The Imperial Judiciary, State Edition

From the AP:

The Illinois attorney general has filed a motion with the state’s highest court asking justices to remove scandal-plagued Gov. Rod Blagojevich (bluh-GOY’-uh-vich) from office.

Lisa Madigan took the action Friday as pressure on the governor intensified to step down. The motion challenges his fitness to serve and asks that the Supreme Court oust him.

Elsewhere:

[California governor Arnold Shwarzenegger] also stated that "because the Supreme Court very clearly in California has declared [a legislative prohibition on same-sex marriage] unconstitutional" it is "not the end" of the fight against true marriage, and expressed hope that the state would "move forward" after Proposition 8 [the amendment to the California Constitution prohibiting same-sex marriage] would be overturned in the courts.

Three separate court battles have been filed against Proposition 8. Anti-marriage lobbyists claim that adding the true definition of marriage to the state constitution is an illegal revision, rather than an amendment.

According to the Washington Post, some legal experts say Proposition 8 could be overturned if opponents convince judges that it constitutes a breach of California's equal protection law.

Do we not even pretend to be a republic anymore? Example A: everybody stopped liking Blagojevich this week. But rather than expecting the legislature to fulfill its constitutional obligations and remove him from office, the AG says, "Why wait? We'll get the state Supreme Court to do it. After all, nobody can stop them." Call it the Turkish model.

Example B: The people of California vote in a referendum to amend their consitition and overturn a state Supreme Court decision mandating gay marriage. And the governor says, "So? The state Supreme Court will overturn the amendment. After all, nobody can stop them."

I place no bets either way as to how these two courts will rule. But I fear that the politicians involved have correctly taken the pulse of their consituents' attachment to their own self-government: it's pretty damned low.

The same is true at the federal level. It should be difficult, looking at Obama's cabinet lineup of holdovers and retreads, to find anyone who believes his election presages much of a change in government policy from the last 8 - 16 (or 20) years. Rather, the only change comes in the selection of Judges, where the entire political system assumes (correctly) the real power -- the power to affect the things that anybody actually cares about -- resides.