Posted on 07/23/2002 7:18:53 PM PDT by Jean S
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Bush v. Gore presidential election case is an example of a hypocritical Supreme Court majority that broadens the rights of states only when it serves conservative ends, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton said Tuesday.
Clinton, D-N.Y., criticized the court's recent trend of 5-4 cases that have favored state power over federal control. The case that ended Florida ballot recounts in the disputed 2000 presidential election was also a 5-4 vote, but it stripped a state of power to administer its own laws, the former first lady said.
"Perhaps even more disturbing than the court's impulse to defend state and local prerogatives is the selectivity of that impulse," Clinton told an audience of law students, lawyers and judges at the liberal American Constitution Society.
States win the power struggle when they want to claim immunity from civil rights lawsuits or get tough on criminals, but not when they want to limit cigarette ads, help fund legal help for poor people, or "follow their own election laws," Clinton said.
The Bush v. Gore case centered on whether a fair recount could be done under Florida election law and still give the state time to have its electors included in the Electoral College.
Clinton called the court led by Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist "one of the most activist, if not the most activist, Supreme Court ever in American history."
Conservatives, including President Bush, have criticized "judicial activism," or the substitution of a judge's own views for established law. Conservatives have pointed to the civil rights-era decisions of the court under Chief Justice Warren Burger as examples of such activism.
Critics on the left have countered, as Clinton did Tuesday, that activism is often in the eye of the beholder.
While the court has the power to strike down federal laws, it has been historically reluctant to do so, Clinton noted.
The Warren court struck down federal laws in about 20 cases over 16 years, she said. The Rehnquist court, in the last eight terms alone, has done so in 32 cases. Eleven of those were states' rights cases in which the state prevailed, and many of those involved states trying to avoid "enforcement of civil rights guaranteed by federal law," Clinton said.
"In addition to installing an American president, the current Supreme Court has invalidated federal laws at the most astounding rate in our nation's history," Clinton said to applause and laughter.
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On the Net:
American Constitution Society site: www.americanconstitutionsociety.org
AP-ES-07-23-02 2203EDT
To whom?
Even more to the point: What was unconstitutional about the Florida decision?
Writer and speaker: Putzes both.
Ya putz!
Well, the more relevent question still stands.
As we used to say when living in NYC, To Hilliary: "Have a heart attack!"
"I'll either stay home, or hold my nose and pull the lever for the witch....at least with hitlery she is consistant: plain evil, but I know what I'm getting. With the witch in power, it just might bring the country back to it's senses...but I doubt it." - lgjhn
Still feel better?
I think ol' Hitlery is just intentionally lieing about this so she can be partisan. The only part the SCOTUS stepped on was the illegal way Florida was delaying the vote results of the federal portion of the election. Florida is free to delay, recount ad nauseum their own state election to their little hearts' content.
'Course she knows this, but how else can she be a good make-up-our-own-rules-as-we-go liberal unless she joins the chorus of the ignorami?
Hillary still hasn't gotten over leaving the White House. Medication could help...
This is the same media that likes to point out that Albert Gore Junior, son of the also ran presidential contender Albert Gore, "won the popular vote". This same media that likes to brag that "Algore had a MANDATE (man date?)" that chooses to ignore that the difference between the top two candidates (Albert and George) was less than 0.51% (that is barely 1/2 of 1 percent); a negligible value well within the margin of error for tallies (factoring in fraud and ignored absentee ballots that would not have affected the electoral vote).
Stick to the point: we hate hillary.
I read somewhere that Bill was seeing a shrink. Maybe they could get a family rate.
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