Thursday, September 23, 2010

So we're supposed to trust EVERYTHING to judges?

O’Donnell explained that “when I go to Washington, D.C., the litmus test by which I cast my vote for every piece of legislation that comes across my desk will be whether or not it is constitutional.” How weird is that, I thought. Isn’t it a court’s job to determine whether or not something is, in fact, constitutional? And isn’t that sort of provided for in, well, the Constitution?
Short answer: Senators swear an oath to uphold the Constitution. Of course they are obligated to determine whether a bill they are considering is constitutional. Where did Lithwick get the idea that courts, and only courts, should be concerned with the constitutionality of legislation?
...
It came to a surreal head when Sen. Chuck Grassley asked Kagan directly whether “the Second Amendment codif[ied] a pre-existing right or was it a right created by the Constitution?”—a dog whistle, I gather—to the “Christian Reconstructionist” argument that the right to bear arms comes from God. I guess by way of Moses and Joshua.
Huh? It’s pretty obvious to me that Grassley is referring to one of two possibilities: (1) More likely, the question of whether the Second Amendment codified a pre-existing Anglo-American common law right to bear arms; or (2) Less likely, but still possible, the question of whether the right to bear arms is a “natural right”. Even if it’s the latter, you hardly have to be a Christian Reconstructionist to believe in natural rights; the framers did, and none were. Indeed, you don’t even have to believe in God; I have quite a few libertarian acquaintances who believe in natural rights, and none of them are theists
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Standard leftist bullshit, I'm tempted to say: leave EVERYTHING to the judges that the leftists hope to have in place. Wonderful people, aren't they?

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