The Law

 

I Fought The Law And The Law Won.

I'm breakin' rocks in the hot sun
I fought the law and the law won
I fought the law and the law won

The opinions of the Supreme Court are only opinions, but they are the law.

The opinions of the Supreme Court are law, but they are opinions, even when they are characterized as decisions.  There can be a difference of opinions.  However the subjects of a sovereign agree that their opinions are, doh, subject to the opinion of the sovereign. There is no determination that either opinion is correct, a decision, just that the opinion of the sovereign prevails.  If the sovereign were an individual, e.g. a monarch, we might refer to law as the King’s Justice.  Justice is always the sovereign’s, even when that phrase is not used.  When the Supreme Court renders an opinion, it is rendering the opinion of the sovereign.   There is not a determination that the opinion is correct, only that it is the opinion of the sovereign.

A jury can also render an opinion.  If the jury is unanimous, then the ruling of the jury prevails.  If the jury is not unanimous, is hung, no ruling is rendered and a mistrial is declared.  A hung decision can be because of only one member who prevented the decision from being unanimous.  A sovereign can by definition not have a hung decision, which is why a hung jury is a mistrial and NOT a ruling of not guilty.  A unanimous decision may only reflect the lowest common opinion that can be accepted by all parties.  A decision by a sovereign can not reflect the lowest common denominator.  Since that sovereign is unitary, he is his own lowest common denominator.

Much of the confusion in the United States has to do with an understanding of the sovereign.  The sovereign is The People, a collective noun.  The sovereign is not each person.  The opinions of the people are not the opinions of each individual person.  You can disagree with the opinions of the sovereign, but each person as a subject of that sovereign has agreed to abide by the opinion of the sovereign.  The sovereign is not the President.  The sovereign is not the Speaker of the House, The sovereign is not the Majority or Minority Leader  of the Senate.  The sovereign is not a majority of the Supreme Court.  The sovereign is The People and only The People.  People as individuals in the US are the  subjects.  The People as a collective, is the sovereign.  Each individual is NOT a sovereign.  If the sovereign has decided that his actions, or the actions of his predecessors, have been, for example, racist, this in no way means that each individual is racist.   There is a difference between people as collective noun, and people as individuals.  If we do not understand this, then we do not understand what a republic is, and despite Ben Franklin’s admonition, we will not keep it.  The first Republican President Abraham Lincoln thought that government “of the people, for the people, and by the people “ was worth preserving. Let’s hope that today’s Republicans also think that it is worth preserving as well.