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To: Edward.Fish

You are correct, but Marbury v Madison is the toothpaste that, absent a Constitutional Convention, will never go back in the tube. In the 19th Century the power was used rarely, compared to today, and not always wisely, i e Dred Scott. In our time the calendar is filled with opportunities to remake the Constitution.


29 posted on 02/08/2018 10:27:31 PM PST by xkaydet65
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To: xkaydet65
You are correct, but Marbury v Madison is the toothpaste that, absent a Constitutional Convention, will never go back in the tube.

Except that's not what Marbury v Madison actually says; what it says is (a) the courts have to be able to read/apply [ie interpret] the Constitution, and (b) anything contrary to the Constitution is void.
The courts have reinterpreted (a) to mean that they can re-interpret the Constitution as they see fit, adding and removing penumbras and emanations at will, because [IMO] (a) isn't really written well; Marbury v Madison would be much better if it only said (b).

In the 19th Century the power was used rarely, compared to today, and not always wisely, i e Dred Scott. In our time the calendar is filled with opportunities to remake the Constitution.

Dred Scot wasn't even Marbury v Madison interpretive power; it was the Supreme Court essentially saying A slave, even if freed, can never become a Citizen (form wikipedia: finding that neither he nor any other person of African ancestry could claim citizenship in the United States), which made a third class of person in the States: Citizen, Slave, and non-citizen native owing allegiance to no other State. (The last state essentially being the man-without-a-country problem.)

50 posted on 02/09/2018 7:11:10 AM PST by Edward.Fish
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