5th July 2005, 6:51 PM
Quote:What about the Muslims and Buddhists, atheists, Taoists and all other minorities, however comparatively few and negligible they may seem? The truth is that they don't count as long as the majority of America is Christian... that's the exact way of it.
Yes, this is the essential problem of it. Weltall evidently seems to be trying to sneak in religion through a supposed loophole where it only "counts" if it's full government sponsorship, but legal history has shown that that does not hold up in court. Anything counts as support of religion, not just a law saying "the Methodists are right" or something. And anything that supports one religion to the exclusion of the others definitely is government support of religion... non-denominational Christianity might have been an acceptable "no government support" position one or two hundred years ago, but it quite definitely is not anymore.
Quote:At any rate, just one additional note. I do believe the Supreme Court should in fact exist, but from what I understand their role is in interpretating and judging what the law says, not in actually making it themselves.
Republicans say this all the time... and it's a lie. Why? Quite simple. What Republicans want isn't for us to go on what the Founders thought, or what the Founders intended, or what the Constitution says. That has absolutely nothing to do with it. What it is is a very simple marketing ploy to try to convince people that the opposition is un-American, or disrespects the Constitution, or something. As in, it's all about trying to push their agenda at the exclusion of all others -- "interpreting the law as it is written" has NO connection to the agenda that they actually want said judges to follow.
Quote:So ABF what do you think of the eminent domain ruling?
One of a bunch of not-so-great rulings the court released this session. There's no way that their interpretation follows the original intent of the Constitution, for sure, and it doesn't work by a social justice or liberalism test either (which is why both liberals and conservatives in Congress are uniting to try to do something about this)...
Quote:The Judiciary needs that same kind of worry.
No, they don't.