Supreme Court: Texans Too Stupid To Rule State

Scrappleface.com ^ | 06/26/03 | Scott Ott

[Ed_in_NJ]

And if the gerbil is a minor, you are REALLY screwed!

[TheSpottedOwl]

Texans are too stupid to run their own state?? Bwahhaaha!!!

[joesnuffy]

Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their nation....
-secede from the union

[socal_parrot]

Every decent man is ashamed of the government he lives under.

-H. L. Mencken

[My2Cents]

It's hard for me to believe that James Madison and the rest of the delegates to the Constitutional Convention had in mind the extension of a constitutional right to where one puts their genitals.

[gcruse]

It's hard for me to believe that James Madison and the rest of the delegates to the Constitutional Convention had in mind the extension of a constitutional right to where one puts their genitals.

It's hard for me to believe they thought it was any of government's business.

[My2Cents]

Maybe the Framers weren't serious about deferring to the states in such matters.

[gcruse]

Maybe the Framers weren't serious about
deferring to the states in such matters.

The Tenth Amendment seemed to work
pretty good right up to the Civil War.
Things haven't been right since.  :)

[My2Cents]

Oh, you're referring to the Great Lost Cause. The neoconfederates really don't have a leg to stand on in attacking Lincoln for his "unconstitutional" actions to save the Union. It was the Confederate states which tore the nation apart because they refused to acknowledge the results of a constitutionally valid Presidential election. Secession was one of the more "liberal" interpretations of the Constitution in the history of the nation.

[gcruse]

It started with the War Between the States and picked up speed with FDR. The Depression broke the mold of self-sufficiency and put us on the road to government dependency. With federal money came federal strings, pouring through the burned out hole where the Tenth used to be. Concentration of power in the federal government seems to be a ratchet effect. We lose to the welfare state when liberals are in power, and individual freedoms when moralizing conservatives are running the government. Once given, we can't get control back without revolution. It's too soon to shoot the bastards, and too late to stop them.

[weegee]

The court ruled that because the act occurs in private, it could not be made illegal. This is what opens to door to consenting (including minors who have reached the age of consent) partners engaging in incest and other acts.

[weegee]

Children (under 18) in many states can give consent for sex (with adults or any partner) at age 16. I believe that Ginsburg (before this decision came down) spoke out in favor of lowering the age of consent to 12.

[Hinoki Cypress]

Change SCOTUS to SCROTUM.

[My2Cents]

I agree with your analysis, except for the point that the Confederate cause was a glorious effort to protect the Constitution.

[gcruse]

I didn't realize I said that. What I said was states had rights until the Civil War put much of that power into Washington DC. Anyway, it has been downhill ever since.

[My2Cents]

Sorry. I probably jumped you unfairly. On FR (you may have noticed) there are many willing to refight the Civil War, contending that "Lincoln was as tyrant" and that he eviscerated the Constitution by denying the southern states their "right" to make null and void their affiliation with the United States of America. The neoconfederates revise history to wrap themselves in a shroud of integrity and honor, but it's bunk. The south left the union because they were sure the Lincoln and the new Republican Administration was going to end their precious slave society.

Anyway, the slave society apologists, who still exist, and are numbered among the FR community, raise their ugly heads now and again to fly the banner of their lost cause. I mistook your comments for such an argument. Sorry.

(Now, having posted this comment, watch the neoconfederates and Lincoln-haters come out of the woodwork.)

[El Gato]

I'm not quite sure if the Texas law related to a wide range of sexual acts or just to gay sex. The way folks around here are talking about this ruling legalizing incest and sex with children and other deviant acts, I would think that the Texas law covered a broad array of acts.

No the law only applied to same sex acts. But since it wasn't decided on "equal protection" grounds, but rather privacy grounds, it is not all that unreasonable to assume that "anything goes" is the law of the land, other than the "with children" part, since that can be defined in terms of them not being able to consent to the act.

[El Gato]

It's hard for me to believe they thought it was any of government's business.

Maybe so, but they did. The state or even local government's buisiness that is, not the federal one's.

I also doubt that such was much on the minds of those who drafted and ratified the 14th amendment.

[socal_parrot]

Gracias, that makes the intent of the ruling more clear.

[rustbucket]

On FR (you may have noticed) there are many willing to refight the Civil War, contending that "Lincoln was as tyrant" and that he eviscerated the Constitution by denying the southern states their "right" to make null and void their affiliation with the United States of America. The neoconfederates revise history to wrap themselves in a shroud of integrity and honor, but it's bunk.

With respect, the FR Civil War threads offer great discussions on US history and the Constitution.

Lincoln clearly did unconstitutional things. In his own words:

I felt that measures, otherwise unconstitutional, might become lawful, by becoming indispensable to the preservation of the constitution, through the preservation of the nation. Right or wrong, I assumed this ground, and now avow it.

Consider Lincoln's arrest and holding of people without charges despite a court ruling against him. Read Chief Justice Taney's words on one of those cases in Ex Parte Merryman. It is a 'goose bump' document.

Before you accuse me of being a Neoconfederate, I must say I'm not a "neo" anything, although I believe the South's interpretation of the Constitution and the tenth amendment was correct.

Basically, I believe in the Bill of Rights and am sensitive when the Constitution is being trampled on, whether by Lincoln, Bush (CFR), or the current Supreme Court (University of Michigan; Texas sodomy law).