The 34-Year Legacy of John Paul Stevens [Is THIS What Our Nation Wants Repeated?]

VenturaCountyStar ^ | April 25th 2010 | Stanislaus Pulle

[Steelfish]

The 34-Year Legacy of John Paul Stevens April 24, 2010 Stanislaus Pulle

After 34 years on the Supreme Court bench, Justice John Paul Stevens participated in many 5-4 votes, often writing the lead opinion that significantly changed our constitutional framework of decision-making.

He expanded the boundaries of national authority with respect to such issues as term limits, the commerce clause and the takings clause. His decisions limited the wartime powers of an executive, pulled back on the use of the death penalty, voted against a congressional ban on late-term abortions and repeatedly sought to strike down the accommodation of religion in schools and public places.

Here’s a small sample.

Term limits

Stevens wrote the majority 5-4 opinion that struck down a voter-adopted Arkansas constitutional amendment that prohibited candidates from appearing on the general election ballot if that candidate already served three terms in the House or two terms in the Senate. He reasoned that beyond the constitutional qualifications of “age, citizenship and residency, individual states that ratified the charter were handcuffed from making amendments.

To which Justice Clarence Thomas replied that the ultimate source of the Constitution’s authority is the consent of the people of each individual state. Had the majority vote gone the other way who could argue of the seismic change this would have made in the politics of our day?

Commerce clause

Here we have a set of 5-4 rulings where Stevens was firmly in favor of expanding the power of Congress over that of the states. In one case, where he was in the minority, the court struck down an attempt by Congress to create a federal criminal offense for possession of a handgun in a school zone.

To Stevens, Congress had this power to ban possession of firearms at any location ....MORE

[Clintonfatigued]

John Paul Stevens has moved so far left, I’m surprised he doesn’t have whiplash. In 1978, he ruled that rigid racial quotas were unconstitutional in University of California v. Bakke, and he voted to allow states to reinstitute the death penalty in Gregg v. Georgia. Now, most of his rulings are so radical, it’s as if they weren’t written by the same person. Now, all we can hope for is that Obama’s nominee fools him, like Earl Warren fooled Eisenhower and Harry Blackmun fooled Richard Nixon.

[Ol' Sparky]

Fifty million dead babies is Steven’s legacy.

[Albion Wilde]

Now, most of his rulings are so radical, it’s as if they weren’t written by the same person.

There must be something in the water around the Potomac region causing contagious lunacy in the Court and the Congress.

[Bulldawg Fan]

John Paul Stevens would have done this country a great service by dying years ago.

[Jacquerie]

From Aristotle's Politics circa 350 BC:

"The citizens begin by giving up some part of the Constitution, and so with greater ease the government change something else which is a little more important, until they have undermined the whole fabric of the state."

Such has been our history since 1932.

[Steelfish]

Well put!