. . .
Brown: 5 – Plessy: 4
. . .
Bumper sticker of the week:
June 26: A day that will live in famy
Archive for the Supreme Court Category
Brown: 5 – Plessy: 4 (June 29, 2015)
Posted in Due Process, Equal Protection, Gay Politics, Less Government Regulation Series, Supreme Court on June 29, 2015 by e-commentary.org“Romney – O’Bama Care” In Practice (February 9, 2015)
Posted in Bankruptcy, Congress, Federal Courts, Health Care, O'Bama, Romney, Supreme Court on February 9, 2015 by e-commentary.org. . .
T1 “One of the biggest misrepresentations of our generation is the statement by President O’Bama that a person could keep his or her insurance policy. That ‘executive summary’ of the legislation by the Chief Executive led me to believe that the legislation was at least neutral if not benign.”
T2 “The legislation moved so fast that only a few on the inside knew what would transpire.”
T1 “The Federal Courts uniformly reject the doctrine that there is estoppel against the President or any federal official. One of the great things about being on the inside of the Federal Government, for Republicans and Democrats alike, is that lies are not actionable and are blessed by the Federal Courts.”
T2 “No one cares. And everyone on the inside gets a regular paycheck and a gilded pension. And free health care.”
. . .
T1 “It was X dollars last year and then 2X dollars in December and then 3X dollars in January. February brings a new number and a new nightmare.”
T2 “Before passage, a citizen filed bankruptcy after receiving health care. After passage, a citizen files bankruptcy before receiving health care.”
. . .
T1 “Boehner does not have to navigate the mine field of ‘Romney – O’Bama Care.’ Pelosi does not have to navigate the mine field of ‘Romney – O’Bama Care.’ McConnell does not have to navigate the mine field of ‘Romney – O’Bama Care.’ Reid does not have to navigate the mine field of ‘Romney – O’Bama Care.’ They are all covered at no cost.”
T2 “No one cares about health care for the people.”
T1 “The Republicans are wasting tremendous money with all the repeated and futile votes to repeal ‘Romney – O’Bama Care’ without providing any alternative legislation. The Supreme Court is not the forum because bad policy is not necessarily unconstitutional, it is just bad policy.”
T2 “The doctors and nurses have the most insightful perspective and provided the answer years ago. A single payer system would work for them and their patients.”
T1 “The Republic cannot afford a single payer system and cannot afford not to have a single payer system. The current schemes are so grindingly inefficient and unfair and only enrich insurance companies.”
T2 “No one cares.”
. . .
[See the e-commentary at The “Contract with America”; The Congressional Reform Act of 2010 (March 29, 2010).]
Bumper sticker of the week:
Stay healthy then die quickly
Marital Musings (December 22, 2014)
Posted in Civil Rights/Civil Liberties, Constitution, Courts, Economics, Gold Standard, Kleptocracy, Movie Reference, Radio, Russia, Silver Standard, Society, Sports, Supreme Court on December 28, 2014 by e-commentary.org. . .
H1 “So she said we had to set aside some time for a conversation. I knew it would get bad.”
H2 “You don’t get to say anything.”
H1 “Except when spoken to. So she said she had to confess that she was thinking about someone else while we were in medias res. And she said that she was now happy to have gotten if off her chest. I said that was fine. She could be thinking about Mr. Magoo if it will get us through the night. From my perspective, if I can handle the kitchen remodel, junior can get braces. But it ended up not being fine. I should have been upset. She was upset that I was not upset. I was beginning to get sort of upset that she was upset that I was not upset.”
H2 “Nothing about Gina Lollobrigida.”
H1 “She would have exercised the proviso ‘til death do us part’ and parted with me.”
. . .
H2 “She asked if I noticed that she had put on weight. I had not noticed, so I told her that I had not noticed. I am thinking that I get 100 points for candor and honesty and being a great guy and for being a little oblivious. Maybe an MVP award and a hall pass.”
H1 “And she was upset that you were not upset. And it was Katie bar the door with Katie showing you the door.”
H2 “I didn’t get a pass. I told her that once she made the cut and was on the team, things like that did not really matter.”
H1 “And she parsed every phrase.”
H2 “‘Made the cut’ and ‘on the team’ are two separate concepts. Saying that it is like two wrestlers who make weight and then each go off and have bacon cheeseburgers did not assuage her anxiety.”
. . .
H1 “We conversed with a counselor who opined about psychological affairs versus physical affairs and provided few insights to address our financial affairs.”
H2 “Do you think he was safe?”
H1 “She is sure that we only talk about sex.”
H2 “Safe by a mile. Replay is clear.”
. . .
