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To: capitan_refugio
What a maroon. This is a Constitutional Amendment! It can't be unconstitutional!

Ya think? What part of the Constitution was overturned to allow ex post facto legislation?

At least 127 Federal Acts have been declared unconstitutional. The states have overturned 4 Supreme Court decisions. Over 1,089 state acts have been held unconstitutional, another 124 state ordinances have been held unconstitutional. 204 SCOTUS decisions have been overturned by subsequent courts. SCOTUS has a history of inventing rights out of thin air - this week added several.

The legislators and justices are not perfect, nor are they gods.

725 posted on 06/27/2003 8:25:50 PM PDT by 4CJ ("No man's life, liberty or property are safe while dims and neocons are in control")
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To: 4ConservativeJustices
Remember the context, from #627. You wrote "Punishment ex post facto is unconstitutional." The context was the opinion of Salmon Chase that indictments against Jefferson Davis should be set aside because the recently ratified Fourteenth Amendment had already provided a political punishment for Davis's crimes. We were not discussing legislative acts, and if you were, you were not being clear about it.

Now, if you would, how did the "States overturn 4 Supreme Court decisions," unless you mean ratifying new constitutional amendments or by Congress changing the law? For instance, the 13th Amendment rendered Taney's majority opinion in the Dred Scott case moot.

No Supreme Court decisions have been overturned by inferior courts. They are not empowered to do that (as the 9th Circuit continues to find out). In the absense of specific law, such as in the United States vs California (1947), the Supreme Court ruled that the Federal Government had jurisdiction, regarding mineral rights, to all offshore and submerged lands. Congress passed, and the President signed, the OCS Lands Act and Submerged Lands Act (1953), which basically gave the coastal states back their tradition offshore jurisdictional claim. Since there was no Constitutional principle at stake, these acts of congress mooted the earlier USSC decision.

I do not see the relevance of your statistical recitation to the question at hand.

729 posted on 06/27/2003 10:50:15 PM PDT by capitan_refugio
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