Too often, when a federal court issues a ruling — especially on a controversial issue — the public response is: “We’ll see what the Supreme Court says.†The implication is that the law doesn’t really exist until nine justices in Washington, D.C., declare it.
That’s not how the American legal system works.
The rule of law is not something that appears only at the end of a long legal journey. It is present from the moment a federal court takes jurisdiction, hears arguments and enters judgment. It doesn’t hover above the courtroom, waiting to descend from on high. It lives in every lawful decision made every day in courts across the country.
The Constitution gives federal courts, at every level, the same judicial power under Article III. District courts are not merely offering proposals or drafts for the Supreme Court to consider.
Therefore, to treat these rulings as tentative or incomplete until the Supreme Court speaks is to misunderstand the design of the federal judiciary.
The Supreme Court hears only a small fraction of cases each year. Almost all legal disputes are resolved without its review. If the rule of law existed only in those rare moments that the Supreme Court decides an issue, it would hardly function at all.
The rule of law requires no spotlight. It does not rely on headlines. It lives, steadily and quietly, in every courtroom where judges apply the law with integrity and resolve. When those courts speak, the law speaks. And the parties — government included — are required to obey.
