Showing posts with label Supreme Court. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Supreme Court. Show all posts
Systematically Gutting the Constitution While Reshaping America in their Image
About this time every year, 300 million-plus Americans drag themselves out of bed, get ready for their day and learn what rights they have been allowed under the latest U.S. Supreme Court decision.
The unelected Supremes, in their hair-splitting wisdom, have ruled this term:
* That elected representatives of the people may make no law to execute child rapists;
* That enemy combatants--captured on the field of battle as they attempted to kill U.S. service personnel--have many of the same rights as law-abiding U.S. citizens;
* That the Second Amendment is not unconstitutional.
Like some Inter-Galactic Council, straight out of a low-budget sci-fi movie, the Court's 5-4 decisions hand down their brand of justice and law to us lowly interplanetary peons.
Americans assess the impact and damage to their lives--and then, scramble to obey.
In the Court's granting of habeus corpus rights to detainees at Guantanamo Bay, the 4 liberal judges (plus Anthony Kennedy, in a ruling that's sure to increase his facetime in the Washington Post) overturned 200+ years of law.
The ruling itself was an unconstitutional violation of the separation of powers--never a concern when the Liberal justices are busy reshaping the U.S. into something a little more to their personal tastes and preferences.
As Rob at Say Anything Blog notes:
Article III, Section 2: In all the other cases before mentioned, the Supreme Court shall have appellate jurisdiction, both as to law and fact, with such exceptions, and under such regulations as the Congress shall make.
In the Military Commissions Act of 2006, passed by Congress and signed into law by President Bush, is the following passage:
(e)(1) No court, justice, or judge shall have jurisdiction to hear or consider an application for a writ of habeas corpus filed by or on behalf of an alien detained by the United States who has been determined by the United States to have been properly detained as an enemy combatant or is awaiting such determination.
So Congress passed, and President Bush signed, the law specifically limiting the court's authority to challenge it.
The "Five Who Rule 300 Million" ignored it. They had discovered something known by career criminals: it's only a crime if the law can do something about it. For the liberal Supremes, who's going to make them obey the law?
Doesn't matter if it's the law of the Constitution, state legislatures or the other two branches of government.
determined by how Anthony Kennedy votes
Three years ago, Justices John Paul Stevens, David H. Souter, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen G. Breyer--again joined by Anthony Kennedy--discarded another Constitutional protection: the Fifth Amendment's private property protections, in Kelo v. New Haven.
5-4 Ruling Backs Forced Sales for Private Development
The Supreme Court ruled yesterday that local governments may force property owners to sell out and make way for private economic development when officials decide it would benefit the public, even if the property is not blighted and the new project's success is not guaranteed.
At that time, Stevens wrote that "The court should not "second-guess" local governments". However, Stevens had no qualms in second-guessing the state of Louisiana's elected government in the matter of executing child rapists.
The Supreme Court's creation of rights for non-citizens--while at the same time stripping, or attempting to abolish, clearly-defined protections for the very same citizens the Constitution was written for--is arbitrary.
About this time every year, Americans find that they live not in a country governed by the rule of law, but by judicial decree. To the Court's Liberal Four, like medieval rulers operating under the Divine Right of Kings, the law is determined by their whims, quirks and fancy.
The sooner we 300 million accept this, the sooner we'll all be properly grateful for the rights the Four have allowed us keep--for now.
About this time every year, Americans drag themselves out of bed, get ready to face the day--and try to cope with the Law According to the Five Who Rule 300 Million.
by Mondoreb
Sources:
* Justices Affirm Property Seizures
* Supreme Court Ignores The Constitution In Gitmo Case
* United States Supreme Court Decisions: 2007-2008 Term
* supremecourt
* oyez
* Rigorous Intuition
* corbis
THE LAW OF INTENDED CONSEQUENCES
The Constitution Of The United States. Article III, Section 3.
Section 3. Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying war against them, or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort. No person shall be convicted of treason unless on the testimony of two witnesses to the same overt act, or on confession in open court.
