Letters to the Editor
-
After all these Years
And all the Revelations about the administration of Justice, or more properly the lack therof, at Guantanamo and elsewhere in the shadow gulags of this Administration, it is still more than a little sad that a case like that is decided 5-4!
Can Roberts, Alito, Thomas and Scalia honestly continue to argue that justice can be done to these detainees under the kangaroo courts that these military tribunals actually are?
-
How you vote
If this does not make you really, really consider what party you vote for, think again.
One more conservative Judge on the SCOTUS and we are in for a long, national nightmare that will probably not end until most of us are long gone.
Scary indeed.
-
Impeach!
These 4 rogue justices are hellbent on destroying America from within. As such, I hope that the strong Democratic majority after the 2008 elections chooses to pursue impeachment, at the very least against Scalia. The guy uses television shows to justify his support of war crimes - he is clearly unfit for office.
-
Scurrying RATS
The court's conservative wing -- Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Samuel Alito, Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas -- dissented from Kennedy's opinion.
As ever. Roberts. Alito. Thomas. Scalia. The squeaking RATS. Certainly a serious reason for people to vote Democratic in the fall. We can count on the RATS to immediately become VERY concerned with executive power the minute a Democrat assumes the Presidency. But until then, they'll remain reliably gung-ho for the Unitary Executive. A politicized judiciary, yet another of the "boons" the Republicans visited upon the country in their age of dominance. Just watch their strict constructionist stance become selectively strict constructionist after 2008, assuming Obama wins.
-
How does this affect
the current Gitmo trials? Can those proceed, or will they have to be scrapped for civilian courts?
-
Twisted.
The conservative wing of the Supreme Court, along with the Bush administration, clearly believe that our laws and Constitution are designed NOT to survive, and remain in force, in extraordinary times.
-
Will this country be "save by the bell"?
Do Americans recognize how desperately close we are to losing many of the basic constitutional rights that exist in our Constitution? Only ONE VOTE on this Supreme Court separates the conservative faction from prevailing in cases such as today's.
Assuming we can take John McCain at his word (a shaky proposition at best, since he's flip-flopped more furiously on more issues than any politician in recent memory), he will nominate clones of Alito, et al. If for no other reason, Obama must prevail over McCain in November, and the Senate must refuse to consider any Bush nominees during the remainder of his term, should a Supreme Court vacancy develop.
We may just luck out, and get saved by the bell that rings on January 20, 2009.
-
What really upsets me about Scalia
Its not that Scalia's legal decisions are dubious, it's that he doesn't seem to understand his job description. From the AP Story:
Scalia said the nation is "at war with radical Islamists" and that the court's decision "will make the war harder on us. It will almost certainly cause more Americans to be killed."
Frankly, whether or not that's true or scary, it's not his job to even think about that. His job is to make legal rulings with regards to the U.S. Constitution, the laws passed by Congress and how the legal facts of a case deal with the first two. It's not his job to worry about the consequences of the rulings. If they are a problem the solution is not to alter his ruling, its to amend the Constitution or change the laws.
Isn't a judge superimposing personal opinions on his legal rulings what the "conservatives" mean when the cry activist?
-
There is a God
---and georgejr ain't it (yet).
Maybe this will send Congress a message that they don't really get to amend the Constitution by legislation - so,maybe they need to leave the Fourth Amendment alone, too...table the "Protect America (from it's people) Act.
Anyone who really cares about preserving our way of life has no choice but to vote for a Democratic/democratic President.
This 5-4 vote needs to be front & center in the campaign.
-
No sense of history
How can someone sufficiently educated to be a SC justice not have any grasp of history.
Those who come after us will be appalled at the last 8 years rulings - including Bush v. Gore - as the lowest point in the modern court.
The founding fathers, whose words they claim to revere, would, I believe, be just as appalled.
No More War.
-
This might have some terrible effects
I celebrate this decision, but I feel like this may very well push the administration to not bring any more people to Gitmo and find other places to hold them, without ANY JUDICIAL PROCESS WHATSOEVER, outside of any possible US jurisdiction, people we don't even know about.
So, yay, but, possibly, this really sucks.
-
the strongest possible argument for Obama
Roberts and Alito blatantly voted party line again.
Essentially, the real justices voted 5-0 on this one.
The other four are literally ideological partisan hacks.
Blaming congress here is illogical. There are at least 100 similar Federalist Society creeps, probably far more. Congress could not prevent Bush from appointing a right wing justice. He would simply have produced candidate after candidate who was equally right wing, until the general public, who did not get it yet, became incensed, a la the 2000 recount, and "demanded" that a nominee be
If Bush had been able to appoint one more justice - and several of the five real ones are in poor health - this would have gone the other way.
This may turn out to be one of the narrowest escapes in history.
-
How scary!
That a decision on such a bedrock right as habeas corpus and one that should have been 9 - 0 went 5 - 4 is frightening.
That the Democrats went along with the Bush Administration by confirming Roberts and Alito!
-
A razor-thin margin
Let's not forget that it was the SCOTUS who stole the election in 2000 by illegally inserting themselves into the electoral process to decide a matter that was rightfully Florida's--and refusing to wait for a legitimate recount. It was basically a coup, and we've been off-track since that time.
IMHO, Sandra Day O'Connor's exit from the SCOTUS was extremely suspicious. One doesn't "retire" from it, one dies in office--it's a lifetime appointment. I think the Bushies threatened her somehow to make way for a 5:4 instead of a 6:3 liberal majority and pave the way for a conservative majority ASAP.
What we have done in Gitmo by claiming these detainees are "enemy combatants" who are not subject to U.S. laws or the Geneva Convention is absolutely terrifying. We are on a VERY slippery slope, and if those folks can be treated this way, don't fool yourself that any other dissenters (including us here) couldn't be next.
I hope the Hillary supporters who plan to vote for McCain or (God forbid) Nader out of spite that "their" candidate didn't get the nomination are prepared to live with conservative SCOTUS decisions for the next few decades. This is about party, not candidate. Not sure Obama will have the "substance" you need? He's not "black" enough for you? Think of the alternative. Hold your nose if you have to. We need you!