Trent Franks Statement in Support of Speaker Gingrich’s Call to Reestablish a System of Checks and Balances

Franks Statement in Support of Speaker Gingrich’s Call to Reestablish a System of Checks and Balances

Vows to Seek Hearings on Judicial Supremacy

Washington, D.C. — Congressman Trent Franks (AZ-02), a member of the House Judiciary Committee and Chairman of the Constitution Subcommittee, issued the following statement today regarding the important issue galvanized by Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich's proposal for the Executive and Legislative branches to reassert their position as co-equals with the Judicial branch.


Franks stated,

"For decades now, renegade judges have snatched power away from the People’s democratically elected representatives by twisting the Constitution and forcing their own agenda upon the American people in an effort to radically redefine the very essence of what has made America distinctive from all other nations on earth. An oligarchic system in which judges are the last word on the Constitution is a system in which terrorists are given imaginary rights at the expense of American security, religious liberty is increasingly under assault, and 50 million unborn children have been tragically killed in their mothers' wombs.

 
"Congress has the legitimate constitutional authority and indeed responsibility to counter policies such as these that are completely at odds with our American way of life, our common values and our system of government. I agree with Senator Mike Lee that it is time for the People’s Representatives to take their pledge to uphold the Constitution seriously.

 
"For years, our political, academic, and media elite have advocated the dangerous notion that once a decision is handed down by the Supreme Court, nothing short of a Constitutional Amendment or a later Court decision can undo it. But this is not the system of checks and balances our Founders established. I strongly support courageous calls such as that being made by Newt Gingrich, for Congress and the President to work together to reign in the judiciary and reestablish a Constitutional system of true checks and balances.

 


"As Chairman of the House Subcommittee on the Constitution, I am committed to pursuing hearings to investigate ways for Congress to reassert its co-equal authority to interpret the Constitution."

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Congressman Franks is serving his fifth term in the U.S. House of Representatives and is a member of the Judiciary Committee, where he serves as Chairman of the Subcommittee on the Constitution and a member of the Subcommittee on Courts, Commercial and Administrative Law. He is also a member of the Armed Services Committee, where he serves on the Strategic Forces Subcommittee and the Subcommittee on Emerging Threats and Capabilities.