When Edwin Meese visited a French ambassador, he saw plaster versions of the Statue of Liberty that the ambassador’s great-grandfather had made while designing her.

The statue was missing something, and at first, Meese, then attorney general for Ronald Reagan, wasn’t sure what.

Then it struck him: She held the torch of liberty — without the books of law.

And law was Meese’s topic Thursday, as he told about 70 people in Tech Auditorium that America’s federal courts overstep their Constitutional role and infringe on states’ rights. The speech was sponsored by College Republicans.

“We wanted people to hear a point of view not often heard on this campus from professors or other student groups,” said Tom Sherman, president of College Republicans.

Meese said the founding fathers, fresh from breaking free of the British monarchy, intended the Constitution to set limits on government. They created an independent judiciary, giving judges life terms and fixed salaries to free them from political pressure.

Some politicians at the time thought the judiciary the weakest branch of government because it could only rule on cases that came before it and didn’t control much spending, Meese said.

But recently, federal courts have ruled on cases Meese said belong in state courts, including the Elian Gonzalez case and the Microsoft anti-trust suit.

“The picture we saw in the news on Sunday morning of the (Immigration and Naturalization Service) with helmets and guns wouldn’t have been necessary if (the case) had been left to state courts as the judiciary said it would do,” Meese said.

The anti-trust suit does not belong in court at all, he said.

“When a large organization gained economic power through its own competence, its own achievements, a court is not an appropriate way to decide how that company should be broken up,” Meese said.

Instead, Microsoft should pay damages to other companies if guilt is proven, Meese said. He also discussed recent class-action suits against the tobacco industry, saying they don’t hurt companies much and lead them to raise prices.

Congress adds fuel to the fire by making more laws that must be enforced in court, laws that clog federal courts and mirror ones that didn’t work on the state level, Meese said.

“After (incidents such as) Columbine, Congress wanted to get into the act because it was a newsworthy event and someone said, ‘Let’s get involved and make a law whether or not we need it,'” Meese said. “None of the new laws would have affected what happened in Littleton.”

Rather than supporting civil rights, judicial activism can infringe on them, Meese said. Overlapping jurisdiction between state and federal court meant that the policemen who were accused of beating Rodney King were tried again in federal court, which Meese said was double jeopardy.

Judicial activism isn’t new, he said. He cited cases such as Roe vs. Wade, which he said treated a sensitive issue that belonged in state court.

“Instead of leaving this very serious moral dilemma of life and death to the states where it had belonged before, the (Supreme) Court — nine unelected officials — made decisions,” Meese said. “Whether or not you agree with abortion, it should be agreed the decision should not be arrogated in (federal) court.”

Some students said Meese underestimated the importance of judicial decision-making.

“The only way the NAACP could get anything done was by means of the judiciary — if it wasn’t for the courts we’d be nowhere,” said Puneet Singh, a Weinberg sophomore. “With the Little Rock Nine, the kids could not walk into the school without the national government, without the military there. We would have no racial equality.

“The reason we have the oldest (written) constitution is because that constitution is open for amendment.”

Other students said they saw how Meese’s take on the founding fathers’ intentions applies to events.

“He did a good job of connecting the interests of the framer of the Constitutions and issues in national politics today, ” said Mike Faber, a member of College Republicans and a Weinberg sophomore. “Everyone in the room could relate to things like the Microsoft case and Elian.”