The Congress shall have power to declare the punishment of treason, but no attainder of treason shall work corruption of blood, or forfeiture except during the life of the person attainted.
The Congress shall have power to declare the punishment of treason, but no attainder of treason shall work corruption of blood, or forfeiture except during the life of the person attainted.
US CODE: Title 18-2381. Treason
§ 2381. Treason
Whoever, owing allegiance to the United States, levies war against them or adheres to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort within the United States or elsewhere, is guilty of treason and shall suffer death, or shall be imprisoned not less than five years and fined under this title but not less than $10,000; and shall be incapable of holding any office under the United States.
In his old age, Justice Kennedy has become a preening, legal songbird. Through the imprecations and stroking of the committed left on the court--ranging from the idiot, Souter, who is incapable of writing an intelligible legal thought; to the bizarre Ginsburg, who advocates the elimination of consent and equally repellent ideas (but whom has never identified a civil right that did not need her manipulation)--Justice Kennedy has become the pointman for the reconstruction of American law in a form more preferable to the left.
Every decision is focused on the objective of forwarding a political agenda, regardless of the cost to individual and fairness. We see this same ideological drive in KENNEDY v. LOUISIANNA, the recent case wherein the Supreme Court decided that the death penalty was disproportionate to the violent and vicious rape of an 8-year-old girl by a grown man. The enunciated new standard is that the death sentence is only applicable when a death of the victim occurs.
In the decision, the Court made in somewhat clear that they were not deciding the issue as crimes against the State.
" We do not address, for example, crimes defining and punishing treason, espionage, terrorism, and drug king-pin activity.."
But is this true?
It is not.
The Court has clearly laid the groundwork for the next Court to strike down the death penalty for such crimes. Treason is the 'first' crime in America. Laid out in The Constitution, which clearly and unequivocally states that Congress can stipulate any penalty whatsoever. The thought that Congress could be second guessed by the Court clearly never entered the minds of the drafters.
It is noteworthy that Article III is the very Article that establishes the Court and therefore the framers put the Court and the crime of Treason on an equal plane.
BUT buried in the KENNEDY decision is this gem:
" The Court, for example, has acknowledged that the requirement of general rules to ensure consistency of treatment and the insistence that capital sentencing be individualized have resulted in tension and imprecision. This approach might be sound with respect to capital murder, but it should not be introduced into the justice system when murder has not occurred".
This along with the Court's new standard of rarity of application of the death penalty(if it rarely done for a crime, them it must be because it is wrong for that crime) dooms capital punishment for treason , espionage, mailing injurious materials with intent to harm or murder, bank robbery-kidnapping, terrorism per se,and drug king-pin activity where the victims cannot be specifically determined to have been intentionally murdered by the accused. Because there, the Court is basically saying that the appellate protocol for death row inmates must not be extended where there is no death.
And that is what the left wants.
Because treason, espionage, terrorism have no meaning to them: America is the perpetrator of such crimes.
by pat
images:
* my pet jawa: adam gadahn
sources
http://www.law.cornell.edu
http://www.docstoc.com/docs
http://www.law.cornell.edu
http://www.deathpenaltyinfo
The Supreme Court's Boumediene v. Bush used the U.S. Constitution to find extraordinary rights for the very same people trying to destroy that Constitution.
In doing so, the five liberal members of the U.S. Supreme Court taped a "KICK ME!" signs to their own backs. But unlike other Kick Me Liberals, in the Supreme Court's case, they've also taped that sign onto the backs of 300 million of their countrymen.
A few examples of Kick Me Liberals.
United States Supreme Court
Incredibly, these five Justices [the Court's liberal bloc of Justices John Paul Stevens, David Souter, Ruth Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer, joined by Anthony Kennedy] have now defied the considered judgment of the president and Congress for a third time, all to grant captured al Qaeda terrorists the exact same rights as American citizens to a day in civilian court.
