Anarchy and despotism are indeed to be greatly feared, but it is not we who are raising that prospect. That prospect is raised by the courts that deny the democratic deliberation of vital questions affecting the whole people. Whoever rejects it, does, of necessity, fly to anarchy or to despotism. Permanent rule by the small minority that is the judicial elite is wholly inadmissable. It is our hope that the people and their political leaders will come to share that conviction and give it public effect.
Distinctions are in order.
The toleration of slavery was an ominous and deliberate compromise in the founding. Many people, with Lincoln, believed that the eventual extinction of slavery was intended by the Founders. The Vietnam War, whatever one may think of its justice, was a failed policy of the executive and legislative branches. The judicial usurpation of politics is qualitatively different. In Roe, Casey, Romer , and other decisions, this most illiberal Court has imposed not only what we believe are wrong policies, but has imposed them in the form of unchallengeable constitutional principles.