Ingle Shreds the Constitution

by: Scott Weingart

Mon Mar 09, 2009 at 09:35:22 PM EDT

In his latest rambling screed against Governor Corzine and "big government," Gannett Trenton Bureau chief Bob Ingle channels Jackson:

The high court did screw [Mount Laurel] up, as it did the Abbott schools decision, but not without the Legislature's help. The court can tell the other two branches of government how to spend taxpayer money but it can't enforce it. Lawmakers...could say no."

Ingle would have the legislature and executive trample on the rule of law and the notion of checks and balances by disregarding a ruling of the Supreme Court. It is ironic that Ingle, who regularly rants about the evils of big government, would show such little respect for the one of the fundamental restraints on the power of government.

What, pray tell, does Bob Ingle think the courts are actually for? How should a judge arrive at a ruling on issues like school funding and exclusionary zoning, if not by interpreting statute and constitution? Does he believe, as his fondness for judicial elections seems to indicate, that judges should consider public opinion in deciding a case? If not, then he at least ought to offer some argument supporting his contention that Abbott and Mount Laurel were wrongly decided. And in any case, he must offer a better justification for shredding the State Constitution than the fact that he and a former legislator think the court "screwed up."