Judicial modesty, respect for the executive and legislative branches, and pure common sense weren't concerns here either. The Court refused to wait and see how Congress's 2006 procedures for the review of enemy combatant cases work. Congress gave Guantanamo Bay prisoners more rights than any prisoners of war, in any war, ever. The justices violated the classic rule of self-restraint by deciding an issue not yet before them.
The author of the above piece for the The Wall Street Journal, Law Professor John Yoo, went on to say, "Because of the advancing age of several justices (Justice Stevens is 88, and several others are above 70), the next president will be in a position to appoint a new Court that can reverse the damage done to the nation's security."
The Supremes join other famous liberals who've taped a "KICK ME!" sign to their own backs--and in the case of Congress and the Supreme Court, their country's.
Robert Fisk
After the U.S. launched its attack on Afghanistan shortly after the September 11, 2001 attacks, Fisk was for a time transferred to Pakistan to provide coverage of that conflict.
While reporting from there, he was attacked and beaten by a group of Afghan refugees but was also saved from this attack by another Afghan refugee. In his graphic account of his own beating, published in The Independent of December 10, 2001, Fisk excused the attackers of responsibility ("I couldn't blame them for what they were doing,") and said that, in his view, their "brutality was entirely the product of others, of us — of we who had armed their struggle against the Russians and ignored their pain and laughed at their civil war and then armed and paid them again for the 'War for Civilisation' just a few miles away and then bombed their homes and ripped up their families and called them 'collateral damage.'"
The most famous Kick Me Liberal in the Senate the last few years has been Harry Reid. (D-NV).
Harry Reid
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid called Marine Gen. Peter Pace, the outgoing chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, “incompetent” during an interview Tuesday with a group of liberal bloggers, a comment that was never reported.
Reid made similar disparaging remarks about Army Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, said several sources familiar with the interview.
This is but the latest example of how Reid, under pressure from liberal activists to do more to stop the war, is going on the attack against President Bush and his military leaders in anticipation of a September showdown to end U.S. involvement in Iraq, according to Democratic senators and aides.
We have no problem with liberals plastering their own backs with "Kick Me!" signs. It's an amusing habit of theirs.
But, when they are in office and have the power to tape a sign on every U.S. citizen's back, as well--without their approval--then they are not just buffoonish liberals.
They are dangerous.
by Mondoreb
Sources/images:
* The Supreme Court Goes to War
* Robert Fisk
* exceller8ion
* abc
* Red Planet Cartoons
* Reid labels military leader 'incompetent'
HEADACHES
1899 "Aspirin" patented by Felix Hoffmann of Bayer. It soon replaces the company's best-selling drug, heroin. From 1898 through to 1910 heroin was marketed as a non-addictive morphine substitute and cough medicine for children. Bayer marketed heroin as a cure for morphine addiction before it was discovered that heroin is converted to morphine when metabolized in the liver, and as such, "heroin" was basically only a quicker acting form of morphine.
WAR!
1861 Provisionary Confederate Congress establishes Confederate Army
1944 U.S. heavy bombers staged the first full-scale American raid on Berlin during World War II.
2003 A somber President Bush readied the nation for war against Saddam Hussein, hurling some of his harshest invectives yet at the Iraqi leader during a prime-time news conference.
TERRORISM
1978 Hustler publisher Larry Flynt shot & crippled by a sniper in Georgia.
1988 3 IRA suspects were shot dead in Gibraltar by SAS officers.
2007 Two suicide bombers blew themselves up in Hillah, Iraq, killing at least 120 people in a crowd of Shiite pilgrims.
DISASTER
1987 6.8 earthquake hits Ecuador, kills 100. Belgium ferry boat "Herald of Free Enterprise" capsizes/sinks; 192 die.
