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US Supreme Court Justices grumble

But the ruling party can refuse to approve names. And anyone may suggest names to the Collegium without the public's knowledge.
Yes, they can delay the approval of any particular candidate, but then Supreme Court will ask them the reason.
It is criminal to approach the Supreme Court judges. That might land the person in jail for quite some time (say 10 years).
The 'Collegium' knows the history of candidates and suggests only those whom they consider unbiased, fearless and able.
It is not necessary that the name suggested by one judge will be approved by the rest four. The system has been very successful.
 
You assume fidelity to the Constitution required a vote for Harris, not “a Democrat” but a specific Democrat, Harris, even if she sucked as well.
Again, this is a unpalatable false-equivalence. One can not be taken seriously by saying the two candidates "sucked". Trump enlisted a riot to overtake an election he knew he lost. And he got one of his supporters killed and several police officers were seriously hurt. Harris's ledger has no such moral or Constitutional failings as a politician or a person.

To go on about that "she sucked as well" is as intellectually bankrupt as it is poorly expressed.
FYI, your posts are devolving into a different persona.
Not at all…
You aren't being as clever as you think.

Again, this is a unpalatable false-equivalence. One can not be taken seriously by saying the two candidates "sucked". Trump enlisted a riot to overtake an election he knew he lost. And he got one of his supporters killed and several police officers were seriously hurt. Harris's ledger has no such moral or Constitutional failings as a politician or a person.

I did not use any “equivalence.” I didn’t say they equally sucked. They both sucked. Your logic is for me to vote for someone who still sucks on the basis of your estimation they one sucked less. But if I have an aversion to voting for a candidate who sucks, and both suck, then it is rational for me to not vote for either candidate.

Trump’s conduct means I do not and did not vote for Trump, but his actions do not necessarily mean I vote for Harris, a candidate I dislike as well.

. One can not be taken seriously by saying the two candidates "sucked".

For you maybe because you think it rational and acceptable for yourself to cast a ballot for a candidate you dislike and otherwise sucks, justifying that vote because of the malfeasance of the opposing candidate. But as I said before, at best all you shown is a reason to note vote for Trump but Trump’s actions simply do not necessarily mean a vote for Harris where I think Harris sucks.

You aren't being as clever as you think.

I’m not attempting to be clever, you are with your logic of showing a necessity to vote for a candidate that sucks for me, Harris.
 
Not voting for the only candidate opposed to Lucifer Incarnate, is a tacit equivocation.
 
You assume fidelity to the Constitution required a vote for Harris, not “a Democrat” but a specific Democrat, Harris, even if she sucked as well.
Again, this is a unpalatable false-equivalence. One can not be taken seriously by saying the two candidates "sucked". Trump enlisted a riot to overtake an election he knew he lost. And he got one of his supporters killed and several police officers were seriously hurt. Harris's ledger has no such moral or Constitutional failings as a politician or a person.

To go on about that "she sucked as well" is as intellectually bankrupt as it is poorly expressed.
FYI, your posts are devolving into a different persona.
Not at all…
You aren't being as clever as you think.

Again, this is a unpalatable false-equivalence. One can not be taken seriously by saying the two candidates "sucked". Trump enlisted a riot to overtake an election he knew he lost. And he got one of his supporters killed and several police officers were seriously hurt. Harris's ledger has no such moral or Constitutional failings as a politician or a person.

I did not use any “equivalence.” I didn’t say they equally sucked. They both sucked. Your logic is for me to vote for someone who still sucks on the basis of your estimation they one sucked less. But if I have an aversion to voting for a candidate who sucks, and both suck, then it is rational for me to not vote for either candidate.

Trump’s conduct means I do not and did not vote for Trump, but his actions do not necessarily mean I vote for Harris, a candidate I dislike as well.

. One can not be taken seriously by saying the two candidates "sucked".

For you maybe because you think it rational and acceptable for yourself to cast a ballot for a candidate you dislike and otherwise sucks, justifying that vote because of the malfeasance of the opposing candidate. But as I said before, at best all you shown is a reason to note vote for Trump but Trump’s actions simply do not necessarily mean a vote for Harris where I think Harris sucks.

