Basic Jurisdictional Principles
A Theological Inventory of American Jurisprudence
 
Article III § 1
 
"Lenin was certainly right. There is no subtler, no surer means of overturning the
existing basis of society than to debauch the currency. The process engages all the
hidden forces of economic law on the side of destruction, and does it in a manner
which not one man in a million is able to diagnose." 1
 

Article III § 1:

The judicial Power of the United States, shall be vested in one supreme Court, and in such inferior Courts as the Congress may from time to time ordain and establish. The Judges, both of the supreme and inferior Courts, shall hold their Offices during good Behaviour, and shall, at stated Times, receive for their Services, a Compensation, which shall not be diminished during their Continuance in Office.

This section indicates the basic structure of the courts of the judicial branch of the general government. In fact, Article III defines the foundational attributes of the judicial branch, the same way Article II defined the same for the executive branch, and Article I defined the same for the legislative branch. The basic structure of the judicial branch is a  "supreme Court" and "such inferior Courts as the Congress may from time to time ordain and establish". We find nothing obviously wrong with this, either from the point of view of the global covenant or from that of the framers’ original intent. If there is anything wrong with the way the judicial branch has developed since the ratification of the Constitution, we submit here that the wrongs are either addressed elsewhere in this survey of the Constitution, or are beyond the scope of this survey. Regarding the conditions of service of "Judges" of the general government, it’s critical to notice that they "shall hold their Offices during good Behaviour". That begs the question regarding how good behavior is to be defined.

 

 

The standard of good behavior of federal judges and justices was never defined at the Constitutional Convention in 1787, and it has never really been defined since. Nevertheless, there have been over a dozen impeachments of federal judges in the history of the united States, including an impeachment of a supreme Court justice. 2 Under the global covenant the standard is the judge’s conformity, in the conduct of his/her office, to the lawful enforcement of the lawful jurisdiction of a secular social compact, the general government being such a compact.

Footnotes

1John Maynard Keynes, The Economic Consequences of the Peace, Chapter 6, "Europe After the Treaty".

2See "History of the Federal Judiciary" at Federal Judicial Center. URL: https://www.fjc.gov/​history/judges/​impeachments-federal-judges.

 

 


 
 
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