The fun is in the matters that are close to the line. "Whenever the law draws a line, there will be cases very near each other on opposite sides. The precise course of the line may be uncertain, but no one can come near it without knowing that he does so…." Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. U.S. v. Wurzbach (1930) 280 US 396.
On the other hand there are those cases that are so far from the line that, even if you are on the side of the offending party, you wonder: "WHAT WERE THEY THINKING?" Alan Armstrong Law Office of Alan Leigh Armstrong Serving the Family and Small Business Since 1984 18652 Florida St., Suite 225 Huntington Beach CA 92648-6006 714-375-1147 Fax 714-782 6007 a...@alanarmstrong.com alanarmstrong....@verizon.net KE6LLN All documents prepared on Macintosh computers to look better On Mar 10, 2009, at 3:40 PM, Steven Jamar wrote: > Well done, Doug et al. > > While the signers of the letter disagree on a topic or two in the > area of religious freedom and constitutional interpretation of the > religion clauses, there is a huge breadth of space over which they > and I suspect nearly all constitutional law experts agree. This is > clearly one of the easy ones. > > Con Law books emphasize boundaries and hard cases. I regularly try > to draw my students back to thinking about just how much is in fact > settled and how clearly constitutional most of the efforts of > Congress, the Court, the Executive, and the states in fact are. > While the areas of dispute are oftentimes very important, we can > sometimes (and maybe generally do) exaggerate their importance > because they are the hot issues of the moment. This bill, the > response to it, and Doug's letter serve to remind us that we agree > on much. > > They also serve to remind us that even in settled, clear areas, > people, whether well-meaning or otherwise, can act improperly and > that indeed the price of liberty is eternal vigilance. Wendell > Phillips (1811–84) http://www.bartleby.com/73/1073.html (often > attributed to Thomas Jefferson, though no one has found where he > said or wrote it). > > Thanks. > > Steve > > > -- > Prof. Steven D. Jamar vox: 202-806-8017 > Associate Director, Institute of Intellectual Property and Social > Justice http://iipsj.org > Howard University School of Law fax: 202-806-8567 > http://iipsj.com/SDJ/ > > > > "Nothing that is worth anything can be achieved in a lifetime; > therefore we must be saved by hope." > > Reinhold Neibuhr > > > > On Mar 10, 2009, at 5:29 PM, Douglas Laycock wrote: > >> Earlier today we discussed a bill in Connecticut to impose >> Protestant forms of church governance on the Catholic Church. The >> bill has been pulled and tomorrow's hearing has been cancelled, >> apparently due to a flood of calls to legislators. Church leaders >> in Connecticut are not convinced that the issue is fully dead. >> Maybe they are right; maybe they are just being cautious. >> >> If the link below actually works, you can find there a copy of the >> bill, and a copy of a letter that twelve of us sent to the >> Committee Co-Chairs. We cannot take credit for killing the bill; >> they apparently pulled it before our letter was delivered. I hope >> we can take credit for a good explanation of why it is clearly >> unconstitutional. >> >> http://www-personal.umich.edu/~laycockd/ >> >> The breadth of agreement that this one was unconstitutional, which >> extends far beyond the signers of this letter, is encouraging. >> >> Douglas Laycock >> Yale Kamisar Collegiate Professor of Law >> University of Michigan Law School >> 625 S. State St. >> Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1215 >> 734-647-9713 >> >> _______________________________________________ >> To post, send message to Religionlaw@lists.ucla.edu >> To subscribe, unsubscribe, change options, or get password, see >> http://lists.ucla.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/religionlaw >> >> Please note that messages sent to this large list cannot be viewed >> as private. Anyone can subscribe to the list and read messages >> that are posted; people can read the Web archives; and list >> members can (rightly or wrongly) forward the messages to others. > > _______________________________________________ > To post, send message to Religionlaw@lists.ucla.edu > To subscribe, unsubscribe, change options, or get password, see > http://lists.ucla.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/religionlaw > > Please note that messages sent to this large list cannot be viewed > as private. Anyone can subscribe to the list and read messages > that are posted; people can read the Web archives; and list members > can (rightly or wrongly) forward the messages to others. _______________________________________________ To post, send message to Religionlaw@lists.ucla.edu To subscribe, unsubscribe, change options, or get password, see http://lists.ucla.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/religionlaw Please note that messages sent to this large list cannot be viewed as private. Anyone can subscribe to the list and read messages that are posted; people can read the Web archives; and list members can (rightly or wrongly) forward the messages to others.
