Supreme Court Justices serve life-time appointments, so whenever there’s a vacancy on the Court, the nomination process is extremely important.

And with four of our current Supreme Court Justices over 70 years old, the next Senator from North Carolina will more than likely vote on at least one of the President’s Supreme Court nominees.

This is critically important because even a single Justice can have a profound impact on the country, as the Supreme Court’s recent 5-4 ruling upholding “ObamaCare” proves.

With the Supreme Court sharply divided along ideological lines, there are a large number of hot-button issues on which one new Justice could make a major difference.

Unfortunately, there are a growing number of folks who believe the Constitution is a living document, which grows to recognize “new rights.”

As a result, the Constitution’s original intent and its governing power in our laws has been banished through legislative power grabs that went unchecked by the judiciary and then by a judiciary that grabbed power from the legislative and executive branches.

I strongly disagree with this view.

I believe the Constitution should be interpreted according to the intent of the maker.

And our Founders believed the central purpose of the Supreme Court was to defend our God-given rights and liberties against encroachment from an overbearing federal government.

Without that concept underlying the exercise of governmental power, there is little hope for freedom and restoring the American Dream.

If elected to the U.S. Senate, I won’t vote to confirm any Supreme Court Justice unless they believe in the original intent of the Constitution.

I believe we need Supreme Court Justices who will strengthen state’s rights and lessen the power of the Federal government in order to get it more in line with the original intent of the Founders.