FishingBanter - View Single Post

rw · March 11th, 2006, 06:37 PM posted to rec.outdoors.fishing.fly

wrote:

So-called (modern) conservatives generally champion laws that don't
offend the Constitution but can, and often do, offend the individual,
whereas so-called (modern) liberals generally champion laws that make
particular individuals feel great but offend the Constitution. As
examples, guns (because the 2nd is clear and combined with legislative
intent, it is ironclad), most "recreational" drugs, and abortion
(because the Constitution is silent directly on-point) should be
legislated, not controlled by the Supreme Court. IMO, they should be
Federally legal, with caveats, generally without input from or notice by
the Supreme Court (form of law excepted, should the case arise) - malum
prohibitum vs malum in se, unless the former crosses the line in such a
way that the latter would be a foreseeable result, i.e., drunk driving
in an unsafe (and uninsured, just to get it all messy) vehicle. OTOH, a
lot of what is put forth a "free" press and a separation of church
and state is just plain wrong - as examples, there is no language, and
no intent, to allow the press to run amok, nor any prohibition against,
for example, prayer in schools or religious symbols at public buildings.

Conservatives (so-called) are continually whining about liberal activist
Supreme Court justices, but they don't bother to define what "activist"
means.

A reasonably objective and quantifiable measure of a judge's activism
can be had with this question:

How often has each justice voted to strike down a law passed by Congress?

Here are the numbers:

Thomas 65.63 %
Kennedy 64.06 %
Scalia 56.25 %
Rehnquist 46.88 %
O'Connor 46.77 %
Souter 42.19 %
Stevens 39.34 %
Ginsburg 39.06 %
Breyer 28.13 %

Clarence Thomas, appointed by President Bush the First, is the most
activist. Stephen Breyer, appointed by Clinton, is the least activist.
The clear pattern is that the judges considered to be "conservative" are
most activist than those considered to be "liberal".

What conservatives really mean by "activists" is that some judges don't
decide cases according to right-wing ideology.

--
Cut "to the chase" for my email address.