Valley Viewpoint: When Did Federal Judges Become America’s Election Board?

Another day, another federal judge blocking another action of a sitting president.

This week, a Massachusetts federal judge permanently barred the Trump administration from enforcing an executive order requiring documentary proof of U.S. citizenship to register to vote in federal elections. The judge ruled that the requirement was unconstitutional and that the President lacked the authority to impose it unilaterally.

Whether you support proof of citizenship to vote isn’t the only issue here. A larger question continues to loom over our country: Have federal judges become the final policymakers on nearly every major issue facing America?

Immigration. Energy. Education. Healthcare. Environmental regulations. National security. Elections.

Increasingly, it seems that every significant policy decision is met with a lawsuit, followed by a single federal district judge issuing a nationwide injunction that effectively halts the agenda of an elected president. Americans don’t vote for district judges, yet their decisions often carry more immediate impact than those made by the officials voters actually elected.

The judiciary serves a vital constitutional purpose. Courts exist to interpret the law and protect constitutional rights. But many Americans are beginning to wonder whether some judges have moved beyond interpreting the law and into making public policy from the bench.

If Congress believes proof of citizenship should be required to vote, it should pass legislation. If it doesn’t, then the American people have every right to hold their elected representatives accountable at the ballot box.

But when virtually every major policy debate ends up being decided first in a federal courtroom rather than through the legislative process, confidence in both our government and our judiciary begins to erode.

Here in the Hudson Valley, voters may disagree about election laws, but they generally agree on one thing: they expect the people they elect—not unelected judges—to have the primary responsibility for shaping public policy within the limits of the Constitution.

Our constitutional system depends on checks and balances. It was never intended to become a system where one federal judge can repeatedly override the decisions of an elected administration before the democratic process has had a chance to play out.

That isn’t just a debate about election law.

It’s a debate about who governs America.