• FlowVoid@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    You have it backwards. The government cannot enforce laws without assistance from the judiciary.

    For example, Congress once passed a law outlawing flag burning. The SCOTUS decided that was unconstitutional. But suppose everyone had decided to ignore that decision.

    So someone is arrested for flag burning… and the case is immediately dismissed by a judge.

    So the government decides to tax flag-burners instead. Someone refuses to pay that tax, the government sues … and the case is immediately dismissed by a judge.

    Pretty much everything the government does to “enforce” their will can be challenged, and challenges always end up before a judge. If the judge decides a law is unconstitutional, then the government will lose every case.

    • Zaktor@sopuli.xyz
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      5 months ago

      So someone is arrested for flag burning… and the case is immediately dismissed by a judge.

      Ok, and? What makes you think they then get released from prison? Cause they just have to?

      Pretty much everything the government does to “enforce” their will can be challenged

      If the executive doesn’t empower the judiciary, then no, everything cannot be challenged. You can assert your right to challenge an arrest before a judge however much you want, if your jailer says “nah”, you don’t get out of jail. The court is the veneer of slow and steady legitimacy validating the force of the executive, but rulings are just words, the thing that actually makes you have to listen to them is force.

      This is, to be sure, a constitutional crisis likely to end with chaos. The real result would likely entail some sort of attempt to stand up a new “Supremer” court or decide that certain types of cases cannot be appealed or governors relying on their state courts and refusing to bend to a Supreme Court ruling they and their constituents don’t agree with.

      • FlowVoid@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        if your jailer says “nah”, you don’t get out of jail

        All your hypothetical scenarios require ignoring the Constitution, starting with habeas corpus.

        One way or another, the only way to avoid judicial review is to set the Constitution aside. And sure, once that’s done anything can happen.