Private Homes may be taken for public good

[Steve Schear]

At 10:36 AM 6/24/2005, J.A. Terranson wrote:
> > Not surprising at all.  The Bush camp's court agenda is spearheaded by
> > members of the Federalist Society which wants to roll back many of the SC's
> > decisions of the early-mid 20th century (esp. the Social Security Act and
> > the expansion of the Commerce Clause during FDR's reign).
>
>You're on crack.  They just expanded the Commerce Clause to it's logical
>limits with the California medical maryjane case.  The Bushie agenda may
>seem traditional reactionary on the surface, but look carefully and you;ll
>see significant differences in modern neocon vs old family Nixon.
>
>Shrub doesn't want Federalism, he wants full theocracy with a Federal
>bent.

Its true that he and many of is supporters are conservatives and not 
libertarians.  Perhaps I'm misrepresenting the essence of the Federalist 
Society also.  Its not clear that they adhere to a single strong ideology, 
but rather to a vague view of limited government and an 'originalist' 
interpretation of the 
Constitution.http://www.law.ucla.edu/volokh/fedsoc.htm But I can't think of 
a single case where the SC limited an important authority the government 
thought it had granted itself.  It seems such rollbacks historically only 
occur on the heels of major protests, threat or actual civil war. So it 
will be interesting if Bush gets to appoint some of the judges he desires 
on the SC and if this indeed leads to an eventual rollback of Commerce 
Clause interpretation.

For me an equal bone of contention is the very questionable passage of the 
14th Amendment.  Even worse than the lack of serious debate which 
surrounded the Patriot Act, the 14th was passed with Congress violating its 
own rules of majority and plurality.  They simply refused to allow already 
seated members into the chambers for the vote.  They also 'manipulated' the 
state voting results and neglected to send the result to the President, as 
Constitutionally required. When a case challenging the 14th was brought to 
the SC, it ruled that they had no authority to rule on Congresss' failure 
to follow the Constitutional processes.  A total cop-out.  But what did 
anyone expect with 500,000 Americans recently killed on the battle field to 
keep the Union together. When push comes to shove, the Constitution is only 
a piece of paper to those in power.

Lenny Bruce was certainly right when he said.. "In the halls of justice, 
the only justice is in the halls."

Steve