Posted on 05/04/2006 11:50:16 AM PDT by DBeers
ST. LOUIS - Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia said Wednesday he doesn't want an overly broad job description. In fact, he wants the U.S. Supreme Court to stay out of the nation's most important decision making.
Scalia said too much regulatory power has shifted to the judicial branch during his speech before hundreds of attorneys at a Bar Association of Metropolitan St. Louis luncheon.
Over the last 50 years, the United States has put too much emphasis on letting bureaucratic experts make important policy decisions, Scalia said. Such decisions, he said, ultimately come down to a moral judgment.
"There's no right answer - only a policy preference," Scalia said. "It is utterly impossible to take politics out of policy decisions."
Scalia criticized the U.S. Supreme Court for its ruling in the 1973 Roe v. Wade case, which established the constitutional right to abortion. He said such decisions can't be made without a moral judgment, and should therefore be left to voters or the politicians they elect.
Scalia compared Roe v. Wade with a ruling in 2000 by the European Court of Human Rights which upheld the privacy of a homosexual man who engaged in group sex. Scalia said the ruling prohibited nations in the European Union from grappling independently with the question of whether homosexuality is morally acceptable.
"Surely the binding answer to that question should not be decided by seven unelected judges," Scalia said, drawing applause from the crowd.
Scalia drew laughter from the crowd several times, once when he sarcastically commented on the notion judges should liberally interpret the U.S. Constitution to keep pace with America's maturing moral standards.
"Societies only mature; they never rot," he said.
Earlier in the day, Scalia attended a Law Day Mass celebrated by Archbishop Raymond Burke at the Basilica of St. Louis. They were joined by Gov. Matt Blunt and Mayor Francis Slay.
Compare this to AJ Ginsburg's alarm over Congressional oversight of the Federal Judiciary.
European Court of Human Rights which upheld the privacy of a homosexual man who engaged in group sex. Scalia said the ruling prohibited nations in the European Union from grappling independently with the question of whether homosexuality is morally acceptable.
"Surely the binding answer to that question should not be decided by seven unelected judges," Scalia said, drawing applause from the crowd.
Can someone point out the part of the Constitution that gives elected officials, bureaucratic experts, or Judges the authority to make "Moral Judgments"?
He is right. Also when the American people really stop looking at the courts and the government to solve our problems; we will be able to really move forward and be much better for it. We will have to do it because the courts and the government won't.
Well, obviously the SC judges that made the, "MORAL" decision of Roe vs. Wade for the entire country, felt they were far superior to everyone. After all, shouldn't 7 people be able to decide what over 2 billion people do. And by the way, we have 9 now. Let's get rid of 2. I vote to drop Ginsburg and Souter...
Yeah, what he said. Congress shares in this blame big time. Federal courts spend their time deciding local issues every day, because Congress passed so many national laws that override state proceedings.
This from a justice who found new and novel interpretations of the Necessary and Proper Clause to overrule the wishes of the voters of the State of California when it came to medical marijuana - and thereby missed a chance to take a bite out of Wickard.
Scalia talks the talk when it comes to originalism, but at times he fails to walk the walk.
What a great man Scalia is.
You got that right!
:-)
Laws are inherently restrictions on conduct for the purpose of curtailing what's wrong and/or promoting what's right. Concepts of right and wrong are moral in nature. Congress, civil authorities, or someone must make moral judgments in this regard. The debate is not about that moral judgments are made, but over the substance of the moral code invoked.
I love Justice Scalia. May he have a long, long life!
I really hope Ruth "Buzzy" Ginsburg is the next to go (retire). She has been a boil on the neck of the Court since her installment.
And he has never faultered. He still maintains his job regards the Constitution and cleaning up the mess Congress creates.
Liar.
Upon these two foundations, the law of nature and the law of revelation, depend all human laws; that is to say, no human laws should be suffered to contradict these. There are, it is true a great number of indifferent points, in which both the divine law and the natural leave a man at his own liberty; but which are found necessary for the benefit of society to be restrained within certain limits. And herein it is that human laws have their greatest force and efficacy; for, with regard to such points as are not indifferent, human laws are only declaratory of, and act in subordination to, the former. To instance in the case of murder; this is expressly forbidden by the divine, and demonstrably by the natural law; and from these prohibitions arises the true unlawfulness of this crime. Those human laws that annex a punishment to it, do not at all increase its moral guilt, or superadd any fresh obligation in foro conscientiae to abstain from it's perpetration. Nay, if any human law should allow or enjoin us to commit it, we are bound to transgress that human law, or else we must offend both the natural and the divine.
SECTION THE SECOND.
OF THE NATURE OF LAWS IN GENERAL.
Blackstones Commentaries
a.k.a. the Lawyer's Bible
------
Scalia criticized the U.S. Supreme Court for its ruling in the 1973 Roe v. Wade case, which established the constitutional right to abortion. He said such decisions can't be made without a moral judgment, and should therefore be left to voters or the politicians they elect.
Justice Scalia is right. The federal court had no authority to decide that case because it's an issue of the civil law of the People, not the statutory law of the national government.
Their assumption of authority is what gave us Roe vs. Wade.
I'm prayin' for it too. She's just an ACLU cheerleader...
I didn't realize that Blackstone was part of the U.S. Constitution. Which Amendment was it?
Can someone point out the part of the Constitution that gives elected officials, bureaucratic experts, or Judges the authority to make "Moral Judgments"?
fwdude comments:
Concepts of right and wrong are moral in nature. Congress, civil authorities, or someone must make moral judgments in this regard.
The debate is not about that moral judgments are made, but over the substance of the moral code invoked. -11-
The "moral code invoked" has been established for over two hundred years in our Constitution.
Congress, civil authorities, -- all officials, "-- both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by oath, or affirmation, to support this Constitution; --"
LPM is quite correct, -- there is nothing in the Constitution that gives elected officials, bureaucratic experts, or Judges the authority to make "Moral Judgments".
They are empowered to make reasonable decisions and to write & enforce reasonable regulations, using due process of law. -- Law that does not deprive any person of life, liberty or property; -- unconstitutionally.
If you're so ignorant of the law as to NOT know who Blackstone was, what he said or how he ties into the Constitution, you never WILL understand the words "Republican form of government".
FYI- George Tucker
Tucker wrote poetry, political satire, tried his hand at drama, but is known best for his edition of Blackstone's Commentaries and his other legal commentaries, including View of the Constitution, one of the first extended commentaries on the newly ratified Constitution. He is sometimes referred to as the "American Blackstone" for his Americanized version of a multi-volume of Blackstone's Commentaries on the Laws of England.
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