Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA): Good judges just "say what the law is."

[Eric J in MN]

Opening Statement From Sen. Chuck Grassley (As Prepared For Delivery)

Good judges understand that their job is not to impose their own personal opinions of "right" and "wrong." They know their job is to say what the law "is," rather than what they personally think it "ought to be."

Apparently, when the Justices had to decide whether a student could sue a school official who tore up his sign which said "Bong Hits 4 Jesus," they should have simply looked up the law and not considered what the law ought to be.

Whether a Justice is more sympathetic to authority or to the underdog has nothing to with it. A personal philosophy of believing in civil liberties has nothing to do with it. All they had to do was say-what-the-law-is. (sarcasm)

[lindisfarne]

1. That presupposes legislators know how to write good laws.They often do not make many things clear.nt

[BlooInBloo]

2. Oh - is everybody else illiterate?

[county worker]

3. Every abortion activist should just say what the law is.

They all want a supreme court that will change the law as it now stands concerning abortion based on their private beliefs.

[zbdent]

19. feelings ... oh oh oh feelings ...

"ABORTION IS MURDER!"

:eyes:

[marmar]

4. Assley showed his true nature today......

..... and he's considered one of the "reasonable" Repugs.

[sasquatch]

5. *But only when they are on the side of corporatism and right wing judicial idealogies

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

6. The job of the Supreme Court is to figure out what the law is

because if a case gets that far it's because the law is unclear or disputed. And appellate courts actually do MAKE law in cases where a legislature has not done so -- that's what the "common law" is, and it's what's been the basis of Anglo-American jurisprudence for centuries.

Grassley is an idiot.

[liberal N proud]

7. They call decisions of the court opinions Senator

SCOTUS write OPINIONS of the law. How, they, each one of them interprets the law.

[HughMoran]

8. I heard Grasshole on NPR

Whatanasshole.

[sharesunited]

9. Dred Scott and Plessey were what the law was. Those decisions reflected the will of the voters.

The job of justices is to do justice. Not rubber stamp fear, ignorance and bigotry.

[Hepburn]

10. Jee-bus fucking christ....Grassley is an idiot.

Does he even have a clue???? Hello? Cases of "first impression." How the fuck does one merely look up the law?

Unreal...:eyes:

[immoderate]

11. If you remember Grassley from the Watergate committee...

You're not surprised at how clueless he is.

--imm

[Canuckistanian]

12. Jeebus

Can you imagine living in a world with laws written only by politicians?

Yikes.

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

13. Hey idiot (Grassely), we could have a robot be a SC Justice if that were all there was to it.

Believe it or not, the law is not as black and white as it seems. Fucking dipshit.

[TahitiNut]

14. Poor Chuck ... never got over Brown v. Board of Education.

Asshole.

[wiggs]

15. Whenever one of these propagandists say that law is always black and white

and there's no room for interpretation or gray....just ask why, if that's the case, are there split rulings? How can some judges rule one way and others rule differently? And...why not have just one really good supreme court judge who is very technical? All he or she has to do is read the law and apply it to the question, right? Why have more than one judge?

The reason there are several judges on the supreme court and why there are such things as appeals courts is that some issues require interpretation, some require new thought, some require listening to different points of view, some require back and forth discussion that eventually leads to understanding, etc..

Same reason there's more than one juror on juries.

They call it 'judgement' for a reason...

[ejpoeta]

16. if that were the case, then we would never have any advances.

we would still have slavery and 'separate but equal'. would women have any rights at all!!! how ridiculous.

[Eric J in MN]

21. Slavery was actually upheld by the Supreme Court until...

...the Constitution was amended to ban slavery.

Separate-but-equal was banned by the Supreme Court in 1954.

[musette_sf]

17. it's Twittin' Chuck Grassley, still can't buy a clue

[zbdent]

18. so, Senator ...

wiretapping is illegal ... lying us into a war is illegal ... etc ...

[Cha]

20. What was "the law" on

bush vs Gore?