[Congressman Billybob]

Thank you for posting this. I hadn't read it before, and it demonstrates with clarity the stupidity of Senator Specter's "understanding" of the Constitution. In his book, Specter says he thinks Brown v. Board of Education was decided that way because the Constitution had evolved. He is dead wrong.

Anyone who reads that case competently knows that it turned on the facts, not on the law. The Court found that separation of blacks into separate schools was not "separate but equal," which was the factual finding ofPlessy v. Ferguson because of evidence presented at trial that the separation placed a "stigma of inferiority" on the black children, who were relegated to their own schools.

So, Brown was based on the same constitutional requirement of "equal protection under the law" in the Constitution as was Plessy. The difference, and the necessity for reversal, came from the new facts as applied to the SAME law / Constitution.

I have long known that Specter is a fool on the subject of constitutional law. This is just one more proof of that.

Congressman Billybob

Latest column: "Democrat Official Outed as 'Sleaze' Source on Mayor O'Malley; Washington Post Ignored Story it Had (Updated)"

[MonroeDNA]

Specter is a democrat, IMHO.

[strategofr]

" So, Brown was based on the same constitutional requirement of "equal protection under the law" in the Constitution as was Plessy. The difference, and the necessity for reversal, came from the new facts as applied to the SAME law / Constitution."

Quite interesting. I didn't know that. (But figured out Specter was an idiot other ways.)

[skinkinthegrass]

The Court found that separation of blacks into separate schools was not "separate but equal," which was the factual finding ofPlessy v. Ferguson because of evidence presented at trial that the separation placed a "stigma of inferiority" on the black children, who were relegated to their own schools...The difference, and the necessity for reversal, came from the new facts as applied to the SAME law / Constitution.

Thks, for the Illumination. :)