That was no coincidence. A few months ago, I read about the record of SCOTUS Harry A. Blackmun, the author of Roe v. Wade. He was also the one advancing wacko-environmentalism through his liberal interpretations. My own summary from reading various sources is below. One wonders how he would feel about the "incursion" if looking back, today.
On environmental issues he called for an "imaginative expansion" of traditional standing concepts that would allow public interest groups to enter environmental cases. When the Sierra Club was found to lack standing as "a representative of the public" in a case challenging the development of a ski resort in the Sequoia National Forest (Sierra Club v. Morton, 1972), Blackmun lamented "The case poses ... a wide, growing, and disturbing problem, that is, the Nation's and the world's deteriorating environment with its resulting ecological disturbances. Must our law be so rigid and our procedural concepts so inflexible that we render ourselves helpless when the existing methods and the traditional concepts do not quite fit and do not prove to be entirely adequate for new issues?"BTW, Blackmun was appointed by Richard Nixon and incessantly described as "a strict constructionist."As one of two alternatives, he wrote in his dissent "I would permit an imaginative expansion of our traditional concepts of standing in order to enable an organization such as the Sierra Club... to litigate environmental issues. This incursion upon tradition need not be very extensive. Certainly, it should be no cause for alarm. ...We need not fear that Pandora's box will be opened or that there will be no limit to the number of those who desire to participate in environmental litigation. The courts will exercise appropriate restraints just as they have exercised them in the past." The case, and others expanding upon it, opened federal courts up to a wealth of litigation.
Post 34 informative post.
“Blackmun was appointed by Richard Nixon and incessantly described as “a strict constructionist.”’
And we shouldn’t expect Giuliani to pick constructionalist judges, either.
“BTW, Blackmun was appointed by Richard Nixon and incessantly described as “a strict constructionist.” “
Which is one of reasons I won’t vote for Frudy McRomneyson. They would screw it up just as bad as Nixon did. Lithmus test? Hell yes.
Blackmun was either a fool or a diabolical liar, and I don't think he was a fool. Judicial restraint has been as dead as a doornail for the last 7 decades or more, and he knew that as well or better than anyone.