Tag Archives: Justice Samuel Alito

Justice Alito Assured Senator Ted Kennedy That He Would Not Overturn Roe v. Wade

Posted on by under History, Law and justice, Political commentary, Racism & Bigotry, Re-blogs

It’s one thing to acknowledge that politicians will tell lies to get elected to office. We may not like it, and some tell small lies while others tell whoppers, but most people accept that there are some lies told by politicians. However, Supreme Court justices are NOT politicians, do not stand for election but rather are appointed for life, and thus we should be able to hold them to a higher standard. To say that today’s Court is a disappointment would be an understatement. Read what Diane Ravitch shows us about the lack of integrity of one Justice Samuel Alito.

Diane Ravitch's blog

The New York Times reported that Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito assured Senator Ted Kennedy that he would not overturn Roe v. Wade. He said repeatedly that he respects precedent and considered Roe to be settled law. Seventeen years later, Justice Alito wrote the scathing opinion overturning Roe v. Wade and asserting that it was wrong from the start.

How should Americans react when they learn that at least three of the 6 justices who voted to overturn Roe are liars?

Senator Edward M. Kennedy looked skeptically at the federal judge. It was Nov. 15, 2005, and Samuel A. Alito Jr., who was seeking Senate confirmation for his nomination to the Supreme Court, had just assured Mr. Kennedy in a meeting in his Senate office that he respected the legal precedent of Roe v. Wade, the 1973 court decision that legalized abortion.

“I am a believer in precedents,” Judge Alito…

View original post 266 more words

The End Of “Liberty and Justice for All”

Posted on by under Law and justice, Political commentary, Racism & Bigotry, Rants, Social commentary, voting rights

Yesterday, the United States Supreme Court voted to take away a substantial portion of the rights of women when they voted in private to strike down the 1973 landmark Roe v. Wade decision.  We all saw it coming, but I think we all had our fingers tightly crossed that the Court wouldn’t opt to go down this perilous path.  That hope is gone.  What’s next?  Will we lose our right to “equal pay for equal work”?  Will our voting rights be further restricted (working women are already among the groups for whom voting has been made significantly more difficult)?  Will the Court ultimately also strike down Obergefell v Hodges and take away the rights of same-sex couples to marry?  Just how far is this ignominious Supreme Court willing to push We the People?  And perhaps the bigger question is … how far will we allow them to push us before we push back?  It’s only a matter of time, my friends … only a matter of time.

One line of Justice Samuel Alito’s draft of the decision reads …

“Roe was egregiously wrong from the start …”

Ah yes … anything that allows a woman to have a degree of control over the path her life takes must be considered ‘egregious’, for we all know that Alito and his ilk still believe women to be the inferior gender, unable or incapable of rational thought, of logical decision-making even when it comes to her own body.

My suggestion to all the women in this nation is unless you actively want to get pregnant, make your guys have a vasectomy, else lock the bedroom door and tell him to sleep on the sofa.  Yes, I am serious!  Sex might be fun for both parties, but then we women are left to pay the price for the rest of our lives!

And don’t let those pseudo-Christian evangelicals who fought so hard to make this happen fool you with their “right to life” spiel!  It’s a damn lie.  They claim they are concerned because the fetus might have a chance to become a living, breathing human being.  But you know what happens once the woman gives birth to that little human being?  Those “right-to-life” people disappear.  The mother needs financial help because the sire has disappeared, but where are the “right-to-lifers”?  They bitch and moan about people on welfare and how a few of their measly tax dollars are helping to support single mothers AND those children they were so concerned about back when they were a fetus!  Where is their concern for those little living, breathing human beings now?

And when that little child grows up, graduates from high school with good grades, and wishes to go to college … where are the “right-to-life” folk?  They are busy complaining that some of their tax dollars might go to help pay for his/her education!

Meanwhile, back on the ranch, the sire has moved on, has a continuing prescription for Viagra so that he can go impregnate still more women without accepting either responsibility or consequence.  And the mother?  Well, she has been working two, sometimes three minimum-wage jobs to try to provide the best possible life for that child and has had zero opportunity to improve her own lot in life.