2007 More than 70 people died in an earthquake on Sumatra island, Indonesia.
NANNY STATE
1921 Police in Sunbury PA issue an edict requiring Women to wear skirts at least 4 inches below the knee.
LOSER
1974 An Italian loses a record $1,920,000 at roulette in Monte Carlo.
BOOTED
1831 Edgar Allen Poe removed from West Point military academy.
SPOOKY
1918 US naval collier "Cyclops" disappears in Bermuda Triangle.
LOUD
1982 Susan Birmingham makes loudest recorded human shout (120 dB).
MUSIC
1966 Barry Sadlers' "Ballad of the Green Berets" becomes #1 (13 weeks).
SUPREME COURT
1857 The United States Supreme Court ruled in Dred Scott v. Sandford that Scott, a slave, was not a U.S. citizen and could not sue for his freedom in federal court.
PREMATURE
1991 Following Iraq's capitulation in the Persian Gulf conflict, President Bush told Congress that "aggression is defeated; The war is over".
CITIES
In 1834, the city of York in Upper Canada was incorporated as Toronto.
LAST STAND
In 1836, the Alamo in San Antonio, Texas, fell to Mexican forces after a 13-day siege.
LOTTO
1998 A Connecticut state lottery accountant shot to death three supervisors and the lottery chief before killing himself.
POLITICS
2003 Democrats blocked President Bush's nomination of Miguel Estrada to a federal appeals court.
2007 Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, was convicted of lying and obstructing an investigation into the 2003 leak of CIA operative Valerie Plame's identity.
FREE
1957 the former British African colonies of the Gold Coast and Togoland became the independent state of Ghana.
COMMIES
1967 The daughter of Josef Stalin, Svetlana Alliluyeva, appeared at the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi, India, and declared her intention to defect to the West.
SENSATIONAL CRIME
1983 In a case that drew much notoriety, a young woman was gang-raped atop a pool table in a tavern in New Bedford, Mass., called Big Dan's; four men were later convicted of the attack.
POLITICALLY CORRECT
1988 the board of trustees at Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C., a liberal arts college for the deaf, selected Elisabeth Zinser, a hearing woman, to be school president. (Outraged students shut down the campus, forcing selection of a deaf president, I. King Jordan, instead.)
JEWS
1816 Jews are expelled from Free city of Lubeck Germany.
BORN
1475 Michelangelo Buonarroti painter/sculptor/architect (David, Pièta).
1619 Cyrano de Bergerac famous nose, dramatist (A Voyage to the Moon).
BIRTHDAYS
Orchestra conductor Julius Rudel is 87. TV personality Ed McMahon is 85. Former FBI and CIA director William Webster is 84. Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan is 82. Author Gabriel Garcia Marquez is 81. Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova is 71. Country singer Doug Dillard is 71. Sen. Christopher Bond, R-Mo., is 69. Actress-writer Joanna Miles is 68. Actor Ben Murphy is 66. Opera singer Dame Kiri Te Kanawa is 64. Singer Mary Wilson (The Supremes) is 64. Rock musician Hugh Grundy (The Zombies) is 63. Rock singer-musician David Gilmour (Pink Floyd) is 62. Actor-director Rob Reiner is 61. Singer Kiki Dee is 61. Rock singer-musician Phil Alvin (The Blasters) is 55. Actor Tom Arnold is 49. Actor D.L. Hughley is 44. Country songwriter Skip Ewing is 44. Actress Yvette Wilson is 44. Actor Shuler Hensley is 41. Actress Connie Britton is 40. Actress Moira Kelly is 40. Actress Amy Pietz is 39. Basketball player Shaquille O'Neal is 36. Country singer Trent Willmon is 35. Country musician Shan Farmer (Ricochet) is 34. Rapper Beanie Sigel is 34. Rapper Bubba Sparxxx is 31. Actor Eli Marienthal is 22. Actor Jimmy Galeota is 22. Actor Dillon Freasier (Film: "There Will Be Blood") is 12. Actress Savannah Stehlin is 12.
DEATH
1935 Retired Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. died in Washington.
1941 John Gutzon de la Mothe Borglum sculptor (Mount Rushmore), dies at 73.
1982 Ayn Rand author-philosopher (The Fountainhead, Atlas Shrugged), dies in New York at 77.
1998 Adem Jasari Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) leader, killed.
2007 Ernest Gallo, who built one of the world's largest winemaking empires, died in Modesto, Calif., at age 97.
March 6, the 66th day of 2008. There are 300 days left in the year.
compiled by Mondoreb
image:
Sources:
* Today in History
* Heroin
* Today in History
DBKP.com - Bigger, Better!.
