A Court Without Courage: The Supreme Court’s Dereliction of Duty

By Chaz Evanson, Candidate for Governor of Colorado

This week, the United States Supreme Court once again turned its back on the Constitution and the people it was meant to protect. By refusing to hear a challenge to Illinois’ so-called “assault weapons” ban, the Court has abdicated its sacred duty to defend the rights enshrined in the Second Amendment. It is a silence that screams, one that echoes with the pain of lawful citizens stripped of their rights by a government that punishes the innocent while refusing to confront the guilty.

This is not the first such betrayal. Just days ago, the Court declined to hear a First Amendment case that dealt with the suppression of speech, particularly in school settings. In doing so, it failed to uphold the principle that the Constitution does not end at the schoolhouse gate. Now, with this Second Amendment failure, the Court confirms a pattern of retreat, a judicial shrug in the face of state and federal overreach. These are not neutral omissions; they are active derelictions of duty.

The Constitution is not a suggestion. It is the highest law of the land. The Second Amendment declares, “the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.” Not may be regulated. Not occasionally restricted. Not interpreted according to the whims of fear or fashion. Shall not be infringed. When unelected officials or politically motivated legislatures attempt to disarm law-abiding Americans, the duty of the Court is to stand in defense of the people, not to retreat into silence.

Our founders understood the necessity of a free people being able to defend themselves. James Madison wrote in The Federalist No. 46 that the advantage of being armed belongs to “the Americans alone,” as a safeguard against tyranny. Thomas Jefferson declared, “No freeman shall ever be debarred the use of arms.” These were not radical ideas; they were the bedrock of liberty.

Natural rights are not gifts from government; they are God-given and pre-political. The right to self-defense springs from the unalienable right to life. To deny the tools by which a person may protect his family, his home, or his community is to deny that person’s very humanity and sovereignty. Governments that criminalize the means of protection turn peaceful citizens into potential felons and embolden the violent while disarming the virtuous.

The Supreme Court’s refusal to hear this case sends a chilling message: that the fears of the few can be used to justify the disarming of the many. That the criminal actions of deranged individuals justify the collective punishment of free Americans. But that is not justice, it is cowardice cloaked in legal procedure.

Let us be clear: assault weapon bans do not stop crime. They criminalize liberty. They do not deter evil; they embolden it. And they do not represent moral courage, they are moral failure, political theater performed on the stage of constitutional neglect.

As a candidate for Governor of Colorado, I will never stand idle while the rights of our citizens are violated by judicial passivity or legislative tyranny. I will work to ensure that our laws recognize and respect the sovereignty of the people, not just in word, but in practice. No state has the moral or legal right to disarm its citizens in the name of safety while ignoring the root causes of violence, broken communities, fatherless homes, mental health crises, and a collapsing moral foundation.

Our movement is rooted in truth, and the truth is this: the Constitution is not outdated. The rights it guarantees are not optional. And any institution that abandons its duty to defend those rights, be it a legislature or a court, has failed the American people.

We are the last line of defense.

We must restore what has been lost.

We must reform what has been corrupted.

And we must protect what remains of our God-given liberty.

The fight is not over. It is just beginning.

Chaz Evanson

Candidate for Governor of Colorado

For Faith. For Freedom. For Colorado.