FDR – LonelyMachines

1937 All Over Again

For someone claiming unalloyed fealty to the Constitution, Rick Perry sure does want to tinker with it. He’s called for repeal of the 16th and 17th Amendments, and he wants new ones to outlaw abortion and gay marriage.

This guy wants to take our founding document and tailor it to fit his personal whims. That should scare the living daylights out of any American.

Equally strange are his plans for the Supreme Court. He wants rolling term limits for Justices, and he wants to give Congress the power to overrule verdicts by a 2/3 vote. Both ideas are wretched, and both have been tried before.

Civil Rights

Return of the Four Horsemen

Led by Justice Kennedy, the Supreme Court struck down the 2nd Circuit’s decision in Ricci v. Destefano (pdf) this morning. He was joined by Justices Alito, Scalia, Thomas, and Roberts. The decision shows a conservative-leaning court interpreting Title VII in its original spirit, which was to be completely colorblind:

Without some other justification, this express, race-based decisionmaking violates Title VII’s command that employers
cannot take adverse employment actions because of an individual’s race. (p. 19)

It’s worth noting that the balance of Justices in this case is exactly the same as it was in Heller. When the question of incorporating the 2nd Amendment under the aegis of the 14th comes before the Court next year, we should be able to expect a 5-4 margin.

Our current situation is strikingly similar to the one existing between 1930 and 1937 in the Hughes Court. Much of Roosevelt’s early New Deal legislation was stalled by a bloc of conservative Justices comprised of McReynolds, Devanter, Sutherland and Butler.

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Civil Rights

Obama’s Gun Policies: Spin vs. Fact

So, the new President has transplanted his proposed policies from his own site directly to the official White House site. Under the “Urban Policies” header, we have a blueprint for his ideas on gun control.

Spin: Obama and Biden would repeal the Tiahrt Amendment, which restricts the ability of local law enforcement to access important gun trace information, and give police officers across the nation the tools they need to solve gun crimes and fight the illegal arms trade.

Fact: This is a defacto gun registry. The Federal government will have access to all information a buyer includes on Form 4473, without having to obtain a warrant or prove cause. Remember, Obama voted for the Patriot Act, which included the ability of the government to engage in wiretaps on citizens without warrants.

Spin: Obama and Biden also favor commonsense measures that respect the Second Amendment rights of gun owners, while keeping guns away from children and from criminals.

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