Justice Ginsburg to Egyptians: Look to the Constitutions of South Africa or Canada, Not to the US ..

Following are excerpts from an interview with US Supreme Court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, which aired on Al-Hayat TV on January 30, 2012.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg: It is a very inspiring time - that you have overthrown a dictator, and that you are striving to achieve a genuine democracy. So I think people in the United States are hoping that this transition will work, and that there will genuinely be a government of, by, and for the people.

I met with the head of the elections commission. I think that the first step has gone well, and that elections have been held for the lower house that everyone has considered to be free and fair. So that's one milestone, and the next will be the drafting of a constitution.

I can't speak about what the Egyptian experience should be, because I'm operating under a rather old constitution. The United States, in comparison to Egypt, is a very new nation, and yet we have the oldest written constitution still in force in the world.

Let me say first that a constitution, as important as it is, will mean nothing unless the people are yearning for liberty and freedom. If the people don't care, then the best constitution in the world won't make any difference. So the spirit of liberty has to be in the population, and then the constitution - first, it should safeguard basic fundamental human rights, like our First Amendment, the right to speak freely, and to publish freely, without the government as a censor.

You should certainly be aided by all the constitution-writing that has gone one since the end of World War II. I would not look to the US constitution, if I were drafting a constitution in the year 2012. I might look at the constitution of South Africa. That was a deliberate attempt to have a fundamental instrument of government that embraced basic human rights, had an independent judiciary... It really is, I think, a great piece of work that was done. Much more recent than the US constitution - Canada has a Charter of Rights and Freedoms. It dates from 1982. You would almost certainly look at the European Convention on Human Rights. Yes, why not take advantage of what there is elsewhere in the world?

I would agree with you in some ways.

It's certainly true that our Constitution was designed for a federalist system of distributed powers between numerous states with their own regionally divergent concerns, not a unitary nation with a single central government where the divisions are ideological, not geographic.

Our American winner-take-all system of districts in an Egyptian context would likely result in virtually no members of the Coptic Christian minority being elected, and in many districts the most radical type of Islamic radicals would get a plurality though not always an absolute majority of the vote.

Proportional representation by political party in a parliamentary system without a strong executive works well in nations where the divisions are ideological or ethnic rather than primarily geographical, and a good case can be made that a parliamentary system of proportional representation has become the majority form of democratic governance in the world because the political fault lines in most nations are no longer based primarily on geography, though geography may be important.

There's also the issue raised by several other Freepers that the founders of the United States had centuries of common law behind them and about a century and a half of self-government as British colonies. A constitution of a nation with little experience in self-rule needs to be far more detailed because nothing can be assumed if it's not in writing.

Quite likely even having things in writing won't help if people aren't deeply committed to the rule of law. Anglo-American jurisprudence had the question of “Lex Rex” — the law is king, not the king is the law — settled by the English Civil War a century before the founding of the United States. That simply is not an unquestioned principle in the Middle East, where strongmen are the norm and laws have only the force the leaders choose to give them.

Let's grant all that. However, what Justice Ginsberg actually said was none of those things, but rather that our Constitution was outdated.

Now maybe she meant something else and was trying to imply things to avoid offending her hosts, but what she said was not good, and quite likely indicates a seriously defective view of the document she's supposed to be using as the basis of her Supreme Court decisions.

The South African constitution, promulgated by Nelson Mandela, came into effect on February 4, 1997. Unlike our outdated old relic, it is one of the most progressive constitutions in the world and basically enshrines some of the libs’ loftiest dream goals for America. I’m sure some of Ginsberg’s favorite parts include these:

* A “Commission for Gender Equality” is explicitly established in the constitution.

* A “Broadcasting Authority” is established to regulate broadcasting and to ensure “fairness” and a “diversity of views”.

* The Bill Of Rights includes the right to equality, prohibiting discrimination on the basis of many things including sexual orientation, marital status, disability, language, age, etc.

* It also includes the right to life, which has been held to prohibit capital punishment, but not prohibit abortion.

* It explicitly includes reproductive rights. “Everyone has the right to bodily and psychological integrity, which includes the right to make decisions concerning reproduction.”

* It permits freedom of speech and expression, but “hate” speech and war propaganda are explicitly excluded.

* Everyone has the right to assemble, peacefully and “unarmed”.

* Includes womens’ suffrage.

* Prohibits depriving anyone of citizenship.

* Includes the right to choose a trade, occupation or profession, though these may be regulated by law.

* Includes the right to unionize and the right to strike. Every trade union has the explicit right to engage in collective bargaining.

* Includes the right to a healthy environment and the right to have the environment protected.

* Includes the rights to food, water, health care (including “reproductive health care”) and social assistance, which the state must progressively realize within the limits of its resources: “The state must take reasonable legislative and other measures, within its available resources, to achieve the progressive realisation of each of these rights.”

* Childrens’ rights include the right to a name and nationality from birth, the right to family or parental care, the right to a basic standard of living, the right to be protected from maltreatment and abuse, the protection from child labor, the right not to be detained except as a last resort, the paramountcy of the best interests of the child and the right to an independent lawyer in court cases involving the child, and the prohibition of the military use of children.

* Includes a universal right to education, which the state must make progressively available and accessible.

* Includes the right to use the language of one’s choice and to participate in the cultural life of one’s choice.

* When interpreting the Bill of Rights, a court, tribunal or forum ”must consider international law; and may consider foreign law.”

Links:
http://www.info.gov.za/documents/constitution/1996/index.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constitution_of_South_Africa

The SCARIEST thing about this is not that this witch actually SAID it - we surmised as much before.

NO. The SCARIST thing about it is so many Americans simply don’t give a damn. Even here in this forum. This article should have generated THOUSANDS of postings.

When Americans send their elected officials the message they simply DON’T care what they do, this re-inforces their opinion that THEY know better than US and they can damn well do anything they want about THEIR country and THEIR government.

The nation and the government belongs to us. But if we haven’t got the testacles to take it back, they will run away with it.

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