[See the latest sophistry from the Supreme Court that vitiates the Fourth Amendment. http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/14pdf/13-604_ec8f.pdf. An illegal stop is an illegal stop and not a legal stop.]
[See the commentary at “Henrietta And Henry O, Two Young Lovers: The Contemporary Gift Of The Magi (December 27, 2010).”]
Bumper stickers of the week:
“Honey, would you rather I were making love to him using your name, or making love to you using his name?” Annie Savoy, Bull Durham (1988)
Russian Exceptionalism > or = or < American Nationalism
The COMEX is instituting trading collars for the sale of gold and silver. And the answer to Will Shortz’ “Sunday Puzzle” seeking the correct anagram for “Comex” is . . . “Fraud.”
Corporations Control Court: The Cancer Metastasizes (December 15, 2014)
Posted in Amazon, Conflicts of Interest, Courts, Judicial Arrogance, Judiciary, Law, Minimum Wage, Perjury, Perjury/Dishonesty, Supreme Court, Wages, Work on December 15, 2014 by e-commentary.org. . .
L1 “Labor economists divide life into time spent pursuing ‘work’ and time spent pursuing ‘leisure’ or, if you prefer a four letter word for symmetry, then employ the word ‘play.’ An employee should be paid for the work he or she does for an employer but not for the time he or she plays for himself or herself.”
L2 “That is also the settled law in the Republic of America.”
L1 “Except at the Supreme Court which rewrites the laws to protect corporations at every opportunity and cost.”
L2 “I’m not amazed that Amazon requires a security check as part of one’s work. Fine. That time should be compensated under the law because it is work and is not play.”
L1 “The ‘Justices’ get paid for donning and doffing their robes. Most police get paid for the time they put on their uniforms and the time they take off their uniforms.”
L2 “The ‘Justices’ all agree that the underlying maxim in American law is ‘Might Is Right’ and, like politicians, are shrewd enough to support the police and others who defend them against the populace.”
L1 “The ‘Justices’ work a part-time job and get not only full-time pay but lifetime pay even when they should be discharged ‘for cause.’ The irony is delightful . . . and obscene.”
L2 “Another unprecedented problem plaguing the Court is its eagerness to reward the lawyers/lobbyists who litigate and lobby on behalf of the corporations. The Court has never at any time in the history of the country been more obedient to the corporations and less accessible to the American public.”
L1 “In another trend than has been consistent now for decades, the Ninth Circuit correctly interprets the law and then the Supreme Court improperly imposes its ideology.”
L2 “There are some nice enough folks on the Supreme Court, but law just is not their forte.”
L1 “They say that the conjunction ‘but’ is an acronym that means ‘behold utter truth’ because everything before the word ‘but’ in a sentence is a polite untruth.”
L2 “The Republic will require at least 50 years if not a century to recover from the lawlessness and criminality at work and in play at the Supreme Court today. But it may not recover.”
. . .
[See the screed at http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/14pdf/13-433_5h26.pdf.]
[See the commentary at “Humanity’s Motto: To Enslave And To Colonize (January 27, 2014).“]
Bumper stickers of the week:
Own A Supreme Court ‘Justice’ Today (Corporations Only, Please)
America has many rules and many laws but not much rule of law.
A Deft Move (October 6, 2014)
Posted in Courts, First Monday In October, Gay Politics, Supreme Court on October 6, 2014 by e-commentary.org. . .
L1 “They have one of the few jobs that allow one to decide what to do and what not to do. What to decide and what not to decide. When to decide and when not to decide. Why to decide and why not to decide. The big challenge is to decide who gets to decide.”
L2 “Ecclesiastes in practice. And it is a part-time job with full-time pay for life. Sign me up.”
. . .
L1 “By doing nothing, they did not do nothing, they did do something, although they did not do everything.”
L2 “That’s the thing I like about them. Sign me up.”
L1 “Not a bad compromise. The four regressive and reactionary corporatists on the right and the four progressive civil libertarians on the left were all jockeying for Kennedy’s nod. Kennedy supports the freedom to marry, yet there is that concern that he views the marriage thing as a state matter. So they agreed to dismiss all the petitions for cert. and allow the decisions below to stand and move forward.”
L2 “The issue can continue to percolate in the courts below and in the courts of public opinion around them. Sign me up.”
L1 “As I see it, the four male Republican Catholic Justices on the right squared off against the four ‘female’ Democratic ‘Jewish’ Justices on the left and all lobbied for the vote of the male Republican Catholic Justice.”
L2 “Hard not to entertain a lingering concern that it is another ‘Justice delayed is justice denied’ scenario. Justice is being delayed and denied for some to allow the bigger controversy to stew.”
