Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

To: Dog Gone
Well, it won't get you in trouble with me.

Many Supreme Court- and even Appeals and District Court- rulings are a delight to read for their insight into the Constitution and it's history.

The rulings that bother me aren't.

27 posted on 01/07/2005 4:34:00 PM PST by mrsmith
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 18 | View Replies ]


To: mrsmith
The rulings that bother me aren't.

Maybe someday I'll write a book on this, but I don't think enough people would care to make it work.

But the Constitution was flawed, in that nobody could be the final authority. That was perfect for the model of checks and balances, but it's no way to run a country, especially when nobody was the final authority as to what the Constitution requires and prohibits.

Our Founders were absolutely brilliant, but they didn't think this one through to its logical conclusion.

That's why the Supreme Court made a power grab in Marbury v. Madison to fix the flaw.

And frankly, it's the logical fix. Presumably, at least at the time, legal scholars who had read the Federalist Papers and had become learned in the law could make more informed decisions on how the Constitution should be applied than anyone in the other branches of government.

While briefly ignored at the time, Marbury has stood the test of time. We now leave the final decision on what the Constitution requires to the US Supreme Court. And it's worked fairly well. We are the most free country on the planet.

The downside to it is the decisions that we don't like, and I don't think I have to name them. Some are based on specious legal reasoning, and some are essentially based on something wholly imaginary.

We have to deal with those, while recognizing that the Supreme Court doesn't like to reverse itself at all. It's incredibly rare. Nibbling at the edges of previous decisions is they way it almost always chooses to go, until finally a previous decision topples under its own weight.

Sudden Supreme Court decisions almost never happen.

In any event, I'm more comfortable with the Supreme Court telling us what the Constitution requires than whatever jackass President might get elected. The Supreme Court respects past rulings, which means the Ship of State can only turn slowly. That's a good thing.

48 posted on 01/07/2005 4:58:09 PM PST by Dog Gone
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 27 | View Replies ]

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article


FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson