Time for a new ump
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Time for a new ump
This op-ed by law professor Geoffrey Stone lays out the issues in picking a new Supreme Court justice pretty well:
Rulings by conservative justices in the past decade make it perfectly clear that they do not “apply the law” in a neutral and detached manner. Consider, for example, their decisions holding that corporations have the same right of free speech as individuals, that commercial advertising receives robust protection under the First Amendment, that the Second Amendment prohibits the regulation of guns, that affirmative action is unconstitutional, that the equal protection clause mandated the election of George W. Bush and that the Boy Scouts have a First Amendment right to exclude gay scoutmasters.
Whatever one thinks of these decisions, it should be apparent that conservative judges do not disinterestedly call balls and strikes. Rather, fueled by their own political and ideological convictions, they make value judgments, often in an aggressively activist manner that goes well beyond anything the framers themselves envisioned. There is nothing simple, neutral, objective or restrained about such decisions. For too long, conservatives have set the terms of the debate about judges, and they have done so in a highly misleading way. Americans should see conservative constitutional jurisprudence for what it really is. And liberals must stand up for their vision of the judiciary.
Of course, it doesn't really matter because Obama is going to pick a conservative anyway.
Comments (24)
WPE- Worst President Ever............."Under Obama's budget plan, the USA's debt in 2020 would be nearly the size of the entire economy then. Interest costs would be $900 billion, five times today's level................. The White House, Congress, budget experts and typical Americans are growing anxious about the nation's mounting debt, which is helping to fuel the rise of the anti-tax, anti-big government Tea Party movement.................... Yet the only solutions capable of raising enough money are politically dangerous for the president and Congress: tax increases and major reductions in Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security."..............................TAX AND SPEND LIBERALS- ARE MORONS.— Manny Trillo- Liberals most illogical people on earth- no wonder they are all teachers, actors, musicians, ditch diggers.....— Manny Trillo
- So, Manny, teachers are useless?— Yersinia Pestis
Does the text of the Constitution differentiate between individuals and other entities regarding freedom of speech? The the text of the second amendment state that the right to bear arms "shall not be infringed". Isn't regulation, by defininton, an infringement? Where exactly in the text does the Constitution provide for "affirmative action"? Did the equal protection clause mandate the election of George Bush, or did it protect a citizens vote from being invalidated using subjective criteria? I think it's obvious who's really in line with the Constitution here?— jmc
Comment removed.- Quoting without sources again, Manny? There's help for that. Wonder if Beck will raise a stink about the whole boys dressing in women's clothes thing in Jersey. That seems like a major conservative issue in this day and time, plus the woman is a tea partier.— HandNik
- jmc, for your edification, here's the exact FULL text of the second amendment: "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."— Yersinia Pestis
I liked Manny Trillo the baseball player. Manny Trillo the commenter, not so much.— potus- potus, maybe we can trade him for Cliff Lee...:-)— Yersinia Pestis
- Yersinia: I understand the full text of the 2nd Amendment which is why I came to the conclusion I did in my previous post. My omission was to keep the post length short.— jmc
Manny, your complete and total ignorance is showing once again.— Les Ismore- jmc, the point was that the text CONTAINS the word "regulated". How can regulation be an infringement when a well-regulated militia is the purpose of the amendment? My own reading of it is that there is a right to keep and bear arms ONLY for members of a recognized, regulated militia, but apparently all the wise conservative judges understand plain English much better and with more subtlety than I do.— Yersinia Pestis
- Pleae dont bother Manny's beautiful mind with facts. He is living in another world.— Les Ismore
- Oh Cicero. Umm, Bush passed the middle class tax cuts that Obama extened. The mortgage relief program is a diaster, and Obama's first. trillion dollar deficit has not increased health care coverage.— RG
- Comment removed.
- "Rather, fueled by their own political and ideological convictions, they make value judgments, often in an aggressively activist manner that goes well beyond anything the framers themselves envisioned." I really love this quote, especially since non-ideologue Americans think it can be applied to both parties. Maybe once they stop nominating these politicians masquerading as judges then the decisions handed down by the court will be based on the constitution, and not the party talking points memo.— barlowjames
- nickvalentine "You're right Manny, if only all liberals were blood sucking lawyers, politicians, and greedy business people the world would be a better place. What an amazingly dumb comment."...............You mean people who actually have jobs that require a profit?..........No idiot liberals are politicians?— Manny Trillo
- Comment removed.
- I'm not sure why I read this blog at all. Its kind of like watching an elementary school band massacre simple songs. Will Bunch is a burned out leftover from the sixties, who still thinks he's fighting the "good fight" against the man. Its laughable.— tjm333126
- There is nothing of substance to interact with in the quote Bunch posted. The overall point is that a justice should try to adjudicate based on the meaning of the Constitution. I doubt very much, as witnessed by the critiques of the corporate speech decision, that most liberals care about any limits the Constitution may place on them. The justices explicitly pointed to the text of the 1st amendment, and liberals started complaining about corporations. Was there any critiques about their handling of the text? I didn't see anything meaningful. And we're not saying that conservatives will handle the text perfectly or not make mistakes. But at least they try. A liberal supports Roe v. Wade but can't really explain where in the Constitution you can divy up rights based on the trimester of the baby. What would happen if the human gestation period was a prime number? You also get abominations like Kelo, where governments decided what's in the public interest. Taking over private land and giving it to other well-connected private interests.— geoffrobinson
Actually I think the funniest part of the 2nd amendment is "being necessary", as the 18th century concept of militias is antiquated and has been replaced by standing armies of regulars and the national guard, the law itself could be interpreted as no longer applying. The law clear identifies the need for gun-rights as for the purposes of military action, not turning our streets into the wild west in a quick-draw free for all.— Pelti- At some point I'll likely post something more substantive, but at the moment school stuff is keeping me busy (because I'm an "illogical" teacher). So for the moment let me just say: Manny Trillo, it's not so much that you're a knee-jerk conservative, a terrible logician, or a name-caller. The worst of it is that you're just plain boring.— Billy Ray Winthorpe
tjm's "I'm not sure why I read this blog at all" is a close second, but Manny Trillo's "Liberals most illogical people on earth- no wonder they are all teachers..." has to be the dumbest comment of the day, if not of all time on this blog. Of course, Manny also once stated that 1 out of 5 is 25%; I'm sure it was all his liberal teacher's fault.— one_eyed_jack- Pelti - not that I'm a big fan of guns or the people who stockpile them, but to put the matter in context, standing armies were one of the things that Americans of the day (as well as Englishmen) feared most as a potential threat to their liberties - hence the Third Amendment.— Billy Ray Winthorpe
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