You aren't being as clever as you think.

I’m not attempting to be clever, you are with your logic of showing a necessity to vote for a candidate that sucks for me, Harris.
I love it when a plan comes together.
 
The Dobbs majority, contrary to your assertion, invoked historical evidence to sufficiently arrive at a historical meaning contrary to Roe.
Did they though? Again, via hyper-technicality, they created an argument. Great. So did the Liberals. Had the Liberals had the majority, that would be law. Having a partisan majority is relevant to legal interpretation, but that doesn't mean the argument is sound (see every decision that has been reversed). In a more meaningful way, looking more broadly, the question is 'is a woman privy to herself?' Where does the line of Government intrusion into her life no longer violate the implied Constitutional right to privacy. You can't get blood from a person without a warrant! Yet, somehow, I'm supposed to rise and provide grand applause to a hyper-technical argument that somehow implies that a woman has no right to treat herself as she deems reasonable? If the state can't take my blood without due cause, how in the hell is logical to say a state can enforce my wife to endure pregnancy and give birth, with all of the consequences involved... without relying on pretzel logic? Having personally given a blood sample and observed my wife's pregnancy and daughter's birth, I can easily conclude which one was more involved.

In judicial review, interpretation of the law must make sense. It is contradictory to suggest invading the privacy of someone to take their blood is more invasive that forcing a woman to endure pregnancy and birth... not without first legally recognizing there is a third party involved, which was not done in Dobbs. It makes no sense! So again, the Roberts court took something that was working and broke it.... and broke it in a manner so brazenly offensive, as not to draw up boundary lines, letting the states try to figure it out for themselves, all the while Thomas was fantasizing about Obergfell and Griswold.
Are you familiar with the Lawrence v Texas decision? This case ignored years of its own precedent, decades of its own precedent, to recognize a privacy interest within the Liberty Clause of the 14th Amendment DPC. See opinion here https://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/02-102.ZO.html

The Lawrence decision fits within your parameter of “creative writing exercise and a rather poor look into history” as it overturned a 17 year old precedent of Bowers v Hardwick. Based upon your parameters there’s a reasonable expectation you’ll have similar derision for the disdain for the “breaking of Precedence like it didn’t mean anything.”
Again, this is an issue of you being under the illusion that constitutional law is objective. I care what is right. Adherence to constitutional law is important, but such an adherence can not be an excuse to violate people's rights. Justices O'Conner and Kennedy were conservative as all heck, but they understood the importance of rights.
This isn’t to deny SCOTUS conservatives as “partisan hacks” as I can’t show such a negative. However, these decisions do not demonstrate “partisan hacks” as at least two of those decisions you reference have a reasonably sound foundation within the text and meaning of the law(s). In other words, they reached a meaning/interpretation of the law consistent and in adherence to discovering and discerning what the law says. As opposed to a meaning and interpretation not supported by the plain text and historical understanding and conjured within the mind of a justice and inspired/conceived because of their own personal/political/ideological beliefs.
They are meddling with laws that were working and functional, for partisan reasons, because they (and their benefactors) wanted it that way. SCOTUS's job is to see to unresolvable constitutional questions and issues. This court is just paving the road with the wish list of The Heritage Foundation.

I get that my response is soft on Judicial citations, but as I explained, the subjective nature of Constitutional Law really makes those things less important than the broader application of oversight on Constitutional Law. Again, I thank you for your reply as it was stuffed with content and observations that were worth reading.
Not much of that coming from those supporting this court these days.

I would not construe my position as “supporting this court these days.” Rather, I’m addressing the underlying issue of the Court is partisan based upon a facile reason, dislike or disagreement with the Court rulings, yourself ostensibly excluded. Given the paucity of substantive replies, indeed the prominent nonsense replies, speaks for itself.

Yeah, here is the thing, unlike yourself, I'm not under the illusion that Constitutional Law is remotely objective. We wouldn't need SCOTUS otherwise. The nine Supreme Court justices are obscenely skilled and could successfully argue that a cat was actually a dog in court.