Or maybe, since mom was so busy trying to keep a roof over their heads and food on the table, the youngster didn’t have enough parental supervision, fell in with the wrong crowd, got into drugs and either died of an overdose or else ended up in prison.  Right to life, did you say?  Define life?  Is it simply breathing and having a heartbeat, or is there something about ‘quality of life’?

Or consider the very likely alternative in some cases … back alley abortions will resume and I’d buy stock in wire coat hangers today, for no doubt there will be a run on them soon.  Women will die or be permanently damaged … what was that about “right to life”?

This decision by the Court is the last bit of evidence we needed that the Court has been taken over by partisans … right-wing partisans to be specific.  The three Justices who were appointed under the previous administration were cleverly chosen for both their bigotry and their relative youth, meaning each of the three could conceivably serve for several decades.  Although I have not been in favour of it in the past, I think the time has come to expand the Supreme Court, to level the playing field, to ensure a return to JUSTICE instead of a pandering to the religious fanatics and bigots in the nation.

As it stands now, “Liberty and Justice” for all is a farce … liberty and justice are only for white, straight males.  R.I.P. America … it was nice knowing you, however briefly.

Filosofa’s Frustrations …

Posted on by under Bits 'n Pieces, Election 2020, Environmental Issues, Law and justice, Political commentary, Racism & Bigotry, Rants

Several things crossed my radar this morning that I find relevant … I’m defining relevant as rant-inducing here.

A brief update about the pandemic

Two days ago, Thursday November 12th, the U.S. set yet another record, with 161,541 new cases and 1,190 deaths in a 24-hour period.  Yesterday, Friday November 13th, we broke even that record with 183,527 new cases and 1,395 deaths.  To all those fools who still believe Trump when he says it’s going away … I’ve got a lovely bridge in Brooklyn I’ll sell you really cheap.

Hazards of the job?

When a person applies to become a Secret Service agent, they obviously accept that they will sometimes be in danger, might even be in the literal line of fire, as Special Agent Tim McCarthy was when he stepped in front of President Ronald Reagan during the assassination attempt of March 30, 1981, and took a bullet to the chest.  What they do not expect, however, is that they will recklessly be exposed to a potentially lethal disease.

It was reported yesterday morning that more than 130 Secret Service officers who help protect the White House and the president when he travels have recently been ordered to isolate or quarantine because they tested positive for the coronavirus or had close contact with infected co-workers.  This amounts to roughly 10% of the agency’s core security team, and the infections are believed to have stemmed from the series of campaign rallies that Trump held in the weeks prior to the election.

Now consider that not only are the agents themselves affected, but most have families – spouses and children – who are now also at risk. Donald Trump owes every single one of these agents and their families an apology, yet he has not so much as mentioned the pandemic for days now.  I guess he still thinks it just … went away.  Way to go, Donnie – kill the very people who risk their lives every day to protect your sorry life.

And justice for all???

Justice Samuel Alito has been on the bench of the U.S. Supreme Court since January 31, 2006 when he replaced Justice Sandra Day O’Connor.  Alito is a textualist, meaning he takes the words of the Constitution literally, not allowing for the events that have changed the times over the past two centuries.  He is also a conservative thinker, but until yesterday, I did not realize the extent to which he refuses to consider any opinion that does not fall in line with his own.

Alito delivered an unusually inflammatory public speech Thursday night to the Federalist Society where he said that liberals pose a growing threat to religious liberty and free speech.  Say WHAT???  What has this man been smoking?

His premise was, in a nutshell, that liberal support for LGBT rights such as the right to marry as confirmed by the Supreme Court decision in Obergefell v Hodges in 2015, was a direct assault on religious freedom, for some religions insist that marriage be defined as being between a man and a woman.  Okay, welcome back to the 19th century, Mr. Alito.

The never-ending election

Yesterday evening, the results for the last two states were announced:  North Carolina for Trump, and Georgia for President-elect Joe Biden.  This brings the total electoral votes for Biden to 306 over Trump’s 232 … a comfortable margin.  Biden also leads in the popular vote … by more than 5.2 million.  And yet … Trump and his cronies such as Mike Pompeo and Kayleigh McEnany continue to claim that it will be Trump who is inaugurated on January 20th.

