According to 7th Circuit Judge Richard Posner in
a post published to Slate, U.S. judges should stop studying the Constitution.
I see absolutely no value to a judge of spending decades, years, months, weeks, day, hours, minutes, or seconds studying the Constitution, the history of its enactment, its amendments, and its implementation,” Posner argued.
“Eighteenth-century guys, however smart, could not foresee the culture, technology, etc., of the 21st century,” he continued. “Which means that the original Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and the post–Civil War amendments (including the 14th), do not speak to today.”
The deliberations of the Constitutional Convention of 1787 were held in strict secrecy. Consequently, anxious citizens gathered outside Independence Hall when the proceedings ended in order to learn what had been produced behind closed doors. The answer was provided immediately. A Mrs. Powel of Philadelphia asked Benjamin Franklin, “Well, Doctor, what have we got, a republic or a monarchy?” With no hesitation whatsoever, Franklin responded, “A republic,
if you can keep it.”
21 comments:
Even Dr. Venkman* understood that a framework, however flexible, was needed to establish a basis for the boundaries of acceptable human behavior. Posner's getting old. Fuck him and his horse.
* “Actually, it's more of a guideline than a rule.”
This is the wisdom of the Left - we can't beat the Constitution, so we have to ignore it.
Can't think of a quicker way to start a war.
Clerked for Brennan, worked for Marshall, appointed by Reagan, and, of course, he lives in Chiraq. A great argument for term limits for the Federal bench.
For those interested in more about this slug, his Wiki page.
PS Also, Captain Barbosa's big line.
PPS Following the market's 610 point drop Friday, they went down another 865 today.
In addition to Angie's prediction of France, Holland, Italy, Austria, and Finland wanting to Brexit, Hungary, Portugal, and Slovakia are on the prospective list with Sweden, Poland, and Belgium making noises about wanting a referendum, so Newt may well be right calling for recession we've all been expecting coming sooner rather than later.
Toss in a few more terror attacks (IS is telling their guys to target white men so they won't be mistook for hate crimes (ya gotta love it)), war at both conventions, and maybe the Big One in CA (we built this city on rock 'n' roll), and Trump may well be begged to be President.
865 drop total, Friday and today. Dropped 250 today.
He has some positions I agree with, and some I loath, but the following makes him unfit to walk among us, let alone decide law issues.
"Richard Posner is a self-described "cat person" and is devoted to his Maine Coon, Pixie." ~ Wikipedia
"“Eighteenth-century guys, however smart, could not foresee the culture, technology, etc., of the 21st century,”
There isn't much in The Constitution about technology - either 21st or even 18th Century, because it has little to do with the principles addressed. Is there really any difference between a government that treats you as a slave in the 1700's or today? Is it somehow more acceptable if the technology makes it less messy, easier, or more convenient for the government to treat you as property and less free. Could we have avoided the Civil War if slaves were just microchipped and tracked by drones in the field without all that whipping and shackles messiness?
The Constitution is a fence, a wall, a moat around what we are as a people . Sure, it could have been built in a slightly different location, or with some different construction, but tear it down now and there is no stopping the hoards from just walking into your life and taking everything you are away by building a new wall with you on the outside or buried under it. Posner should consider where he and his pussy would end up without The Constitution. We may not have much use for judges, or their cats. Technology may make them obsolete.
ndspinelli said...
865 drop total, Friday and today. Dropped 250 today.
My bad. The AT&T home page screwed up. Any more referenda and we will be seeing 865 point drops.
865 points ain't what it used to be, no matter how much the media wants to make it exciting. That merely puts the market back where it was in March. The world didn't end then either. Buying opportunity if you ask me. The market is entirely a function of interest rates and money supply now. Nobody has anywhere else to put their money that will beat inflation without lots of work and risk. Sellers will have nowhere to go, so they will buy back in before they buy their next bottle of mouthwash.
Yeah let's just rip up the constitution and let our betters like Obama and Hillary and John Kerry be the unwritten law for 330 million people. Let's try that for one year and then ask people if they want the constitution back.
The constitution is the only thing holding this country together.
Without the Constitution the law is only what the Lefties say it is when they say it.
bagoh20 said...
865 points ain't what it used to be, no matter how much the media wants to make it exciting. That merely puts the market back where it was in March. The world didn't end then either.
The issue isn't 865 points and that's the end. The issue is when it drops 865 points and keeps going. Sooner or later it's going to happen, as the global economy is held together by a few handshakes and no more.
All the deals that make the poobahs rich are dependent on that and if it goes, they go with it.
Put the gavel down and step away from the bench.
