yeah, and the Old Sea Hag will go to her GRAVE... knowing a better man than her, is doing the job!!!
Posted on 04/01/2006 9:55:58 AM PST by new yorker 77
Retired U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor is concerned about the state of politics in Washington.
Even with a script in front of her about the sacrifices America's Founding Fathers made to write a fledgling country's Constitution, the 76-year-old justice took the opportunity Friday in Salt Lake City to lament current events - including the war in Iraq and the muddled separation of powers in the nation's capital, where the president, Congress and the courts attempt to restrain each other.
"We as a nation face many challenges," O'Connor said. "I'm worried about the stability of the constitutional system of checks and balances that has served us so well for 200 years."
The "simple, but effective design" the Constitution's drafters established should be respected, she added.
During the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the Bush administration has engaged in a program to eavesdrop on some communications without approval of courts and has claimed the right to detain suspects outside of normal judicial procedures.
O'Connor's comments at a dinner for the Constitutional Services Project echo statements the justice has made since leaving the court in January. In March, O'Connor sparked controversy when she said overzealous members of Congress are in danger of encroaching on the authority of the judicial branch by threatening to punish or pack the courts.
Friday, the ex-justice quickly reverted to a speech largely about history, but reminded her audience of lawyers, elected leaders and dignitaries to respect the document that has maintained order in the country for two centuries. Imagine the "sweltering Pennsylvania Statehouse" where the 55 Constitutional Convention delegates met during the summer of 1787, O'Connor said. They were away from their families, the windows were closed to keep out the flies and they were secretive about their work. The minutes were not published until 1819, O'Connor said.
"It was the text alone that was meant to survive," she said. Modern Americans need to learn the same commitment to the document, O'Connor said.
"Each generation has to re-commit itself to the Constitution," she said. "It's not simple work. It takes time and energy and the kind of commitment our forefathers had. It isn't passed down through the gene pool."
O'Connor mourned the decline in civics education in U.S. schools. She said 40 percent of Americans believe the First Amendment provides protections against self-incrimination. And, she said, one in five Americans believe the First Amendment protects the right to own pets.
"What matters is not whether people can recite part of the Constitution or pass a test," O'Connor said. "What matters is that people understand the principles that give it life today."
O'Connor was brought into town by ConSource, a nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C., that raises funds to create an online database, including the founding father's writings, the Constitution itself and links to modern court cases dealing with it. While in town, O'Connor met with Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr., toured The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' Welfare Square and met with the presidents of the University of Utah and Brigham Young University. Today, she plans to play tennis with author Emma Lou Thayne. And Sunday, she will attend the Mormon Tabernacle Choir's broadcast.
If anyone ever harbored any lingering doubts about what she really is ... just take a long hard look at Sandra Day O'Connor ... unleashed and unrestrained ...
Thank God Almighty at last
we're free of this marxist beeotch.
The irony here is so think you could cut it with a knife. Someone needs to get Justice O'conner a mirror.
Justice O'Connor needs to think of why the Founders, almost to a person, wrote "supreme Court" with a small "s." It was NEVER meant to be what it became.
McVey
Socialist moron. Too bad we cannot trash Ginsberg too, right now!!!
This is the same demented hag who discerned that the constitution bestowed her personally with the vision to determine that the US will need 25 years more of racially based college admissions. Phew. What a stench of rotting body politic.
I did not know that. You keep this up and I might learn some stuff :)
Keep in mind that of the original founders of the country few were lawyers. They were businessmen and farm owners, etc. Today the vast majority of our state legislators, Congressmen and Senators are lawyers. We have a government of lawyers, by lawyers, with the law interpreted by judges for the benefit of expanding the powers of the judiciary.
Nuff said..
yeah, and the Old Sea Hag will go to her GRAVE... knowing a better man than her, is doing the job!!!
You are right. It always burns me up when we get called "racists" because we oppose racial preference. Anything which does not fit the liberal mold gets you labeled a racist.
I have noticed that a number of liberal media types often frame arguments with conservatives that end up with them painting us as mindless bigots when we do not back this or that liberal program.
McVey
As bad as she was, she DID wait until Dubya was re-elected to retire. She could have retired under Clinton. In fact, there were reports of comments about "Finally being able to retire." during Dubya's inauguration party.
Think court of last resort ... meaning litle more than the fact that, at that level, one's appeals have run out. The original intent of the word supreme has been corrupted to mean something entirely unintended.
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