At 10:36 AM 6/24/2005, J.A. Terranson wrote:
> Not surprising at all. The Bush camp's court agenda is spearheaded by
> members of the Federalist Society which wants to roll back many of the SC's
> decisions of the early-mid 20th century (esp. the Social Security Act and
> the expansion of the Commerce Clause during FDR's reign).
You're on crack. They just expanded the Commerce Clause to it's logical
limits with the California medical maryjane case. The Bushie agenda may
seem traditional reactionary on the surface, but look carefully and you;ll
see significant differences in modern neocon vs old family Nixon.
Shrub doesn't want Federalism, he wants full theocracy with a Federal
bent.
Its true that he and many of is supporters are conservatives and not
libertarians. Perhaps I'm misrepresenting the essence of the Federalist
Society also. Its not clear that they adhere to a single strong ideology,
but rather to a vague view of limited government and an 'originalist'
interpretation of the
Constitution.http://www.law.ucla.edu/volokh/fedsoc.htm But I can't think of
a single case where the SC limited an important authority the government
thought it had granted itself. It seems such rollbacks historically only
occur on the heels of major protests, threat or actual civil war. So it
will be interesting if Bush gets to appoint some of the judges he desires
on the SC and if this indeed leads to an eventual rollback of Commerce
Clause interpretation.
For me an equal bone of contention is the very questionable passage of the
14th Amendment. Even worse than the lack of serious debate which
surrounded the Patriot Act, the 14th was passed with Congress violating its
own rules of majority and plurality. They simply refused to allow already
seated members into the chambers for the vote. They also 'manipulated' the
state voting results and neglected to send the result to the President, as
Constitutionally required. When a case challenging the 14th was brought to
the SC, it ruled that they had no authority to rule on Congresss' failure
to follow the Constitutional processes. A total cop-out. But what did
anyone expect with 500,000 Americans recently killed on the battle field to
keep the Union together. When push comes to shove, the Constitution is only
a piece of paper to those in power.
Lenny Bruce was certainly right when he said.. "In the halls of justice,
the only justice is in the halls."
Steve
