There Are Two Fundamentally Irreconcilable
Constitutional Visions
Manhattan Contrarian,
by
Francis Menton
Original Article
Posted By: earlybird,
7/3/2022 11:39:15 AM
It’s been a momentous couple of weeks at the Supreme Court. As usual, they saved the big cases for the end. This year the big three were Bruen (gun rights), Dobbs (abortion rights) and West Virginia (administrative regulation of CO2).
All three cases were decided 6-3 along ideological lines. These cases involved the most basic issues of what the Constitution is and how it is to be interpreted. On those issues there is virtually no hope of one side ever convincing anyone from the other side. There just are two fundamentally irreconcilable visions of how this should work. (snip)
Vision 1. The Constitution allocates
Reply 1 - Posted by:
earlybird 7/3/2022 12:01:53 PM (No. 1205214)
Francis Menton has a lot to say. He has lived in the West Village (NYC) and finds much to like there, with this exception. Sound familiar?
With one exception: we suffer from a stifling political and ideological orthodoxy. The central tenet of that orthodoxy is that all personal problems of the people in society can be solved by government taxing and spending. The obvious corollary is that since all problems can be solved by taxing and spending, therefore they must be solved by taxing and spending, and anyone who stands in the way of those solutions is immoral. A few subsidiary tenets of the orthodoxy (there are way too many for me to name all of them) include: the government has infinite capacity to tax and spend and does not need to make any choices about spending priorities; the government has an infinite ability to borrow; an appropriate function of government is to take on all down-side risk of life so that no individual ever needs to worry about loss of anything; the government can achieve a perfect society by ordering the people to behave in appropriate ways, in which case they will do so without any attempts at evasion or any unintended consequences; the current built environment is optimal and all attempts to change it in any way must be opposed at all costs; usage of energy is a human right, but all actual known methods of producing energy are environmentally unacceptable; new, fancier, and higher-priced stores and restaurants are ruining the neighborhood; and labor unions improve the lives of workers with no adverse consequences. It is not clear to me why these and other tenets of the orthodoxy must always go together in a package, but somehow they do. Anyway, I have long realized that not only do I not subscribe to the orthodoxy, but I disagree with it in more or less every respect. Thus the name of this blog: Manhattan Contrarian.
4 people like this.
Reply 2 - Posted by:
Venturer 7/3/2022 12:02:20 PM (No. 1205217)
I don't believe these decisions of 6-3 are along ideological lines.
IMO they were decided 6-3 due to the total incompetence of 3 women placed on SCOTUS because of their gender and not their legal abilities.
16 people like this.
Reply 3 - Posted by:
DVC 7/3/2022 12:29:48 PM (No. 1205243)
Excellent commentary, I agree entirely. But it's a shame that the two religious freedom cases were omitted from his analysis. Kennedy v. Bremerton School District and Carson v. Makin were important for religious freedom, too.
I commented after the Bruen and
1 person likes this.
Reply 4 - Posted by:
DVC 7/3/2022 12:39:29 PM (No. 1205252)
somehow cut off -
...Dobbs, during the hysteria about overturning Roe, that perhaps the WVa v. EPA ruling which was not then released might be the most momentous of the session. I now think it may yet prove to be the most important. The EPA ruling will be rolling back a lot of the bureaucratic overreach that has been harming the country with 'regulations' which were voted on by no one, but are enforced as laws.
We now have clarified RIGHTS to both "keep and bear" arms, but it will take a while for the Bruen decision to be used to eliminate a lot of bad 'gun control' laws. Hysterical and childish tantrums like the NY state law passed yesterday will be quickly swept aside, and reasonable laws which make it legal for the average citizen to 'bear arms' in public will be established, no matter what tantrums the anti-gun folks throw.
5 people like this.
Reply 5 - Posted by:
earlybird 7/3/2022 1:03:27 PM (No. 1205272)
The dissenters were females Sotomayer aned Kagan. Joined by male Justice Breyer. If you read the dissents, it is clear that social justice won over the Constitution for these three Libs.
11 people like this.
Reply 6 - Posted by:
Penney 7/3/2022 1:03:33 PM (No. 1205273)
As the USA here in 2022 celebrates our beautiful country's historical 4th of July heritage of Independence, Liberty and Justice FOR ALL, EQUALLY, we are again reminded that there have always been challengers to our human rights bestowed by God. Yet throughout those years we have had American leaders who, for the most part, have reflected the faith & will of the American people. The American voters have seen this country through every challenge to the foundationan Constitutional principles which secure each individual's freedom and thus, our country itself. Such free people as Americans do not yield to tyranny imposed by political tricksters & conniving phoneys! As Pres. Reagan always advised, keep our eyes on the shining city on the hill! ...We must find leaders who will guide our ship of state through these current threats just as we have in the past and on to the USA's true course! Never be detoured off course by lies & political tricksters! America has ALWAYS been better than that!
God Bless the U.S.A.!!!
6 people like this.
Reply 7 - Posted by:
davew 7/3/2022 1:43:17 PM (No. 1205311)
This distinction is very fundamental to the durability of the American Republic vs the often-failed French and German republics. From our founding our laws were informed by a constitution based on English Common Law and were heavily weighted by custom and precedence. In contrast, Europe followed the Napoleonic Code which codified all laws in detail and then gave all discretion to the judiciary to look at the specifics of the case before them and interpret the code to fit their notion of justice. Humans being what they are, this inevitably led to the Jacobins, Robespierre, and the injustices of the French Revolution. This is also the model followed by the Chinese courts of law who openly admire the power and efficiency of the French revolutionaries.
2 people like this.
Reply 8 - Posted by:
leonardo 7/3/2022 2:10:20 PM (No. 1205335)
The Liberal “Vision 2” is the “RULE CHANGERS” vision - to change what has worked for 200+ years because THEY KNOW BETTER that the Founders. Vision 2 advocates simp[ly need to move to CUBA and then let us know what the CUBAN Regime does with their enlightened vision. Vision 2 advocates will LEARN that they can check IN but that they cannot CHECK OUT. THAT works for me.
6 people like this.
Reply 9 - Posted by:
Zeek Wolfe 7/3/2022 4:10:16 PM (No. 1205407)
Absent the Democrat party and RINOs, America would have a future filled with rainbows and puppies, happiness without the haters befouling our lives. When we were a boy riding with parents down a pleasant country road in a Chevrolet, there was a space about a mile long where the smell of pig farms would curl your toes. Main road, no escaping it. We had a pleasant drive under Trump, but we are now in Biden's/Democrat pig farm space.
4 people like this.
Reply 10 - Posted by:
smokincol 7/3/2022 5:36:18 PM (No. 1205458)
but there is only one Constitution and the demcommies complain when the Supreme Court decides against them or not with them or with someone who is not a demcommie and cause all kinds of disruption, we should be getting used to it by now and they should be called out on this kind of stuff
2 people like this.
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Allocates powers to three branches of government and also contains the Bill of (Constitutionally protected) Rights. And then there is Vision 2. Recommend a read. I know - we know all this - but read it anyway. And send it on. There is (better) life beyond the Daily Mail...
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