I said a few days ago that we should, and I would to whatever extent possible, ignore his rhetoric … pay no attention to what he says, but focus on actions.  Trouble is that his continual tweets and threats are doing significant damage to the people of this nation … perhaps irreparable harm.  A PEW Research survey shows that 70% of republicans believe the election was not fair.  All of us are on pins and needles, and the U.S. is a tinderbox waiting for just the right spark to set it off.  I am surprised that there has been no major violence in the streets, but how long can that last, with the tension and vitriol that abound?

A top committee made up of officials from the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and its election partners refuted Trump’s claims of widespread voter fraud and irregularities in a statement Thursday, calling the election “the most secure in American history.”  And still he throws his tantrum, saying the election was ‘stolen’ from him.  Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

Every other president since George Washington has had more respect for We the People than Donald Trump has.  My proposal, if I had the ear of people like Mike Pence, is that he needs to be removed NOW, not in 67 days.  It could be done using the 25th Amendment, and frankly if Pence or Trump’s ignoble cabinet members had a conscience, it would have already been done.  Instead, they will drag the uncertainty and planned chaos out all the way up until noon on January 20th, by which time I and many like me will already be dead from either stress-related illness or from jumping off a tall building.

toon-1

Westboro Strikes at the Scene of Tragedy … AGAIN

Posted on by under Rants, Social commentary

I had another post completed and ready to go for this evening, but then this caught my eye:

Westboro Baptist Church Plans to Protest Funerals for Orlando Shooting Victims

Aw, man, say it ain’t so!  But sadly, apparently it is, in fact, ‘so’, as the story is reported in Time, USA Today, The Orlando Sentinal, Washington Post, and others too numerous to name here.

Westboro Baptist ‘Church’ members are, to my way of thinking, the scum of the earth.  Even Christians deny them, saying they are not Christians, but are evil.  They are known only for hatred and more hatred.  Who do they hate?  Everybody, it would seem.  They hate anybody who was ever in the military, they hate LGBT people, they hate Jews, Catholics, Muslims, and the list goes on.

Hating every person in the universe is one thing.  Acting upon that hate is something else altogether.  Let it eat you from within, for it is, after all, your choice, but do not inflict it upon innocent people who, merely by luck of birth or circumstance, happen to be on your hate list!  Westboro members have actively picketed funerals of soldiers killed in action, celebrity funerals, gay funerals, events, etc.  You can read about them for yourselves, as it makes me nauseous and my intent here is not to discuss their filth and hate, but to talk about that which forces us to accept them in this so-called civil society. This much I know.  I have LGBT friends and also family members, and I would inflict serious physical damage to anybody from Westboro who dared to show their face at a funeral of any of them.

It is interesting to note that Westboro members are banned from entering Canada as of 2008, and the UK as of 2009!  Would that we could air-drop them into the middle of a Daesh encampment and ban them from re-entering the U.S.!

So why are we in the U.S. forced to accept these psychopaths disrupting the grieving of families and loved ones after every tragedy?  Why?  We call it the 1st Amendment.  Now those of you who either know me or have followed this blog for a while know that I am a long-time scholar and supporter of the United States Constitution.  As such, I fully support the 1st Amendment.  However, I do not think the framers of this historic document quite had this in mind when they drafted it.

There are a number of interpretational theories regarding the Constitution.  The late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia was a textualist who believed that the constitution should “mean the same thing in 2013 as its writers intended in 1787”.  Justice Hugo Black argued that the First Amendment’s wording in reference to certain civil rights that Congress shall make no law should mean exactly that: no law, no exceptions.  The problem with this line of thinking, of course, is that the world is a far different place today than it was in 1787 and nothing in the framer’s experience could have given them the slightest bit of insight into how the world would evolve, what society would become over 200+ years.  A simplified example:  you set bedtime for your toddler at, say, 8:00 p.m.  That is the rule.  But 15 years later when your toddler is 17, do you still make him/her go to bed at 8:00 because that is the rule?  Probably not, unless you want a mutiny on your hands.  As times change, the rules must also change.  That is one part of the reason we even have Legislative and Judicial branches.