Death by 1000 Papercuts Front Page.
Virginia Supreme Court Rules Legislature Cannot Delegate Taxing Power to Non-elected Bodies
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Finally.
A blow is struck against the increasing authority granted to non-elected officials and bodies. The Virginia Supreme Court struck a blow for the Constitution.
At least for citizens of Virginia.
The Virginia Supreme Court dealt a crippling blow to the region’s transportation plans on Friday when it ruled that the General Assembly cannot delegate taxing power to nonelected bodies.
The ruling means that the seven taxes and fees the Hampton Roads Transportation Authority had planned to impose in May to finance about $9 billion in road projects cannot be collected.
Because it did not strike down the state’s right to create it, the high court left open the possibility that the authority could survive. But the court placed responsibility for raising revenue to finance the road projects squarely on the shoulders of state legislators.
The unanimous ruling hit the General Assembly like a bomb, leaving lawmakers in Richmond dazed about what to do on the complex and politically charged issue of transportation.
The story typically interviews the one person most sympathetic to hitting the public with additional taxes: the director of the agency that would have received the taxpayers' money.
Art Collins, acting executive director of the Hampton Roads Transportation Authority, characterized the ruling in stark terms.
“We just went back 12 years,” he said. “We have no valid transportation plan now. It is just nuclear – that’s the only way to describe it. There is no reading between the lines. They said you can’t do it.”
The legislature in Virginia appears no different than lawmakers elsewhere.
They want to create "feel-good" programs with other people's money--but don't want to take the responsibility of paying for them. The election year charge of "He raised your taxes!" is not one incumbents want to hear.
So they dish the details off to non-elected groups: authorities, commissions, etc.
Many Democratic lawmakers said the ruling was a repudiation of the House Republican leadership, which had sponsored the road bill last year that left the decision about raising taxes and fees in the hands of the regional authorities.
Upon learning of the decision, Del. Lionell Spruill Sr., D-Chesapeake, uttered a triumphant “Yes!”
“First of all, I didn’t vote for it anyway,” Spruill said. “My question is, 'How can a city tax another city?’ So I was right. I voted against it because it’s not right for a group of cities to form an authority to tax another city.”
The reporter for the story interviewed another person who stood to gain from the now-unconstitutional plan: the transportation authority's chairman.
Norfolk Mayor Paul Fraim, the authority’s chairman, said he plans to meet with Kaine on Monday to discuss the region’s next move.
“It’s a setback,” Fraim said.
Opponents of the authority, who have long argued it was constitutionally dubious, rejoiced, saying the high court supported their long struggle to force lawmakers to ask all Virginians, not just the large metropolitan regions, to pay for road improvements.
“We are ecstatic about it,” said Robert Dean, head of the Virginia Beach Taxpayer Alliance, which supported the suit against the authorities.
What do non-elected bodies do when they receive an influx of taxpayer funds?
Put people on the payroll, naturally.
The authority, which is in the process of hiring staff, has already approved a $497 million plan that includes $50 million a year for Washington’s Metro system, $25 million a year for the Virginia Regional Express, and numerous road projects.
The Virginia Supreme Court has ruled non-elected bodies can't levy taxes.
The American Revolution was fought over just such an issue: no taxation without representation. That principle has been diluted over the years as elected bodies delegate all manner of power to non-elected officials.
If the public disagrees, they have no where to turn: they can't vote non-elected officials out of office.
Now, if only next the attention turns to unelected Smoke and Health Nazis. Anti-smoking fines and jail terms are being pronounced, in many cases, by unelected health group officials throughout the nation.
Rome wasn't built in a day.
by Mondoreb
hat tip: Michael Wagner Freedom Phoenix
image: libertygunrights
Source: Regional Transportation Authorities Ruled Unconstitutional
Death by 1000 Papercuts Front Page.
