Justice Antonin Scalia finds little to like in Supreme Court term

nolalive ^ | 2/28/2004, 7:38 a.m. CT | By GINA HOLLAND

[DeaconBenjamin]

WASHINGTON (AP)

[King Black Robe]

Guess who the media doesn't like?

[Schattie]

20 years of republican victories and all we can manage is 2 conservative judges! *sigh* These dems need a beating.

Scalia rules though. The only justice that understands the constitution apparently.

[mrsmith]

Standard "AP reporter Gina Holland" notice:
http://www.magnoliareport.com/report20.html
"Gina Holland and George Shelton will be married on May 4. Shelton was communications director for Governor Ronnie Musgrove's 1999 campaign and later went on to work for the Democratic Governors Association and now is employed as a political consultant with the firm Strother-Duffy-Strother in Washington, DC. Holland is Mississippi's former Associated Press correspondent and currently serves as the AP's national writer covering the Supreme Court. "
"Strother-Duffy-Strother is the "Oldest Existing Democratic Media Firm." This distinction comes from more than 20 years of experience and the ability to win tough campaigns despite long odds. A combination of seasoned political experience, successful media strategies and young, creative talent helps us position our candidates and develop the key messages that resonate with voters. "

[Arkinsaw]

Scalia used arch language to accuse his colleagues of inconsistency.

LOL, he slaps at O'Connor for inconsistency in nearly every dissent, and for good reason. Scalia is the biggest brain to sit on the court in 100 years and O'Connor is a lightweight (not the lightest, but a lightweight).

[international american]

Scalia is the man!!

[jscd3]

"He truly reflects the arrogance of power," said Herman Schwartz, a liberal law professor at American University. "He doesn't give a damn."

Not quite true, of course. What he truly reflects is disgust at stupid and contradictory decisions that have no basis in law and are driven by emotion.

Scalia cares deeply about the law. What he doesn't give a damn about are the coments of "law professors" that aren't qualified to put law books back in shelves in alphabetical order.

[bluebunny]

20 years of republican victories and all we can manage is 2 conservative judges!

Yeah, no kidding. I come from a deeply conservative and religious family. My parents had raised me that Republicans were going to look out for us and to vote for them because they were the best at protecting family values. That's why I feel betrayed and hurt about what's going on lately. Because when you look at it, Republicans have been complicit in alot of these crazy rulings lately that are debasing society. Republicans appointed many of the judges on the U.S. Supreme Court, California Supreme Court and even the Massachussetts Supreme Court. So this sucks really bad.

[paleoagrarian]

Does anyone realistically see any more conservative justices being placed on the Court in the future?

Like you said, 20 years of victories and all we managed was 2. Time are a lot tougher for a conservative than they used to be, especially with all the RINOs.

[bobo1]

We need eight more of 'em.

Blessings, Bobo

[hosepipe]

Poor old, Antonin Scalia, must be like watching the three stooges doing eye pokes, curly(howard) Nyuk, Nyuk, Nyuks, and curly salutes, with the so-called moderates playing the Larry role... looking oh! so serious...

A conservative SNL crew would have a ball with a Supreme Court skit...
Justices
1) Curly
2) Moe
3) Larry
4) Laural
5) Hardy
6) Abbott
7) Costello
8) Martin
9) Jerry Lewis

** I know, it ain't funny, UNLESS YOU MAKE IT FUNNY.
-- FUNNY <<- the best form of political dissent and disgust..

[Schattie]

Well... one of the existing judges has to die or retire. It's conceivable that this could happen before 2004.

Remember that the presidency nominates judges, which are then ratified by the senate. This means that if Kerry wins there is no chance that conservative judges will be appointed, even if we gain Congressional seats.

[SAJ]

Great idea, but I'd substitute Burns and Allen for Martin and Lewis. Hell's bells, some of the SCOTUS rulings sound even now as if they'd come straight from Gracie's odd, er, thought process. (g~!)

[paleoagrarian]

But even if Bush wins, will Democrats in addition to the RINOs in the Senate actually ratify a judge like Scalia?

[SunStar]

"He truly reflects the arrogance of power," said Herman Schwartz, a liberal law professor at American University. "He doesn't give a damn."

Sure, and Ruth Bader-Ginsberg is a true icon of sanity and fairness. Bwahahahahah!!!!!

[nycgambit]

Another Reason we have to make sure Bush is reelected. If Kerry gets in I am scared of who will end up on the bench.

[SunkenCiv]

The real reason anti-terrorism legislation -- which passed by a large majority in Congress -- is on the "Democratic" hit list:

Freedom From Union Violence
by David Kendrick
(PDF)

Under the Supreme Court's 1973 Enmons decision, vandalism, assault, even murder by union officials are exempt from federal anti-extortion law. As long as the violence is aimed at obtaining property for which the union can assert a "lawful claim"--for example, wage or benefit increases-- the violence is deemed to be in furtherance of "legitimate" union objectives. By the Court's peculiar logic, such violence does not count as extortion...

After passage of the 1934 Anti-Racketeering Act, Local 807 of the Teamsters union decided to expand its territory outside of New York City. Teamsters members accosted truckers coming into the city with guns and charged a toll equal to one day's union wage. In some cases, the members of Local 807 would drive the trucks into the city. In other cases, the members took the money and departed. In no case of record were the members of Local 807 employed by the out-of-town trucking companies.

Since those tactics at least doubled the cost of transporting goods into New York City, most if not all of the local trucking companies signed contracts with Local 807. However, federal charges were filed against Local 807 and some of its members under the anti-racketeering law. The central issue was whether the Teamsters members were "bona fide" employees of the "bona fide" employers, from whom Local 807 had extorted union contracts. The U.S. Court of Appeals said that a bona fide relationship between employer and employee must be an uncoerced relationship.

Since Local 807 had no contract with many of the trucking companies before it began stopping the trucks, that interpretation would seem to rule out the Teamsters as bona fide employees.

But some of the Teamsters had driven trucks into the city and, on that ground, the Court of Appeals ruled, first, that they were bona fide employees and, second, that violent coercion was exempt from prosecution where "the employee really did the work for which he was paid."

[SunkenCiv]

The church-state decision, a loss for the Bush administration and other conservatives, prompted another strongly worded dissent in which Scalia warned that his colleagues were inviting state control of religion.

"What next? Will we deny priests and nuns their prescription drug benefits on the ground that taxpayers' freedom of conscience forbids medicating the clergy at public expense?" asked Scalia, a Roman Catholic and father of a priest.

If Congress gains the power to define what does and doesn't constitute a religion, formerly religious activities -- such as raising money for the IRA, banging choirboys in the behind, or recruiting terrorists for Islam -- will result in the redefinition of various groups as non-religions, and therefore not exempt under the First Amendment.

Those signs in the yards of many a liberal fake church, "Wage Peace", will turn those institutions into political organizations, fully taxable under the law.

The same thing has already happened to one major televangelist. Fair is fair.

[Hank Rearden]

Another Reason we have to make sure Bush is reelected. If Kerry gets in I am scared of who will end up on the bench.

Yeah? How'd David Souter get there?

Reelecting a liberal, free-spending, Big Stupid Republican Government professional politician won't fix the situation.

[Schattie]

Well they ratified him back in 1987 or whenever.