We, as humans, were given some really great gifts … original equipment, if you will.  Among them are the ability to think and apply logic to a variety of situations.  There are currently almost no limitations on the 1st Amendment, as the Supreme Court has been unwilling to restrict the Bill of Rights any more than is absolutely necessary.  I get that, I really do.  However, I also think that when the 1st Amendment rights of a small group (Westboro) deprive a much larger group (all the rest of us) of our 4th and 5th Amendment rights, or even our own 1st Amendment rights, then it is time to draw some boundaries around the 1st Amendment.

Some laws have actually been passed limiting Westboro’s access to funerals, but they are not nearly sufficient, and they cover mainly military funerals.  Indiana, Illinois, Arizona and Michigan have enacted laws that ban protestors from being within 300-500 feet of a funeral, but these are misdemeanors with relatively low penalties and this is only 4 states out of 50!  On a federal level, President George W. Bush signed into law the Respect for America’s Fallen Heroes Act in May 2006 prohibiting protests within 300 feet of the entrance of any cemetery under control of the National Cemetery Administration from 60 minutes before to 60 minutes after a funeral.  Penalties for violating the act are up to $100,000 in fines and up to one-year imprisonment.  President Obama signed into law another that increased the time frame to 2 hours before and after.  This is better, but note the phrase ‘National Cemetery Administration’.  Military funerals only.  While I am certainly glad that we are protecting military funerals, I do not think it is enough.  The family members of those victims of the Orlando massacre last weekend deserve the same level of protection from harassment as do the family members of fallen soldiers.  Period.  No argument.

There have been a few legal challenges to the Westboro group’s 1st Amendment ‘rights’.  On March 10, 2006, WBC picketed the funeral of Marine Lance Corporal Matthew A. Snyder in Westminister, Maryland.  On June 5, 2006, the Snyder family sued both Westboro Church and its members for defamation, invasion of privacy, and intentional infliction of emotional distress.  The legal battle was long and arduous, passing through the U.S. District Court twice, the Federal Appeals Court, and eventually, in 2010 ending up in the U.S. Supreme Court.  I will not bore you with details, but the ultimate ruling was an 8-1 ruling in favour of Westboro.  Chief Justice John Roberts wrote the majority opinion stating: “What Westboro said, in the whole context of how and where it chose to say it, is entitled to ‘special protection’ under the First Amendment and that protection cannot be overcome by a jury finding that the picketing was outrageous.”  Justice Samuel Alito, the lone dissenter, said Snyder wanted only to “bury his son in peace”. Instead, Alito said, the protesters “brutally attacked” Matthew Snyder to attract public attention. “Our profound national commitment to free and open debate is not a license for the vicious verbal assault that occurred in this case,” he said.

Westboro is an abomination, and I include all their members, as well as anybody who would support them in that statement.  There is, however, one bright spot in the Orlando story.  A group of some 200+ people launched a counter-protest, blocking the street in downtown Orlando and preventing the Westboro group from gaining access to the funeral proceedings.  The counter-protest group included bikers, priests, young people, members of the LGBT community and locals carrying signs saying “God is love” and the motto the City Beautiful adopted in response to the massacre, “Orlando strong.”  Yet another group, a line of “angels” clad in white sheets mounted with wings constructed from PVC pipes walked in front of the throng, saying nothing as the crowd cheered. The wings were the idea of the Orlando Shakespeare theater, which outfitted their volunteers with sheets wide enough to block view of the church members.  Just past 11 a.m., the Westboro church members left and retreated toward their vehicles, and the crowd roared. A large contingent of the counter-demonstrators drew in close into a huddle and chanted, “Orlando strong! Orlando strong!”

This was a fairly long post, but when I rant, I do it up right!  Anyway, the moral of this whole thing, as I see it, is that if the Supreme Court feels its hands are tied in cases like these, and if the ‘thinking and humane’ portion of society agree that Westboro is scum that must be stopped, perhaps we take a page from the book of the counter-protestors in Orlando this weekend.  One couple, upon hearing of the counter protest being formed, flew from their home in Pennsylvania to be a part of stopping the Westboro group!  We The People have the power to stop the hatred!  We can first let our representatives in Congress know how strongly we feel about these situations, and when laws fail us, we find other ways, though always within the law and in peace, without violence.  For me, though the headline initially made me see red, I am encouraged to see that there are a lot more good people out there than bad.  I never doubted this, but sometimes we need to be reminded.