Textual interpretation, whether the Septuagint, Dead Sea Scrolls, Plato’s “Republic” in original Greek, “Best Poor Man’s Country” by Lemon, “God, Evil, and Free Will” by Plantinga, a statute, a novel, are amenable to the same practices of interpretation, some utilized daily, such as plain text meaning.

Plain text meaning, the words of a text are paramount, what the words express and/or what they convey, including contextual definitions, their definitions from common usage as revealed in a dictionary, etc, is what the words mean. Words do have a limited range of meaning, rendering highly capable the efficient communication of a message, prose, writing, speech, etcetera.

The Constitution is amenable to the same practices of interpretation. We can read various provisions and understand a meaning: 1.) “The Privilege of the Writ of Habeas Corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in Cases of Rebellion or Invasion the public Safety may require it.” A rebellion or invasion and public safety is necessary to suspend the Writ of Habeas Corpus. 2.) “The House of Representatives shall be composed of Members chosen every second Year by the People of the several States,” Every 2 years those in the HOR are required to again be “chosen” for another 2 years and election of a new person every two years for those not presenting themselves to be “chosen.”

Of course, I do not suggest the entire exercise of reading and interpreting the Constitution is so easy was cave man can do it. A definition or concept of what words and phrases mean or reference is at times required to interpret the Constitution.

“The Privilege of the Writ of Habeas Corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in Cases of Rebellion or Invasion the public Safety may require it.”

What does “rebellion” mean? What does “rebellion”‘reference? What does “Invasion” mean? What does invasion reference?

Again, words have a limited range of meaning. The words “Invasion” and “Rebellion” were defined at the time the Constitution was composed and ratified. I’m not merely referring to dictionary meanings of the era, but the writings of people of the era revealing how they used those words, writings discussing what those words mean, debates, writings of this provision, writings and debates at the ratification conventions, etcetera, along with the legal meanings.

This process revealed the word “speech” in 1790 didn’t include libel, slander, illuminating for us today what isn’t protected by the Free Speech Clause. The phrase “due process of law” enjoys a long history of legal writing, from England, the colonial U.S., and subsequently U.S. jurisprudence, or inform us the phrase regarded procedural protections.

Now, I have no pretense this is a scientific method. However, it is a method closer to any semblance of objectivity in relation to another approach of making up meanings for the words or redefining words. It is said for those Senate laws/edicts Nero disfavored he would affix them to the top of the posts in the Roman Forum. The point being no or only the very few can know what is in the law or what the law says or protects since the law is practically concealed, much like an interpretative method of redefining words or new meanings.

The approach of making up meanings or redefining contravenes a characteristic of placing the law into writing, to reasonably fix rights, obligations, privileges, in the law, thereby protecting those rights, privileges, and announcing obligations etc. the Free Speech Clause offers illusory protection where its meaning isn’t fixed in the written law and subject to a redefining the phrase to protect nothing, or a new meaning that protects nothing.

Otherwise, absent any such notion there is a meaning that existed when the Constitution was drafted and ratified, all the rebukes here are vacuous, as fhe allegations of partisan Court is then based upon their partisan beliefs that are contrary to the opinions.That is very well true, but it is so vacuous that renders it meaningless. As you concede, there is no "scientific method" for this and when one is interpolating and extrapolating the writings of people from centuries ago, it feels quite absurd to suggest strict adherence to textual interpretation. Trying to create a rigid guide on regulatory management of crypto currency based on the writings of James Madison seems impossible. There are ways to observe and judge by it, but like I said, these SCOTUS justices can argue a dog is a cat in the court, and another justice could prove the "cat" was actually moose on appeal. So we get back to the issue of objectivity in law, it doesn't exist. The mountain of SCOTUS judicial review proves it.





Is the law broken or Constitutionally corrupt, is something not right. Why must the law change? And I am of the opinion that "hyper-technicality" is not an acceptable excuse to break something that is working. We are supposed to be adults here, and not relying on asterisks to push a political agenda. And please, don't insult my intelligence by trying to hide the Robert's courts decisions as anything but partisan. They have pushed the SCOTUS into a new direction. Dobbs stole away a right to self-determination of woman, without a third party to justify it. This SCOTUS bench has decided to ban pragmatism in law (where beneficial to the proposals the Heritage Foundation based on the selection of these justices to be selected for the court), making the law so pure, it become antiseptic and kills whatever that touches it.

