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  • Re: The Power of the SCOTUS II: "Release the Kagan!"

    Originally posted by dxmnkd316 View Post
    That's an *ahem* interesting take on this.
    I find it "interesting" that you use the term "interesting" to describe Kepler's "troubling" rant about someone else's use of the words "interesting" and "troubling."

    Some might suggest that [insert your own punchline here!]
    "Hope is a good thing; maybe the best of things."

    "Beer is a sign that God loves us and wants us to be happy." -- Benjamin Franklin

    "Being Irish, he had an abiding sense of tragedy, which sustained him through temporary periods of joy." -- W. B. Yeats

    "People generally are most impatient with those flaws in others about which they are most ashamed of in themselves." - folk wisdom

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    • Re: The Power of the SCOTUS II: "Release the Kagan!"

      Originally posted by unofan View Post
      If it didn't strike it down 50 years ago, it isn't going to now, either.
      Does that mean we do have a bet? $10 of mine vs $25 of yours? or did you have different odds to suggest in a counter-offer?
      "Hope is a good thing; maybe the best of things."

      "Beer is a sign that God loves us and wants us to be happy." -- Benjamin Franklin

      "Being Irish, he had an abiding sense of tragedy, which sustained him through temporary periods of joy." -- W. B. Yeats

      "People generally are most impatient with those flaws in others about which they are most ashamed of in themselves." - folk wisdom

      Comment


      • Re: The Power of the SCOTUS II: "Release the Kagan!"

        Originally posted by WeWantMore View Post
        Really? By what standard is it surprising?

        In 2009, nearly half the decisions the court made were 9-0. Likewise 05-06. Here's the stats from October 2010. 48% 9-0, with 13% 8-1.
        By the standards of main-stream media, who keep telling us that this Court is so polarized and politicized, of course. Poor little me, believing everything that the New York Times publishes.....
        "Hope is a good thing; maybe the best of things."

        "Beer is a sign that God loves us and wants us to be happy." -- Benjamin Franklin

        "Being Irish, he had an abiding sense of tragedy, which sustained him through temporary periods of joy." -- W. B. Yeats

        "People generally are most impatient with those flaws in others about which they are most ashamed of in themselves." - folk wisdom

        Comment


        • Re: The Power of the SCOTUS II: "Release the Kagan!"

          Originally posted by FreshFish View Post
          Does that mean we do have a bet? $10 of mine vs $25 of yours? or did you have different odds to suggest in a counter-offer?
          Yeah, no. I don't make bets with close friends on anything other than the annual NCAA pool. What makes you think I'd wager with a random internet persona who I'm not even convinced is anything more than a troll...

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          • Re: The Power of the SCOTUS II: "Release the Kagan!"

            Originally posted by unofan View Post
            Yeah, no. I don't make bets with close friends on anything other than the annual NCAA pool. What makes you think I'd wager with a random internet persona
            nothing at all, just testing the waters. We use $1 wagers at work to short-circuit arguments. Usually either it's something one can look up or something that will unfold over the passage of time. Either way, one person sets the over/under and the other decides which side to pick and that ends the argument.

            There was a troll in our Men's Division I thread who we silenced by offering him bets on his predictions about the relative position of our team vs his. Glad to see you are not like him.
            "Hope is a good thing; maybe the best of things."

            "Beer is a sign that God loves us and wants us to be happy." -- Benjamin Franklin

            "Being Irish, he had an abiding sense of tragedy, which sustained him through temporary periods of joy." -- W. B. Yeats

            "People generally are most impatient with those flaws in others about which they are most ashamed of in themselves." - folk wisdom

            Comment


            • Re: The Power of the SCOTUS II: "Release the Kagan!"

              This'll be an interesting media talking point should the health care law stand.

              Comment


              • Re: The Power of the SCOTUS II: "Release the Kagan!"

                "Whatever I don't like is judicial activism."

                That's hysterical. These people aren't even trying anymore.
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                • Re: The Power of the SCOTUS II: "Release the Kagan!"

                  Thoughtful article today in Wall Street Journal, with two good nuggets.

                  First, on "judicial activism":

                  "Judicial activism" is one of those agreeably ambiguous terms that can support almost any criticism of the courts. Under our constitutional system, judicial activism entails judges rewriting rather than interpreting the laws, exercising "will instead of judgment," in Alexander Hamilton's phrase.

                  which is followed by an examination of "separation of powers" which is not only within the federal government itself, but also between the federal and state governments:
                  The Framers assumed that the Constitution's federalist architecture, dividing power between the federal government and the states (creating a "vertical" separation of powers to complement the "horizontal" separation among the three federal branches), would be the primary defense against governmental overreaching. Indeed, Hamilton argued in the Federalist Papers (No. 84) that adoption of a Bill of Rights "would even be dangerous" for the very reason that "[t]hey would contain various exceptions to powers which are not granted; and on this very account, would afford a colourable pretext to claim more than were granted."

