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To: spunkets
Clause one lays out, with specificity, what the courts jurisdictions are. Clause 2 defines the type of jurisdictions granted, original or appellate, and clearly states that the congress can make exceptions and regulate those jurisdictions as it pleases.
186 posted on 07/09/2005 8:24:51 PM PDT by Bigun (IRS sucks @getridof it.com)
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To: Bigun; PeoplesRepublicOfWashington
"clearly states that the congress can make exceptions and regulate those jurisdictions as it pleases.

Congress can not limit what laws, what part of the law, or what part of the Constitution they can rule on. Judicial review, as was outlined and confirmed in Marbury vs Madison, is impossible with such a proposition. Furthermore the intent of the founders was to have a Constitutional govm't and a judiciary that followed along the lines of it's common law predecessors. Hamilton would never have spoke of the courts as "the bulwarks of a limited Constitution against legislative encroachments" in Federalist #78. There he was arguing for lifetime appointments to protect the judiciaries integrity in judging THE LAW. It's impossible to judge the law if the legislature can, at it's whim, as you claim, place it off limits with a simple majority.

Here's what Hamilton says of the "exceptions and regulations clause" at the end of Federalist #80"; after acknowledging the court has jurisdiction in "all matters arising under this Constitution" and "not just the laws of the US".:

"From this review of the particular powers of the federal judiciary, as marked out in the Constitution, it appears that they are all conformable to the principles which ought to have governed the structure of that department, and which were necessary to the perfection of the system. If some partial inconveniences should appear to be connected with the incorporation of any of them into the plan, it ought to be recollected that the national legislature will have ample authority to make such exceptions, and to prescribe such regulations as will be calculated to obviate or remove these inconveniences. The possibility of particular mischief can never be viewed, by a well-informed mind, as a solid objection to a general principle, which is calculated to avoid general mischiefs and to obtain general advantages."

It appears that particular mischief is underfoot regarding the "exceptions" clause and the general principles are to be trashed entirely should it come to fruition. Allowing the legislature to pick and choose which laws the court has jurisdiction over amounts to removing the court's power under the COnstitution from all powers arising therefrom, to some laws of the US and maybe some arising from the State legislatures.

194 posted on 07/09/2005 10:10:14 PM PDT by spunkets
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