Kennedy. – Roget, Kansas

June 29, 2013 - Pretty disgusted with the Supreme Court decisions myself. I was hoping that perhaps they had learned from Roe vs. Wade, to narrowly base their decisions. Instead of the grandiose decisions that in the case of Roe vs. Wade states are still trying to backtrack from. Here in lies the problem, the majority no longer has any power. There is no "will of the people." There us just our future left in the hands of a few men and woman considered "chosen" and even those were not chosen by the majority. – Pam T., Virginia

J.P. replies: Exactly.  This is no longer a democratic republic—the judiciary has brazenly ignored the will of the people of California twice.  Basically, Anthony Kennedy decided there will be gay marriage in California and his vote outweighs the votes of seven million Californians who said they didn’t want it.  As they say in Animal Farm, “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.”