Markets like predictable outcomes. There is much about Brexit that is unknowable. You can make any number of learned, well informed arguments about how well or badly this will turn out, but the fact is no one knows. You can bet that, whether good or ill, the unintended consequences will far outweigh the predictions. WWI didn't turn out as everyone predicted. I guess you could argue that that war marked the end of Britain's "splendid isolation" from continental politics so perhaps there's something to the Brexit argument. In any event, the stock market will continue to fall until the dust settles.......The Constitution sets the boundary lines. Some of those lines might be old and antiquated but they work. A little inefficiency is easier to handle than a lot chaos. Besides, our ancestors were able to drive the rusty old heap up the hill. Are we so much less or more than our ancestors?.......I'm reminded of that great Constitutional scholar, Woodrow Wilson, who decided that the boundary lines of the Austro-Hungarian Empire were antiquated and took it upon himself to redraw them. That worked out well.
So in the old country, was the family name Piezeofschittner?
And there it is and now coming from a federal judge. Guess we know what his criteria will be; his meaningless whims. Yay, we are saved. God Save America.
What kills me, kills me, is the British literally wrote the dystopian books. They saw it all coming causing us to be forced to read them in high school. Isn't weird to have things spelled out so clearly and then watch the descendants of your teachers totally blow it?
They taught us the economic we practice. They taught us economic philosophy.
Even in modern British children's fiction the lessons continue. BBC shows this sort of thing all the time, Dr Who, Hitchhikers Guide for two popular examples, planets and systems run by fat loathsome bureaucrats interested only in form and never allowing common sense from life on the streets, viewing people as commodities that are moved, built up and destroyed, as pieces by policies you set, facilitating movement of labor and capital by elevating themselves above the people they represent who put them there!
And they're still doing it. They're still delegitimatizing authentic and valid anger not at the individual things listed but collectively as representation they, media, pundits, politicians, are delegitimatizing complaints about representation. They STILL avoid the word in their writing. They talk about every species of weed except plain representation. If it's borders, then it's racism, if it's economy, then it's inflexible loser in global market, (because they're sitting pretty, so should you, Dummkopf.) if it's immigration then it's xenophobia. It's anything but not having representation in Washington. It's anything but Washington growing while the rest does not.
I'm cross right now. I just got off Twitter where Insty brought to our attention someone I muted because he's become 100% antiTrump to an irrational extent. He's no longer any fun. A worked up republican. His entire twitter stream is anti-Trump, there is none of the original attractive humor, so MUTE for you. Maybe I unfollowed. I don't have patience anymore. I unfollowed half the people. I kicked out a bunch of followers. I don't know why people follow.
He's your candidate m*Rthry7f4-ker, knock it the uf7H2qkc off.
That there's what you call mental-emotional obsession. Jesus Christ, can you imaging living with somebody like that? I would end up bludgeoning them to death.
I shut him up. MUTE for you. Until this is over. Or unfollow. I don't need it.
Aaaaand there he is again. Brought to my attention by an otherwise sensible person. And sure enough he's delivering pure worked up horseshit. Trump not wasting money on ads that Hillary is spending proves that Trump is doing a total fake out with intention of handing it all to Hillary. He says "Here's all the proof you need" Actually it's his obsession, his conceptualization that Trump must do things in recognizable ways or he'll never be elected, and the people who are still with this Twitter poster pile on and agree Trump is fake and all his supporters are dopes. And only they sees the true Trump intention. And they are not stopping. That's why they are muted or unfollowed.
It's not possible in their view that Trump had some kind of epiphany as he says he did that, "hey, things are really REALLY REALLY screwed up and only a person like himself who is immune can affect it and reverse the things that are wrong. All that is NOT possible. They know Trump too well. For too long. All this fits typical Trump nonsense. He hasn't spent 30 M like Hillary plans to so that's PROOF you are all being played.
Insty retweets. To show this pov out there. The pov I shut off.
And I'm all, *Appu voice* "I told you to stfu and you are not shutting tfu."
Because it's going to be another of those things that for me to shut out your obnoxious obsession poisoning my existence, biting me like a hidden rattlesnake that didn't even rattle, just bit me, it pisses me off. The only thing left is shut it off altogether since is slips through the cracks like poisonous obnoxious smelling sulfurous smoke.
I donated $100 to Trump yesterday. I hope his campaign is a blend of the old ad-driven model and some new models.
Posner is not just any federal judge. He was constantly spoke of being SCOTUS appointed, but politically it did not play out and he's too old now. He writes and blogs a lot (he is big on contract law).
But he is flat out wrong.
The Constitution is outdated like Shakespeare or Greek Tragedies are out dated. Oh sure, it may be difficult on first pass to get into it, but human nature has not evolved much in the last 2500 years (let alone 400 for Shakespeare or 230 for the Constitution).
I wanna go back to the 18th Century
Take me back to the 18th Century
It's the only li'l ol' century for li'l ol' me.
I wanna have a sit-down with ol' Madison
Wanna chew the fat with ol' Jefferson
And ask them if it's time to water that tree.
Congrats on donating to Trump, AJ. Easy for me to make blowhard comments of support; you've taken the real step.
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