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To: Still Thinking

Of course you’re referring to the “emanations of the penumbra” argument that even leftist lawyers don’t take seriously.


17 posted on 11/26/2007 7:00:18 AM PST by MrB (You can't reason people out of a position that they didn't use reason to get into in the first place)
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To: MrB
Well, specifically, yes, but in a more general way, the way SCOTUS can sometimes find government powers enumerated without words in a document specifically designed to explicitly list every power the government was allowed.

The case is different with individual rights. The benefit of the doubt is supposed to go to the states over the feds and to the individual over any level of government unless one can find in the Constitution words to the contrary. So individual rights don't have to be listed to be valid, like govt powers.

However, even here SCOTUS can err, as in Roe by asserting an unlisted individual right (abortion) that conflicts with a listed individual right (life), or by exalting the feds over states on a matter that is not properly theirs to regulate. In Roe, I believe they did both.

21 posted on 11/26/2007 7:08:55 AM PST by Still Thinking (Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?)
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