L1 “A good compromise, really. They are all astute enough to realize that hundreds of thousands of citizens will be getting married in the interim providing more momentum for the freedom to marry. If one of the remaining three-judge federal Circuit Court panels elects to deny persons the right to marry, the plaintiffs will move for and receive en banc review by the entire Circuit Court that will almost surely side with those upholding equal protection and due process. Thus, a disagreement between or within the Circuit Courts that typically leads to Supreme Court review will never manifest itself.”
. . .
L1 “Marriage will be a fundamental right shortly. It is a matter of time.”
L2 “At times, we tell time. At other times, time tells time. Always good when time is on your side.”
L1 “Time marches on. Life goes on.”
. . .
[See the commentary at “The Sea Change Is Now A Tsunami (March 11, 2013)” and “The Tsunami Hits Shore (March 24, 2014)” and other commentary at https://e-commentary.org/category/gay-politics/.%5D
Bumper sticker of the week:
Sign outside the Supreme Court last year during oral argument: “Supremes: You can hurry love.”
Law Is Politics ; Politics Is Law (July 7, 2014)
Posted in Congress, Courts, Judges, Presidency, Supreme Court on July 7, 2014 by e-commentary.org. . .
L1 “Based on tradition, Justices are seated by seniority from the center outward on both sides. Based on current practice, Justices should sit on each side of the political aisle. The five Republicans should sit on the right wing and the four Democrats should sit on the left wing.”
. . .
L1 “The right wing majority of the Supreme Court reinvigorated its campaign to undermine abortion rights, fox hole by fox hole.”
L2 “They are sly as a fox about it. When notes are later released, someone may discover that the left wing minority was either intimidated by the right wing or made a concession to the abortion opponents to avoid an even more dishonest opinion by logrolling their votes for less damaging language.”
L1 “Logrolling. You have got to love it. Politicians behaving like politicians.”
. . .
L1 “The right wing of the Supreme Court reaffirmed the two-part First Amendment test: ‘1) Who is making the expression? and 2) What is being expressed?’ That is not what the Founding Fathers intended.”
L2 “The left wing may have used ‘Substantive Due Process’ to shape policy in the past. The right wing is using the First Amendment to advance its political agenda and silence its critics.”
. . .
L2 “In some cultures, hypocrisy is the greatest crime. The Supreme Court strikes down a reasonable 35-foot barrier between abortion protesters and those going into a facility after imposing a more than 200-foot buffer around the Court and enforcing it with the Court’s own private army paid for with public funds.”
L1 “What if protestors stood outside Scalia’s house and shouted that he is a ‘fibber’?”
. . .
L1 “The right wing of the Supreme Court underpins its decision on recess appointments on separation of powers doctrines and yet undermines the most fundamental separation of powers. The Supreme Court – the judicial branch – defined and delineated legislative activities to undermine executive power.”
L2 “Would the Court have reached that decision if the President were a Republican.”
L1 “Maybe not. Look in the footnotes of the decision for an exception for a Republican President.”
L2 “Look at Bush v. Gore for precedent. Law is all politics today.”
. . .
Bumper stickers of the week:
Do gay corporations have the constitutional right to engage in mergers and acquisitions or merely civil unions?
There is no law; there is only ideology.
The Supreme Court – The Legislature on the east side of First Street
Cell Phones: Supreme Court Celebrates “Terrorism-Free Month” With Unanimous Proclamation On Privacy (June 30, 2014)
Posted in Civil Rights/Civil Liberties, Constitution, Supreme Court, Technology, Terrorism-Free Month - June on June 30, 2014 by e-commentary.org. . .
L “At core, the Supreme Court really confessed that all nine of them in fact have cell phones, too.”
M “Thank goodness that the Founding Fathers anticipated the emergence of cell phones. That seems to be what animated Scalia, Alito and Thomas.”
. . .
L “If, pray tell, a cop detained a Justice of the Supreme Court, the computer check of the vehicle license plate or a quick review of his or her Supreme Court identification card would summon an immediate apology from the police for the delay and inconvenience.”
M “A cop would see the Supreme Court parking sticker on the bumper and arrest his or her activities.”
L “Supreme Court Justices are immune from prosecution.”
M “Yet their kids have cell phones and may not be afforded the same immunity.”
. . .
L “Roberts’ opinion is an insightful commentary on the ubiquity of the cell phone and its pervasiveness in our lives. The ‘smarty pants phones’ are the repositories of our mind and soul.”
M “The kids in particular are transfixed by these fixtures that could be affixed to them with pop rivets.”
. . .
