JUSTICE AND TRUTH –- HALLELUJAH, THEY STILL LIVE!

By Edwin Cooney

It’s my guess that millions of Americans are breathing sighs of relief this week since the ruling by five Supreme Court Justices:

Anthony M. Kennedy, Stephen G. Breyer, Clarence Thomas, Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr. and Samuel A. Alito, Jr., legitimized an invaluable tool used by law enforcement to identify and control those who would violate your well-being and mine.  By allowing DNA testing of chronic criminal suspects, it may be possible (and I emphasize “may be possible”) to take a giant step toward safeguarding all of our lives.  To that I say hallelujah.

The immediate reaction to the high court’s decision in Maryland vs. King was the public analysis of the strange alliances of liberal and conservative justices reflected in both the majority and minority decisions.  To find Stephen Breyer siding with Justices Kennedy, Thomas, Roberts and Alito was something of a surprise, but the shocker was to find Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan joined by Justice Antonin G. Scalia.  (Keep in mind that Bader Ginsburg was appointed by Bill Clinton and Sotomayor and Kagan were appointed by President Barack Obama. Scalia was appointed by none other than Ronald Reagan.)

The question lingering in most minds, however, is whether DNA testing of criminal suspects to connect them to a crime for which they are not under suspicion, not to prove guilt for the crime for which they’re being held, is a violation of the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution.  In his minority opinion, Justice Scalia made it clear that he does believe the decision was in violation of the Constitution.

Plainly, Justices Scalia, Sotomayor, Bader Ginsburg, and Kagan insist that it’s more important that you and I be protected from wrongful governmental investigations than that the government be empowered to tie suspected criminals to other crimes of which they may be guilty.

What’s fascinating about this debate is who these justices appear to be most interested in protecting.  It would seem on the surface that Justices Scalia, Sotomayor, Bader Ginsburg and Kagan are more concerned with the rights of the individual than they are with the lives and security of society as a whole.  On the other hand, it appears that Justices Kennedy, Thomas, Roberts, Alito, and Breyer are more interested in justice and truth than they are in constitutional principles.  Traditionally, ideological conservatives tend to be more interested in whether laws are consistent with the original intent of our “Founding Fathers” rather than whether a law will protect you or me from harm by a vindictive criminal or by a careless corporation.

Liberals traditionally concern themselves with wide sweeping issues such as the socio/economic well-being of the most vulnerable in society.  Therefore, it is strange to find Antonin G. Scalia ideologically cuddling with the three Supreme Court liberal darlings!  As for me -- I love it!

Regardless of our motives, you and I -- along with all nine Supreme Court justices -- insist always that justice and truth are two of our best friends.  Hence some of us wonder how Justices Bader Ginsburg, Sotomayor and Kagan cannot recognize a glaring truth: that allowing criminal suspects to be painlessly swabbed to test their DNA ensures justice and liberty far more effectively than the intentions of “the Founding Fathers” as put forth in the Fourth Amendment.  In the case of Mr. Justice Scalia, the problem is simple.  Justice Scalia hates government.  It appears that government is never a solution insofar as he is concerned. To the good 77-year-old justice, solving problems isn’t and never should be the responsibility of government.  Government’s only function is to provide the noble principles that should always guide John and Suzie Q. Citizen in the conduct of their private affairs.

As for Justices Bader Ginsburg, Sotomayor, and Kagan, their insistence on the rights of minorities appears to blind them to the reality that, like a busted clock twice a day, the forces responsible for administering justice are occasionally right.

The late Republican Senator Everett McKinley Dirksen of Illinois used to observe that now and then we must all rise above principle.

Of course, Justice Scalia obviously never will rise above his principles. Like ideologues of the left, he has figured out how society should always be run under all circumstances despite the compelling cries of "truth and justice."

Just to demonstrate my own magnanimity, I’ll rise above principle long enough to make a concession I haven’t made since Justice Thomas’s 52 to 48 confirmation by the U.S. Senate on October, 15^th, 1991: Mr. Justice Thomas, sir, you voted right this time!

Now it’s your turn to say "hallelujah!!!”

RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED,

EDWIN COONEY