Posted on 04/02/2005 3:58:14 AM PST by Pharmboy
WASHINGTON, April 1 - Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg of the Supreme Court embraced the practice of consulting foreign legal decisions on Friday, rejecting the argument from conservatives that United States law should not take international thinking into account.
After a strongly worded dissent in a juvenile death penalty case from Justice Antonin Scalia last month that accused the court of putting too much faith in international opinion, Justice Ginsberg said the United States system should, if anything, consider international law more often.
"Judges in the United States are free to consult all manner of commentary," she said in a speech to several hundred lawyers and scholars here Friday.
She cited several instances when the logic of foreign courts had been applied to help untangle legal questions domestically, and of legislatures and courts abroad adopting United States law.
Fears about relying too heavily on world opinion "should not lead us to abandon the effort to learn what we can from the experience and good thinking foreign sources may convey," Justice Ginsburg told members of the American Society of International Law.
On March 1, the Supreme Court ruled 5 to 4 that the Constitution forbids executing convicts who committed their crimes before turning 18. The majority opinion reasoned that the United States was increasingly out of step with the world by allowing minors to be executed, saying "the United States now stands alone in a world that has turned its face against the juvenile death penalty."
Justice Scalia lambasted that logic, saying that "like-minded foreigners" should not be given a role in helping interpret the Constitution. House Republicans have introduced a resolution declaring that the "meaning of the Constitution of the United States should not be based on judgments, laws or pronouncements of foreign institutions unless such foreign judgments, laws or pronouncements inform an understanding of the original meaning of the Constitution of the United States."
In her speech, Justice Ginsberg criticized the resolutions in Congress and the spirit in which they were written. "Although I doubt the resolutions will pass this Congress, it is disquieting that they have attracted sizable support," she said.
"The notion that it is improper to look beyond the borders of the United States in grappling with hard questions has a certain kinship to the view that the U.S. Constitution is a document essentially frozen in time as of the date of its ratification," Justice Ginsburg said.
"Even more so today, the United States is subject to the scrutiny of a candid world," she said. "What the United States does, for good or for ill, continues to be watched by the international community, in particular by organizations concerned with the advancement of the rule of law and respect for human dignity."
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice introduced Justice Ginsburg at the event, the first appearance by a sitting secretary of state before the 99-year-old organization in decades. Dr. Rice described Justice Ginsberg as "a great and good friend," adding that they also happened to be neighbors.
Justice Ginsburg should be consulting the United States Constitution, foreign courts are irrelevant. If she believes that judges can/should consult foriegn opinion and foriegn laws, she should be impeached and removed from the bench.
Must we sit idly by, here on our computers, and just watch this shabby shift happen???
better it move to Florida
From where I sit, Kennedy is just as bad on this foreign input into our EXCEPTIONAL CONSTITUTION!!! (sorry for the yell, but what the hell is this crappola, anyway?)
And devaluing everything we stand/have stood for to the point of making it not worth fighting and dying for very soon!!!
And there you have it... right there in the oath she took... SHE LIED!!! ("under the Constitution and laws of the United States!!!")
What an excellent point. It seems so obvious now, but I NEVER would have thought of it. Thanks for posting.
Yes you do and God Bless You for those prose!!!
Several on this thread have brought up impeachment. Can any of you Freeper legal eagles tell us if this is possible? What potential grounds are there for her impeachment? I would be for it, certainly...if for no other reason than she gives heart to the lower court judges who think that way.
Exactly so. Every time I read one of your comments I agree 100%. At least so far!
I've GOT to read "Men in Black" by Mark Levin.
In related news a Colorado death penalty conviction was thrown out by the courts becasue a juror had referenced the bible. Someone need to ask Ginsberg why it is OK to consult foreign law, but not the bible.
(wouldn't a pen, at least, have more potential power for corrective change?)
Popcorn, pens, and pistols.
(Okay, maybe not pistols, but I needed another P word for alliteration and that sounded impressive.)
The Constitution provides for its own amendment.
----
and imo, it would seem , its own destruction as well when good people do nothing to protect and preserve it, and only seek to 'enhance' it and make it more with the times.
The living 'Constitution' only appeals to those who would seek to destroy it, for at the roots of some folks belief, the world is in turmoil because our Founding Fathers sought a new way of governing, not ruled by earthly desires and human foibles.
""Judges in the United States are free to consult all manner of commentary,"
No, Justice Ginsberg, you are supposed to consult the US Constitution.
HUH????
Exactly....we must put the Judiciary back as a coequal branch of the Federal Government rather than a super legislative branch!!
Well, I've always said, "Ruth Vader Ginsberg may look like Yoda, but she belongs to the dark side, when it comes to protecting our liberties."
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