M “You could craft a novel using just cell phone records and, for good measure, credit and debit card statements. Grocery receipts, book purchases and movie rentals are a telescope and microscope into one’s internal hard drive. The reader would need to participate actively in reading between the lines, discerning the interstices and supplementing the silences, yet the effort would be rewarded.”
L “I stumbled on my January, 2011 credit card statement and relived the previous month just reviewing line item entries. Who, what, when, where and, with some imagination, why.”
M “There are no secrets today.”
. . .
L “The Court and public officials should error, if it is an error, on the side of privacy.”
M “A warrant really is not much to ask.”
L “Nine to nothing is something.”
. . .
Bumper stickers of the week:
Get a warrant, please.
Justice Roberts knows more about cell phone telephony than your honor student . . . or your dog.
Immanentizing The Eschaton: Your Supreme Court And The Great Religious War (October 7, 2013)
Posted in Courts, First Monday In October, Immanentizing The Eschaton, Journalism, Judges, Judicial Arrogance, Law, Newspapers, Supreme Court on October 7, 2013 by e-commentary.org. . .
L1 “The Supreme Court is engaged in a war between those who do not want to allow others to immanentize the eschaton and those who do want to allow others to immanentize the eschaton.”
L2 “I’ve said that many times. The five rich White boys – Roberts, Scalia, Thomas, Alito and Kennedy – have already immanentized the eschaton and do not want anyone else except those like them to immanentize the eschaton.”
L1 “They are the Catholic Squad.”
L2 “And the four others also have immanentized the eschaton and yet do want everyone else to be able to immanentize the eschaton.”
L1 “Exactly. They are the Jewish Squad. Sotamayer developed concern for the health and welfare of others in her youth and did not immanentize the eschaton until adulthood, so she caucuses with the Jewish Squad. The Jewish “Big E” Eschaton itself shapes the attitude toward its immanentization. This life may not be a dress rehearsal.”
L2 “At core, the war at the Supreme Court really is a great religious war.”
. . .
L1 “They are out in left field honing their short game.”
L2 “Yet there are some Catholics who do want to allow others to immanentize the eschaton. Just none of the current Supreme Beings.”
. . .
[See the other “e-ssays” in the “First Tuesday In October” series at https://e-commentary.org/category/first-monday-in-october/.]
Bumper stickers of the week:
“In a recent series of Pushitzer prize winning articles, ‘El Diablo Times Bugle Leader Follower Post Pre Clarion’ reports that after each one took of them took the ultimate senior status and appeared before an even more Supreme Being, Johnny, Tony, Clarence, Sammy and Tony II each were sent straight to the mines with no health or safety apparatus, no lunch breaks, no overtime pay, no air conditioning and no law clerks – none – to bail them out.”
. . .
“Your surprise is not surprising. We see that reaction all the time.” “As you know, we did not even entertain the existence of such an ultimate reality. And a room with a view and room service. Just because we lead a virtuous life.” “Indeed. Really, it’s quite simple. From our perspective, we look at how you live your life not what you profess to believe. And perforce, as you know, we know everything.”
The Supremes On Love And Voting (July 1, 2013)
Posted in Gay Politics, Hypocrisy, Law, Supreme Court, Voting on July 1, 2013 by e-commentary.org
. . .
L1 “The Constitution protects most of the people most of the time, but only some of the people can stand before the court and take a stand. Those attorneys versed in ‘standing’ doctrine could sit around a card table. Roberts decided that the folks who bellied up to the bar could not stand before the court and challenge to decision rejecting Proposition 8 in California.”
L2 “Not a bad compromise. However, the Court should pause before it rejects what appears to be an outcome adopted by a valid public referendum.”
L1 “Or legislation adopted by a congressional vote. Such as gutting provisions of the Voting Rights Act. Congress voted to extend the VRA by a larger margin that any other substantive legislation in recent memory.”
L2 “Roberts made findings of fact on appeal with no basis in fact. Despite the allegations of the Gang of Five, America has not changed; the South has not changed; the Civil War continues. The Department of Justice and the courts must moderate and mediate the racial war in America.”
. . .
L1 “Alito claims that gay marriage is a new invention. The history of love is not his strong suit. History really is not his strong suit.”
L2 “Being a suit is his strong suit.”
L1 “At least with regard to equal treatment of gays, the characters on the Court who have created their own history now are being overrun by history.”
. . .
L1 “At least the Court, less the members on the right, is on the right and righteous path regarding the right to extricate the government from the marriage business.”
. . .
Bumper stickers of the week:
Of course the Constitution has its flaws, but it is a lot better than what we have now.
The Supremes: You can hurry love
e-commentary 