The Constitution also doesn't exist in a bubble. We have nearing 250 years of hindsight. There are several things in Government we could argue, at a hyper technical level that are unconstitutional. The FDA, SEC, EPA all have purposes that aren't explicitly spoken of in the Constitution, so while we can justify their existence, I'm certain Alito could write it off too. These regulatory groups involve aspects of our world today that weren't even in science fiction back in the late 18th century... seeing that science fiction wouldn't effectively be created for another 50 or so years. How the Government manages certain aspects of the entire system that our lives depends on is much more involved than the Founding Fathers would ever have ever imagined. But again, that is 250 years, a Great Depression, poisoned soil, air, and water, mass scale killing, ginormous monopolies, the discovery of medicine!

Absolutely, the Constitution “doesn’t exist in a bubble.” Collectively, people created and wrote (a person wrote) the Constitution. Yet, for them they weren’t staring at a blank page utterly unable to make any sense of what the Constitution said in 1787-1789. For much of the Constitution, the drafters borrowed from State constitutions, English statutes, English declarations of rights, and a vast ocean of English common law developing each.

For the BOR, those rights were not nascent and abstract but had their origins in the Magna Carta and centuries of English common law development. The phrase “due process of law” first appeared in a English statute and there was a voluminous body of common law developed over the centuries related to Due Process.

So, the Constitution and the BOR, its substance and meaning, would have been familiar to people in 1787-1789, and 1790. This isn’t shocking since, after all, this nation originated as a English colonies, operating under English law.

As your comment alludes to, an inherent aspect of Constitutional interpretation is applying the meaning to modern day life and making a judgment as to how the Constitution applies and what outcome when applying the Constitution to contemporary society.

Yet, the phrase Due Process of Law evolved through the common law, and Sir Edward Coke’s writings devoted the phrase. While this knowledge and information is rather arcane, with AI, Google, and other internet search sources, one can reliably ascertain what Due Process meant in 1790 and when the 14th was drafted and ratified.

The question then is whether Alito and the majority were incorrect or at least their view rationally indefensible when they held the meaning of Due Process did not have a substantive aspect but only procedural.

The Constitution puts forth a framework. Madison felt that framework was etched in stone.

Madison understood the Constitution did have what is characterized as a “fixed” meaning, mutable by amendment, a meaning rooted in the words, phrases, and their meanings and understandings at the time.

Jefferson would say it should change and adapt as the nation grows, much like how an adult isn't expected to use the same jacket he had as a child. We can't let a Madisonian mindset paralyze our country from functioning, and it sure the heck shouldn't be used as an excuse to rescind the rights of Americans, as Justice Thomas has been giddy at doing.

Is there a framer, drafter, or any person of the view the Constitution is never to change? Many if not all held the view the Constitution couldn’t remain static in its meaning. Madison also understood the meaning of the Constitution couldn’t remain static forever. The difference between Jefferson and others is the process by which the meaning is changed. Amending the Constitution is the process to change the Constitution’s meaning.

We are supposed to be adults here, and not relying on asterisks to push a political agenda.

Adults formed the majority view of Dobbs. Let’s not pretend uninformed kids formed the majority decision. You cast personal aspersions upon those forming the majority opinion as some produced by pre-pubescent people, a view formulated by your dislike for the opinion, said view perhaps consistent with your own political agenda and political views.

Again, conservatives since the 60’s have denounced substantive due process and that interpretative method of the Due Process Clause as creating rights in the Due Process where the meaning of the text of Due Process does not support the existence of any such right. That cannot possibly be correct as a matter of law or textually as you summarily dismiss that as a “political agenda” which says nothing as to whether they actually do have a rational point based upon the text and its meaning.

And please, don't insult my intelligence by trying to hide the Robert's courts decisions as anything but partisan.

