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To: airedale

You are right. This is silly. You have given up your right to think for yourself and now you just accept someone else's opinion as to the meaning of some pretty plain language. Do you think that since these rulings are some 200 years out from when the document was written -- and it held up as I suggested for the better part of that time -- that there might be an agenda at work?

Do you believe that the SCOTUS is unbiased? Or are you just willing to accept what some biased, anti liberty justices have to say?

Do you like the way the SC interprets the Constitution?

Do you believe that McCain Feingold is constitutional?

Don't give me what the courts have said. What do you think?


192 posted on 01/03/2006 11:23:07 PM PST by Badray (In the hands of bureaucrat, a clip board can be as dangerous to liberty as a gun.)
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To: Badray
In answer to your questions:

1. Do you believe that the SCOTUS is unbiased? Or are you just willing to accept what some biased, anti liberty justices have to say?

That's one of the trade offs that are made in a republic like ours. Anti liberty and biased are loaded terms. I'm sure that those who support People for the American Way feel that a different set of justices on the Supreme Court are biased and anti-liberty. That's part of the genius of our early founders that SCOTUS and some of lower courts meet in panels. In SCOTUS case it's all 9 (currently though it's been other numbers of justices in the past). The idea is that the collective wisdom is more than the sum of it's parts. It's also not the view of one person who can become a tyrant. Having that many people on a panel selected at different times is probably the best solution for obtaining judges. I'm more concerned about the quality of the intelect, honesty, integrity and a willingness to really grapple with tough issues within the framework of our constitution.

Do you like the way the SC interprets the Constitution?

Not all of the time, but I'd be a really special person if SCOTUS always agreed with me.

Do you believe that McCain Feingold is constitutional?

Simple answer is no. I think it was wrongly decided in it's 5/4 decision. I think it's a limit on free speech. I also think it may be part of the reason that the Abramoff scandal occurred. McCain Fiengold took the political parties out of the fund raising and put it into groups with less discipline and less transparency. The opportunities for this kind of thing to occur increased exponentially. It's part of the law of unintended consequences. Not that McCain or Feingold or the liberal media will ever admit that it is a fault of the law.

As a 5/4 it's still open to challenge on other issues that SCOTUS hasn't decided yet. Being new it's easier for the court to correct it's mistakes or fine tune its decisions.

Don't give me what the courts have said. What do you think?

On search and seizure for the most part I agree with the courts decisions on interpreting the law. I'm not a constitutional lawyer and there are probably lots of aspects of the law and the decisions that I haven't thought of or analyzed in conjunction with the laws passed by congress and the constitution. It's a very complicated issue as are all issues that reach SCOTUS.

If I'm interested in an issue that's before the court or has been decided by the court I read not only the decision but as much of the supporting material as possible including amicus briefs and lower court decisions in multiple circuits if the case is at SCOTUS. If it's a 9th Cirucit case which is where I live I read the lower court decision and as much of the material that's on line. I don't trust the media to really tell me the issues being decided in either emotional cases or politically loaded cases. I've seen too much sloppiness and inaccurate reporting. They seem to like the emotional arguments rather than the legal ones. The last case I studied was the medical marijuana case. SCOTUS decided the case the way they had to based upon their prior decisions involving interstate commerce. The initial decsions many years ago caused problems in my mind about issues involving the 10th amendment, but they followed the earlier decisions logic. It's part of the fight that existed since the founding between the federalist and the anti-federalist. Thats why those early arguements are still important today (even though the schools at least when I was in school taught mostly from the federalist point of view.

In the current issue I agree with the presidents position. Based upon what I know it seems legally sound. When more details come out and better legal minds than mine weigh in I might change my mind. If SCOTUS some how rules against the president I'll still disagree but will live with it. If they rule part of the actions are unconstitutional or illegal I'll review their decision and if I disagree with their reasoning I'll work for changes in the law. The only other choice is to abandon the US or start a revolution and win it. I'm not willing at this point to do either.
193 posted on 01/04/2006 1:29:35 AM PST by airedale ( XZ)
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