                  Accordingly, the Supreme Court always has measured federal statutes against both the Bill of Rights and the Constitution's structural protections. It has struck down laws found wanting in either case.
                  Which then gets to the key point: what is necessary to find PPACA constitutional (emphasis added below):
                  To uphold ObamaCare's insurance-purchase mandate as a legitimate exercise of Congress's power to regulate interstate commerce, the court must find some neutral, judicially enforceable limiting principle that would maintain the Constitution's balance of power between federal and state authority. That principle must keep the power to regulate interstate commerce from morphing into a general power simply to regulate the citizenry. The court has always ruled, correctly, that only the states have such a general "police" power under our Constitution.

                  The last sentence was a bit of a revelation for me, and it also answers some questions that have bedeviled others: the states have the power to regulate their citizens directly, while the federal government does not.

                  The bolded text above seems to underlie some of Justice Roberts' and Justice Kennedy's questions during the hearings on PPACA: to paraphrase, "suppose I wanted to find the law constitutional: what limiting principle would I invoke in order to do so?"
                  Last edited by FreshFish; 04-24-2012, 07:41 AM.
                  "Hope is a good thing; maybe the best of things."

                  "Beer is a sign that God loves us and wants us to be happy." -- Benjamin Franklin

                  "Being Irish, he had an abiding sense of tragedy, which sustained him through temporary periods of joy." -- W. B. Yeats

                  "People generally are most impatient with those flaws in others about which they are most ashamed of in themselves." - folk wisdom

                  Comment


                  • Re: The Power of the SCOTUS II: "Release the Kagan!"

                    It's certainly not universally true that the court seeks out an enforceable limiting principle on enumerated powers. For example, they have basically admitted that any copyright term short of explicitly limitless is legitimate in response to challenges of the perpetually-extending copyrights that various corporate rentiers have sought and obtained from Congress. As a practical matter, I fail to see an enforceable limiting principle in that case, unless the limiting principle you would see is based on content rather than term. (Personally, while I'm not sure there's a bright line to be had, I do think that Congress is skirting the bounds of flouting the obvious intent of the Constitution's grant of copyrights, which is to encourage innovation, not to provide perpetual rents to the rentiers.)
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                    • Re: The Power of the SCOTUS II: "Release the Kagan!"

                      Originally posted by Craig P. View Post
                      It's certainly not universally true that the court seeks out an enforceable limiting principle on enumerated powers. For example, they have basically admitted that any copyright term short of explicitly limitless is legitimate in response to challenges of the perpetually-extending copyrights that various corporate rentiers have sought and obtained from Congress. As a practical matter, I fail to see an enforceable limiting principle in that case, unless the limiting principle you would see is based on content rather than term. (Personally, while I'm not sure there's a bright line to be had, I do think that Congress is skirting the bounds of flouting the obvious intent of the Constitution's grant of copyrights, which is to encourage innovation, not to provide perpetual rents to the rentiers.)
                      I was told there'd be no lawyer-speak...

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                      • Re: The Power of the SCOTUS II: "Release the Kagan!"

                        Originally posted by FlagDUDE08 View Post
                        I was told there'd be no lawyer-speak...
                        He gets a bit of a pass, as that was that Dick Posneresque Econo-Lawyer Speak.
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                        • Re: The Power of the SCOTUS II: "Release the Kagan!"

                          Originally posted by Kepler View Post
                          He gets a bit of a pass, as that was that Dick Posneresque Econo-Lawyer Speak.
                          Too bad he missed the opportunity to invoke the Sunny Bono Mickey Mouse Copyright Extension Act...I think we're about due for Disney's next major bribery, err, campaign contributions to assure another extension so Steamboat Willie doesn't fall into the Public Domain.

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                          • Re: The Power of the SCOTUS II: "Release the Kagan!"

                            Originally posted by unofan View Post
                            Too bad he missed the opportunity to invoke the Sunny Bono Mickey Mouse Copyright Extension Act...I think we're about due for Disney's next major bribery, err, campaign contributions to assure another extension so Steamboat Willie doesn't fall into the Public Domain.
                            Is that a Clinton reference??
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                            • Re: The Power of the SCOTUS II: "Release the Kagan!"

                              SB 1070 oral arguments today.

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                              • Re: The Power of the SCOTUS II: "Release the Kagan!"

                                Originally posted by WeWantMore View Post
                                SB 1070 oral arguments today.
                                This is one of those cases that leaves me going "huh? what?"

                                If the AZ law is presented correctly in various news articles I've read, it merely instructs state officials to enforce federal law. The Administration didn't bother to change the federal law when they had filibuster-proof majorities and now they don't want the federal law enforced?

                                One of the ironies is that the predecessor governor, Democrat Napolitano, is now Director of Homeland Security and while governor she declared a state of emergency in AZ over the very same issue.
                                "Hope is a good thing; maybe the best of things."

                                "Beer is a sign that God loves us and wants us to be happy." -- Benjamin Franklin

                                "Being Irish, he had an abiding sense of tragedy, which sustained him through temporary periods of joy." -- W. B. Yeats

                                "People generally are most impatient with those flaws in others about which they are most ashamed of in themselves." - folk wisdom

                                Comment

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