1868 the House of Representatives impeached President Andrew Johnson following his attempted dismissal of Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton; Johnson was later acquitted by the Senate.
WAR!
1917 German plan to get Mexican help in WWI exposed (Zimmerman telegram).
1945 Egypt & Syria declares war on Nazi-Germany.
1968 US troops reconquer Hue Vietnam.
2003 Seeking U.N. approval for war against Iraq, the United States, Britain and Spain submitted a resolution to the Security Council declaring that Saddam Hussein had missed "the final opportunity" to disarm peacefully and indicating that he had to face the consequences.
TERRORISM
2007 A suicide truck bomber struck worshippers leaving a Sunni mosque in Habbaniyah, 50 miles west of Baghdad, killing at least 52 people.
DISASTER
1989 US Boeing 747 loses parts of roof over Pacific, 9 die.
PIGS
1979 Highest price ever paid for a pig, $42,500, Stamford TX.
HUH?
1989 Margaret Ray found in David Letterman's home, claims to be his wife.
BLIMPS
1997 South Africa announces it is constructing largest modern day blimp.
FINANCE
1995 Dow-Jones hits record 4011.74.
DIETS
1981 Jean Harris is convicted of murdering Scarsdale diet doctor Tarnower.
PROGRESS
1938 Du Pont begins commercial production of nylon toothbrush bristles.
PARADE
1868 1st US parade with floats (Mardi Gras-Mobile AL).
ICE
1925 Thermit explosive 1st used to break up ice jam, Waddington NY.
ARRESTS
1923 Mass arrests in US of Mafia.
JEWS
1949 Israel & Egypt sign an armistice agreement.
CRUSH
1807 17 die & 15 wounded in a crush to witness execution of Holloway, Heggerty & Elizabeth Godfrey in England.
FINALLY
1855 US Court of Claims established for cases against the government.
DISASTERS
2003 A powerful earthquake in China's western region of Xinjiang killed at least 268 people and injured more than 1,000.
BULLS
1582 Pope Gregory XIII issued a papal bull, or edict, outlining his calendar reforms. (The Gregorian Calendar is the calendar in general use today).
GESTURES
2007 The Virginia General Assembly passed a resolution expressing "profound regret" for the state's role in slavery.
SUPREME COURT
1803 in its Marbury v. Madison decision, the Supreme Court 1st rules a law unconstitutional and established judicial review of the constitutionality of statutes.
INJUSTICE
1983 a congressional commission released a report condemning the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II as a "grave injustice."
REBELS
1821, Mexican rebels proclaimed the "Plan de Iguala," their declaration of independence from Spain.
POLITICS
1863 Arizona was organized as a territory.
NAZIs
1920 a fledgling German political party held its first meeting of importance in Munich; it became known as the Nazi Party, and its chief spokesman was Adolf Hitler.
STRONGMEN
1946 Argentinians went to the polls to elect Juan D. Peron their president.
HUSTLER
1988 in a ruling that expanded legal protections for parody and satire, the Supreme Court overturned a $200,000 award that the Rev. Jerry Falwell had won against Hustler magazine and publisher Larry Flynt.
ASSASSINATED
1945 Ahmed Maher Pasha Egypt's PM, assassinated in parliament.
BORN
1874 Honus Wagner HOF shortstop (Pittsburgh Pirates, 1900-17).
BIRTHDAYS
Actor Abe Vigoda is 87. Actor Steven Hill is 86. Actor-singer Dominic Chianese is 77. Movie composer Michel Legrand is 76. Actor James Farentino is 70. Actor Barry Bostwick is 63. Actor Edward James Olmos is 61. Singer-writer-producer Rupert Holmes is 61. Rock singer-musician George Thorogood is 58. Actress Debra Jo Rupp is 57. Actress Helen Shaver is 57. Apple CEO Steve Jobs is 53. News anchor Paula Zahn is 52. Country singer Sammy Kershaw is 50. Singer Michelle Shocked is 46. Movie director Todd Field is 44. Actor Billy Zane is 42. Actress Bonnie Somerville is 34. Rhythm-and-blues singer Brandon Brown (Mista) is 25.
