The Roberts Court Defines Itself

[Laura PourMeADrink]

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/01/opinion/sunday/the-roberts-court-defines-itself.html?hp


For anyone who still thought legal conservatives are dedicated to judicial restraint, the oral arguments before the Supreme Court on the health care case should put that idea to rest. There has been no court less restrained in signaling its willingness to replace law made by Congress with law made by justices.

This should not be surprising. Republican administrations, spurred by conservative interest groups since the 1980s, handpicked each of the conservative justices to reshape or strike down law that fails to reflect conservative political ideology.

When Antonin Scalia and Anthony Kennedy were selected by the Reagan administration, the goal was to choose judges who would be eager to undo liberal precedents. By the time John Roberts Jr. and Samuel Alito Jr. were selected in the second Bush administration, judicial “restraint” was no longer an aim among conservatives. They were chosen because their professional records showed that they would advance a political ideology that limits government and promotes market freedoms, with less regard to the general welfare.


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[rhett o rick]

1. The balance of power is out of balance.

IMO our founders wanted the legislative branch to be the most powerful as they are elected by the people and more directly representative. The president was next with the SCOTUS given little power. The Constitution does not directly give the SCOTUS the power of striking down laws passed by the other two branches. This power was assumed by Justice John Marshall. While is sounds good in theory, we have seen how easily it can be abused and how hard it is to undo abuse.

IMO it's past time to realign the "balance of power".

[indepat]

4. A moniker of "fascist" would be impotent, shallow, and much too polite: they are bona fide treasonous

imnsho.

[meow2u3]

2. In other words, the Roberts court is a judicial dictatorship

They're entirely hellbent on usurping and overruling Congress and not only making up the law as they go along, but also acting to supplant democracy with a de facto--or de jure--permanent plutarchy, and to hell with our Constitutional rights.

They consistently strike down constitutional laws and unconstitutional and uphold acts of Congress that would cause the Founding Fathers to spin in their graves.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

3. Hypocrisy continues. How many times have we heard that schpiel about activist judges

what a bunch of bullshit.

Someone should write a book about how the repukes have taken hypocrisy to new heights.

[Ikonoklast]

5. Bow Down To Your Corporate Masters!

They're people too, you know.

Really shitty people that will destroy Democracy as we knew it, but, people all the same.

[rhett o rick]

6. Corporations are not people and do not have morals and

we shouldnt expect them to. They are entities that we allow to exist to benefit WeThePeople (WTP). When they start to operate against the benefits of WTP, they need to be prosecuted and executed if necessary.

I does us no good to blame the soulless corporations as we are responsible for controlling them. If you turn a bull loose in a china shop, dont blame the bull.

I know I am lecturing to the choir, but just wanted to say that.

[Ikonoklast]

7. Corporations will soon be able to use Stand Your Ground laws to kill people that

criticize them on the intrawebs.

You are threatening them, so they will have the right to defend themselves using deadly force.

The Roberts Court will nod sagely in agreement.

[rhett o rick]

8. Actually I think it might get to that.

They are IMO already responsible for the tens of thousands that die every year from lack of health care.

[Ikonoklast]

9. Corporations have been killing people for profit since the very first ones were organized.

Look at the history of European chartered organizations and their efforts to spread colonialism on behalf of their benefactors in this hemisphere, and in Africa and Asia.