Replies

To show you the difficulty, let me ask what *you* would do if a state, say, Maryland, up and decided to legalize the enslavement of all it’s FReepers, complete with hunting them down, house by house? Is the military response on the table? Would other, lesser options such as sanctions, work for you? What would be your legal justification for any response you might choose? Could you possibly identify a sliding scale of justifications for a continuum of possible responses? If no variance in justifications, how would you choose among options?

And please, feel free to use something other than Yes or No.

CC, a lot of questions don’t lend themselves to simple Yes/No answers. As a lawyer, I coach witnesses to watch out for clever lawyers who try to box them in with “false dilemma” questions that will actually force the witness to misrepresent the truth if a simple Yes/No answer is given. To show you the difficulty, let me ask what *you* would do if a state, say, Maryland, up and decided to legalize the enslavement of all it’s FReepers, complete with hunting them down, house by house?

If the 14th Amendment has not been repealed, then a simple Appeal of the State Law to the Federal Courts should be sufficient to see the offending State Law struck down as UnConstitutional.

See, the problem that EV and I are discussing doesn't really have to do with the States passing Laws which legally disadvantage one class of citizens (the Unborn, or FReepers, or what have you) -- both EV and I would agree that such Laws should be struck down as UnConstitutional.

The problem is, what is the Federal Government supposed to do if a State repeals a State Law which protects a group of citizens -- that is, presuming that we were to overturn Roe vs. Wade and bring State Laws against Abortion back into effect, then what do you do if a State were to repeal its Laws against Abortion? The Congress and the Courts are not authorized to write laws for the States; and there's really nothing to Appeal to the Courts if a State is simply repealing an existing Law.

So, I think that you need to fine-tune your analogy.

If you are asking about States passing unjust Laws, EV and I will have no disagreement. Such Laws should be struck down as UnConstitutional.
Ergo, you need to re-write your analogy to describe a Case in which a State were to repeal a Law which provides legal protection to the citizenry, or to one class of citizens.

Do that, and I'll be happy to discuss your analogy -- including answering ANY "Yes" or "No" Questions with a straightforward "Yes" or "No". (I reserve the right to provide a full explanation for my answer, but I will happily take a "Yes" or "No" stance to start the discussion).