At the U.S. Supreme Court the “Euro Street” Counts, and American Voters Don’t Count

Harkonnendog ^ | 3/01/05 | Harkonnendog

[Harkonnendog]

All of which means the Republicans should, indeed MUST use the nuclear option to break the democratic filibuster that stops judges from being voted upon in the Senate. Screw it. Go for it. But, hat tip to Powerline again- this New Yorker article says they won’t.

[newgeezer]

At the U.S. Supreme Court the “Euro Street” Counts, and American Voters Don’t Count

Neither one of those should count for squat at the U.S. Supreme Court.

Only the Constitution.

[PzLdr]

If I were "W", I'd stop looking for strict constructionists, and start looking for conservative activists for the court. A strict constructionist may well feel constrained to follow precedent, e.g ROE v. WADE because a prior Court decided it. Even liberals know ROE and GRISWOLD are horsepizzle cut from whole cloth, if not gossamer by Blackmun and William "Zero" Douglas. You need judges to get rid of that tripe- then you can go to strict constructionists. Better still, have Congress limit what the court's powers are. Marshall created them-gossamer again. Time to rein 'em in.

[Harkonnendog]

that's an excellent point. I never considered that extra Constituional decision might be upheld because a constructionist would feel compelled by his own philosophy.
that's a scary thought.

[11th Commandment]

Reading the federalist papers 80 - 83, the common folks worried the judiciary could become too powerful vis-à-vis its independence and lifetime appointments. Hamilton acknowledged the independence shortfall by noting the English model of the judiciary under the legislative branch was not acceptable in a constitutional model.

His argument for the lifetime appointments and the abuse of power by the Judiciary was twofold. First, congress would exercise its right to impeach judges. Second, the Judiciary did not have the ability to enforce its decisions so the legislative branch or executive branches could just ignore the decisions.

Funny how congress in which its members admit not reading bills before they vote on them also can’t follow the constitution and control the courts.