DEATH
1983 Tennessee Williams US playwright (Cat on a Hot Tin Roof), dies at 71.
1994 Dinah Shore singer (Chevrolet), dies of cancer at 76.
1998 Henny Youngman, a tireless comic who quipped "Take my wife — please" and countless other one-liners during a career that spanned seven decades, died in New York City at age 91. "I once wanted to become an atheist but I gave up ... they have no holidays."
February 24, the 55th day of 2008. There are 311 days left in the year.
by Mondoreb
image: teachpol
Source:
* Today in History
* Today in History
Death by 1000 Papercuts Front Page.
Montana to Secede? Montana Legislators Warn Supreme Court Not to Violate Compact over Gun Rights
0 comments
Montana Legislators Fire a Shot Across the Supreme Court's bow over Second Amendment case
We may move to Montana.
Members of the Montana legislature are hinting that if the Supreme Court rules against and individual's gun rights as protected by the Second Amendment, it would invalidate Montana's agreement it signed with U.S. when it became a state in 1889.
From Reason:
An interesting wrinkle in the gun-rights controversy: Various Montana politicians have signed a resolution arguing that anything other than an individual-right interpretation of the Second Amendment (at issue in the forthcoming Supreme Court case Heller v. D.C.) would violate the compact between Montana and the U.S.
Excerpts from the resolution:
WHEREAS, when the Court determines in Heller whether or not the Second Amendment secures an individual right, the Court will establish precedent that will affect the State of Montana and the political rights of the citizens of Montana;
WHEREAS, when Montana entered into statehood in 1889, that entrance was accomplished by a contract between Montana and the several states, a contract known as The Compact With The United States (Compact), found today as Article I of the Montana Constitution;
WHEREAS, with authority from Congress acting as agent for the several states, President Benjamin Harrison approved the Montana Constitution in 1889, which secured the right of "any person" to bear arms, clearly intended as an individual right and an individual right deemed consistent then with the Second Amendment by the parties to the contract;
............
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED by the undersigned members of the 60th Montana Legislature as follows:
1. That any form of "collective rights" holding by the Court in Heller will offend the Compact; and.........4. Montana reserves all usual rights and remedies under historic contract law if its Compact should be violated by any "collective rights" holding in Heller.
A more detailed explanation: "Does a "collective rights" view of the Second Amendment breach Montana's contract for statehood?"
The only difference between a compact and a contract in any reasonable usage of the terms as they apply here is that a compact is more generally an agreement between or among states.
UPDATE: 9:10 pm EST Thursday February 21, 2008 Just saw this at the AR-15 forums Secy of State Brad Johnson of Montana delivered a letter to the Washington Times about possible outcomes of the Heller decision. A massive, spirited discussion followed. A few of the comments: Mxpatriot51: "Now that's a kick ass state." Voodoo3dfx: "I can see this happening a lot more in the future as the BOR is being ripped to shreds."' Echoing our thoughts, CM Johnson: "I'm SURE that Sarah Brady, Diane Feinstein, and a fwe other anti-gunners would find this to be rather frighening. I believe Heller will go in our favor. But if not...I'm moving to Montana!" discoJon1975: "I'd become a citizen of Montanastan even if it meant losing my military pension in 9 years!" There are 21 pages of comments, some revealing, many funny. UPDATE #2: This is from last week's AP: Montana has joined 30 other states in urging the U.S. Supreme Court to uphold a lower court ruling, affirming the individual's right to bear arms. |
It's about time that political figures--any political figures--stood up against the ever-encroaching power of the federal government.
Montana's legislators are to be applauded.
As Frank Zappa once sang, "Moving to Montana soon..."
by Mondoreb
images:
* strangesports
* Montana t-shirt
Source: Montana: Wrong Heller Decision Would Violate Its Compact with the United States
Death by 1000 Papercuts Front Page.
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