Chief Justice Rehnquist dies, RIP

[QuadsOverQuads]

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RIP to a great Chief Justice.

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Rehnquist was one of the most shameless and thoroughly dishonest men ever to serve on the court. He deserves no more respect in death than he did in life.


q/q

[SheetWise]

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I just hope that Roe v Wade doesn't get overturned

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Roe v Wade is meaningless. If the court overturned it tomorrow, the state law would still exist. In the end there would be some states more liberal (infanticide), and some more restrictive (first trimester). This would create the tragedy of some women having to cross state lines if they were slow to decide. The liberals simply keep this issue alive because they get a lot of mileage out of it.

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... and that 4th amendment rights start to take precedent again ...

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The 4th Ammendment is only wounded -- the Court can make a big difference.

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... the patriot acts do spit in the face of the 4th(and 5th).

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5th Ammendment rights died with the 16th Ammendment. Unless that is repealed, there is very little the court can do.

[SheetWise]

Justice Thomas writes the most coherent opinions I've read in over 20 years.

[DVaut1]

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The liberals simply keep this issue alive because they get a lot of mileage out of it.


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Two things:

1) Sounds like a little more of the right-wing marginalization fetish to claim that 'liberals' can just 'keep issues alive'...I can think of alot of issues leftists would love to get on the table and have a national discourse about, but can't given THEIR (actual!) marginalization...and I think the right is more than willing to point how marginalized the left really is; so I question how they square that with the “liberals control all political dialogue” nonsense that they frequently spout…but I digress, I have a larger point:

2) There are clearly many people on the right getting tons and tons of mileage out of abortion.

[jokerthief]

There aren't enough votes to repeal roe vs wade with two pro life picks.

[cadillac1234]

Pat Robertson's prayer came true...

Too bad Pat didn't specify which Supreme Court judge he wanted to die and God does seem to have a helluva sense of humour

[SheetWise]

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There are clearly many people on the right getting tons and tons of mileage out of abortion.

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Agreed. On the right, there are many people who have deep convictions -- but would lose state referendums to ban abortion, and they know it. It is kept alive as a principle, and most of the party has (reluctantly) accepted that limiting abortions is the objective. The right, in the form of Republicans, is actually very diverse in their opinions regarding abortion -- they tend to become monolithic when it comes to late term abortion.

The left, on the other hand, uses the fear of women losing their choice if RvW is overturned -- which they know is nonsense (abortion was legal in many states 30+ years ago before RvW). Politically it's a great issue for the left, because the fear of a ban on abortion mobilizes a lot of single issue voters who believe the lie.

[SheetWise]

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how much?

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I see you live in Denial.
What's friendly?

[FishHooks]

Considering he had the closest vote in history of supreme court members I doubt that even though I like him.

[Broken Glass Can]

(AP) WASHINGTON The White House said late Saturday the death of Chief Justice William Rehnquist was “a tremendous loss for our nation” and issued a statement of condolence on behalf of President Bush.

Bush was notified about Rehnquist’s death shortly before 11 p.m. It will be up to the president to nominate Rehnquist’s successor on the Supreme Court.

“President Bush and Mrs. Bush are deeply saddened by the news” of Rehnquist’s death, White House counselor Dan Bartlett said. “It’s a tremendous loss for our nation.”

The president, after attending church services on Sunday, will make a statement about Rehnquist, presidential spokesman Scott McClellan said.

Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee that will consider Bush’s nominee as Rehnquist’s replacement, said the chief justice “served his country with honor, dignity and distinction for over 30 years.

He was grounded in his beliefs and was a staunch defender of an independent judiciary. People of all philosophies and viewpoints greatly respected Justice Rehnquist and will miss him.



<font color="red"> If Bush had acted sooner, Rehnquist would still be alive. </font> [img]/images/graemlins/mad.gif[/img]