I’m not. Rather, I’m suggesting your partisan lens is obscuring your own view to see only “anything but partisan.” Every single decision while Roberts has been CJ is “anything but partisan.” The conservatives are elated by that all encompassing statement, as the decision upholding the individual mandate and penalty in National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius was “anything but partisan.” So, the decisions of OBERGEFELL v. HODGES, U.S. v Windsor, were “anything but partisan” decisions. Who knew those conservatives were right? Who knew you agreed?

There’s not been any development of a coherent, objective test to discern when and where a decision is “partisan” or a collection of them are “partisan.” The “partisan” aspect is perhaps more difficult to ascertain where textually there is a rational basis for the decision.

They have pushed the SCOTUS into a new direction.

So what? That doesn’t make the decision(s) partisan. Brown v Board of Education did the same, partisan by your logic.

Loving v Virginia did the same, partisan by your logic.

It is the frivolity of your view of what is partisan and why that I take issue with.
 
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I see as usual we've drifted off topic, so let me do the same by saying that I have never understood people who don't vote because they don't like either candidate because one is always much worse than the alternative. I've never missed an election and I had to wait until I was 21 to vote as it my generation that helped lower the age to 18. "Old enough to die but not old enough to vote" Anyone else chant that in the 60s? I even vote in every tiny local election. We women didn't even get the right to vote until 1919.

The vote is the one tiny bit of power we have as citizens and anyone who refuses to vote is ignorant or thoughtless, as there are no perfect candidates and there never will be one.

In my life, I've never seen a candidate as dangerous as Trump and he's already proving to us that he is a huge threat to our country is countless ways. He and his sidekick are rapidly tearing things down. Harris would not have been a threat. In fact, she was a good candidate in many ways. She had years of experience in government, both on the state and federal level. She tried to represent all kinds of people, not just those who had similar ideologies to her own. That is what a good president does. A good president doesn't only care about those who vote for them. They realize that they are supposed to care about all Americans, even if not all Americans agree with some or many of their goals.

If Harris had the opportunity to appoint any SCOTUS justices, she would not nominate an extremist or a totally unqualified person like some of the Republican presidents have done. Then again, she is a woman and I've heard many men say they won't vote for a woman, and perhaps there is an element of racism that also kept some from voting for her.

Our new poster really hasn't given us any reasons why he thinks that Harris sucks. Was it her personality or what? When did she ever do something that had the potential to destroy the country? Only a fool sits out elections because neither candidate lives up to their expectations. I can't think of one president in my lifetime who was all that great, but at least none of them were as destructive as the sociopathic narcissist we have in the WH now. I even know of a couple of folks in their 50s who finally started to vote when trump ran in 2016. That is when they finally realized the importance of their vote. You don't have to be excited about a candidate to vote for them. You just need to make the best choice and vote. Not voting is tantamount to giving up one of your basic rights as a citizen.
 
Not voting for the only candidate opposed to Lucifer Incarnate, is a tacit equivocation.
Exactly. Mathematically and logically not voting for Harris was equivalent to a vote for Trump.
Emphasis mine.

“Mathematically and logically” implausible as each ballot for a candidate is counted and the candidate with the majority of ballots wins (the electoral college elects the president in the U.S.).

My not voting did not add to Trump’s vote total. My not voting did not add a vote to Trump. It is a weird logic to transform inaction and no engagement towards something as active and engagement with that something. Not voting and no engagement with electing a president is now the “equivalent” of casting a ballot for Trump such that I actively added to his total number eclipsing Harris’ total number by doing nothing at all.

Indeed, my act of not voting at all treated as the equivalent of a vote for Harris is a logic that assumes only a binary choice of Trump or Harris, ignoring a third candidate or a write in. I and many others could have voted for the 3rd candidate or a write in. By your logic, my act of voting for a 3rd candidate/write in counts towards the 3rd candidate/write in vote total, and magically was also a double vote ballot as a ballot and vote for Trump and his vote total, since I didn’t vote for Harris.

My not voting was not the equivalent of a vote for Trump.
 
Not voting for the only candidate opposed to Lucifer Incarnate, is a tacit equivocation.

Harris wasn’t the “only candidate opposed to Lucifer.” There was a 3rd party candidate and write in option for many states.

