Posted on 04/02/2005 3:58:14 AM PST by Pharmboy
WASHINGTON, April 1 - Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg of the Supreme Court embraced the practice of consulting foreign legal decisions on Friday, rejecting the argument from conservatives that United States law should not take international thinking into account.
After a strongly worded dissent in a juvenile death penalty case from Justice Antonin Scalia last month that accused the court of putting too much faith in international opinion, Justice Ginsberg said the United States system should, if anything, consider international law more often.
"Judges in the United States are free to consult all manner of commentary," she said in a speech to several hundred lawyers and scholars here Friday.
She cited several instances when the logic of foreign courts had been applied to help untangle legal questions domestically, and of legislatures and courts abroad adopting United States law.
Fears about relying too heavily on world opinion "should not lead us to abandon the effort to learn what we can from the experience and good thinking foreign sources may convey," Justice Ginsburg told members of the American Society of International Law.
On March 1, the Supreme Court ruled 5 to 4 that the Constitution forbids executing convicts who committed their crimes before turning 18. The majority opinion reasoned that the United States was increasingly out of step with the world by allowing minors to be executed, saying "the United States now stands alone in a world that has turned its face against the juvenile death penalty."
Justice Scalia lambasted that logic, saying that "like-minded foreigners" should not be given a role in helping interpret the Constitution. House Republicans have introduced a resolution declaring that the "meaning of the Constitution of the United States should not be based on judgments, laws or pronouncements of foreign institutions unless such foreign judgments, laws or pronouncements inform an understanding of the original meaning of the Constitution of the United States."
In her speech, Justice Ginsberg criticized the resolutions in Congress and the spirit in which they were written. "Although I doubt the resolutions will pass this Congress, it is disquieting that they have attracted sizable support," she said.
"The notion that it is improper to look beyond the borders of the United States in grappling with hard questions has a certain kinship to the view that the U.S. Constitution is a document essentially frozen in time as of the date of its ratification," Justice Ginsburg said.
"Even more so today, the United States is subject to the scrutiny of a candid world," she said. "What the United States does, for good or for ill, continues to be watched by the international community, in particular by organizations concerned with the advancement of the rule of law and respect for human dignity."
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice introduced Justice Ginsburg at the event, the first appearance by a sitting secretary of state before the 99-year-old organization in decades. Dr. Rice described Justice Ginsberg as "a great and good friend," adding that they also happened to be neighbors.
Pull heer feeding tube!
Ain't going to happen.
She will stay on as a vegetable until another dim is in the white house.
You think she'd let G.W. choose another member of the supremes?
Chief justice is obviously about to go as are a few others.
The next few years we are all going to learn what Mr. Bush and the rest of the repubs are all about.
I for one think the lot collectively couldn't equal one of Ollie Norths nuts.
Yep...seems clear to me. Why can't Ruth Bader Ginsburg understand that? I was always told she's a genius, but she sure sounds like a dumbass to me.
Pull her feeding tube!
I think the thing that roils me the most here is that I remember arguing with "conservatives" who were all hell bent on voting for Perot.
They're response to what happens "when" Klinton gets elected always was: "Well, How Much Damage Can He Really Do?"
Ginsberg, the Klinton gift that keeps on giving.
Now you chowder heads who voted for Perot and Klinton know.
The GOP doesn't have the balls to initiate imepeachment proceedings against a facist like Ginsberg. Too bad. Maybe someday, after the illegals overrun the Southwest and reclaim it for Mexico will they wake up.
Bump.
F**king traitor.
F**king traitor.
She should get out of Georgetown or wherever the hell she lives more often, eh?
Yep--and worth saying twice. It makes me ashamed that she is a member of the tribe.
Our early legal system was based in English common law, which Blackstone had brilliantly described, so it was not unusual or misguided to refer to his writings in early legal interpretations. This is quite different from now just jumping across the pond or around the world to find things to support the way you want to rule when you can't find another way to get there.
She is currently 71 years-old and had cancer. Maybe we'll get luck and she'll step down during the next four years.
_________________________________________
Why wait four years!? She is not defending the US Constitution and is misinterpreting US Laws. She is breaking US Laws by refering to European Guidelines.
She should be removed from the bench by whatever legal means there are. She was entrusted by the American People, to keep by here oath. She has broken her word and her oath!!
She is a Felon and like John Kerry cannot hold public office. Remove her and her Progressive Cronies from the bench and from the Congress.
Thanks for your help with some facts on Blackstone.
Consulting foreign law is no worse than using such indubitably domestic sources as (1) the latest rantings from the Harvard and Yale law faculties, (2) the latest press releases from the ACLU, or (3) the latest op-ed columns from the Post or the Times, which is essentially what has driven constitutional law for the past half-century. If the courts never again made reference to foreign law, our jurisprudence would still be just as bad. The Warren Court, after all, didn't bother much with foreign law.
The problem is not the use of foreign law; the problem is the absence of law altogether. When legislatures are making policy, it makes sense for them to consult every source relevant to that policy, including experiences abroad. If courts are viewed, and view themselves, as legislatures, then it is not surprising to see them act like legislatures. Thus, it is important not to lose sight of the larger issue here. Justice Ginsburg's comments on foreign law are a very minor symptom of a much larger disease. The disease is the loss of a Culture of Constitutionalism. It is fine to use the foreign law issue as a vehicle for galvanizing support for that culture, but we need to keep it in context.
Good post
The "foreign law" comment just makes it all the more clear what their intentions are and, as you say, easier to galvanize opinion around.
Justice Ruth "Bad Girl" Ginsburg of the Supreme Court, is a liberal-demokkkRAT-progressive-commie-socialist-nazi, scumbag bitch. I won't say what I really think, or I'll get into trouble on FR.
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