What next? Had I voted for them instead of Harris then this would also constitute “tacit equivocation” for Trump?
 
I see as usual we've drifted off topic, so let me do the same by saying that I have never understood people who don't vote because they don't like either candidate because one is always much worse than the alternative. I've never missed an election and I had to wait until I was 21 to vote as it my generation that helped lower the age to 18. "Old enough to die but not old enough to vote" Anyone else chant that in the 60s? I even vote in every tiny local election. We women didn't even get the right to vote until 1919.

The vote is the one tiny bit of power we have as citizens and anyone who refuses to vote is ignorant or thoughtless, as there are no perfect candidates and there never will be one.

In my life, I've never seen a candidate as dangerous as Trump and he's already proving to us that he is a huge threat to our country is countless ways. He and his sidekick are rapidly tearing things down. Harris would not have been a threat. In fact, she was a good candidate in many ways. She had years of experience in government, both on the state and federal level. She tried to represent all kinds of people, not just those who had similar ideologies to her own. That is what a good president does. A good president doesn't only care about those who vote for them. They realize that they are supposed to care about all Americans, even if not all Americans agree with some or many of their goals.

If Harris had the opportunity to appoint any SCOTUS justices, she would not nominate an extremist or a totally unqualified person like some of the Republican presidents have done. Then again, she is a woman and I've heard many men say they won't vote for a woman, and perhaps there is an element of racism that also kept some from voting for her.

Our new poster really hasn't given us any reasons why he thinks that Harris sucks. Was it her personality or what? When did she ever do something that had the potential to destroy the country? Only a fool sits out elections because neither candidate lives up to their expectations. I can't think of one president in my lifetime who was all that great, but at least none of them were as destructive as the sociopathic narcissist we have in the WH now. I even know of a couple of folks in their 50s who finally started to vote when trump ran in 2016. That is when they finally realized the importance of their vote. You don't have to be excited about a candidate to vote for them. You just need to make the best choice and vote. Not voting is tantamount to giving up one of your basic rights as a citizen.

Right because your view “she was a good candidate in many ways” is ineluctable and only a “ignorant or thoughtless” person disagrees. Completely devoid from your calculus of how to evaluate a candidate from “no perfect candidates” and “one is always much worse than the alternative” and “not all that great” all the while ignoring a third and in between that none of them align enough for me or many others to vote for any of them.

To hell with that idea you write, after all what is paramount is your ideas of what can and/or should be sufficient to mandate a vote. Regaling this millennial by reminiscing a chant from the 60s and that women didn’t attain a constitutional right to vote until 1919 would have been oh so more persuasive had you serenaded me with the song, “I am Woman.” I’m despondent that did not transpire.

This isn’t determined only by the nonexistent “perfect candidates” or “one is always much worse than the alternative” but what you ignore the notion no candidates sufficiently aligned enough to vote.
 
Not voting for the only candidate opposed to Lucifer Incarnate, is a tacit equivocation.

Harris wasn’t the “only candidate opposed to Lucifer.” There was a 3rd party candidate and write in option for many states.

What next? Had I voted for them instead of Harris then this would also constitute “tacit equivocation” for Trump?
And as we zoom towards our largest constitutional crisis since 1860, your comments feel remarkably out of touch with reality.
 
My not voting did not add to Trump’s vote total.
True. I also disagree that shirking the responsibility of voting even if you know that one candidate is a traitor, is mathematically equal to a vote for the traitor. Mathematically it is equal to no vote.
Effectively it is equivalent to half of a vote for each candidate. It could be considered a half of one vote for the traitor, but only after the fact and with assurance that their vote, had they cast it, would have been for the other candidate.
That said, I believe that if the US had the same “mandatory” voting system as Au, we’d have seen some different results. That is because the Republicans’ winning tactic has long been vote suppression.
 
Had I voted for them instead of Harris then this would also constitute “tacit equivocation” for Trump?
No. Look up the root words forming “equivocation”.
It could be well intended delusion, depending on whether the third party candidate actually had a chance. It could be an heroic act that results in overturning the status quo, if they were a viable candidate.
 
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