Stare, stare night
The sun sets on stare decisis

Your blogstress hopes those good Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee who voted for the nomination ofJohn Roberts to the post of chief justice of the Supreme Court are pleased with themselves in light of the First Amendment decisions handed down by the Supreme Court yesterday – decisions that bear the hallmarks of the new chief that Sens. Feingold, Kohl and Leahy so graciously endorsed.

If you were dismayed by yesterday’s outcome in the “Bong Hits 4 Jesus” case or perplexed by the conclusion the court arrived at yesterday in the campaign finance case, your Webwench asks you to consider the court’s decision in the in the case regarding taxpayer standing in church/state separation, which either throws out 30 years of law once believed to be settled, or confers on the executive branch the right to spend your tax dollars on pretty much anything it damn well pleases.

Most coverage has focused on the Court’s apparent upset of the precedent that once was Flast v. Cohen, the 1969 case that established the right of ordinary taxpayers – simply because we pay taxes to the federal government – to be heard in legitimate cases concerning the separation of church and state. This right is not a given; in virtually no other area of law are taxpayers granted standing in cases against the government simply because their money is in use via taxes.

However, what concerns your cybertrix even more than that was the mealy-mouthed decision, written by Justice Samuel Alito, and joined by Chief Justice John Roberts, in which, instead of being bold enough to overturn Flast, Alito declares expenditures by the executive branch to be exempt from the provisions of the First Amendment. So, while Congress “shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion,” the executive branch is free to spend non-earmarked money from the Treasury to promote the interests of religious organizations. Which gives an already imperial presidency the power of its own damn purse. I’m not sure this is what Madison had in mind.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Anti-gay robo-call

Image
Robocall - Tim Wildmon Your blogstress's friends at the American Family Association have been buying airtime from whomever will sell them a bit of that public trust to spread their customary message of hatred of queer folk. Here's a robocall that went out yesterday, presumably to any and all who ever contributed a dime to AFA. Note that the call comes from AFA founder Don Wildmon 's son, Tim . (Ever notice how some of these hate-mongering groups become a sort of full-employment plan for the founder's family?) AFA's special, "Speechless: Silencing the Christians", may soon be coming to a cable channel -- or even broadcast channel -- near you, delivered as "paid programming". If you see it scheduled in your 'hood, you may wish to mobilize against the media outlet that sold the air time to AFA. Here's the text of Brother Tim's message: Hello, this is Tim Wildmon on behalf of your American Family Association, calling to sincerely than
Read more

Speaker drama: Breaking stuff is the point, and Bannon's in the middle of it

Image
The most surprising thing about the current state of affairs in the House of Representatives — the inability of the majority party to settle on a winning House Speaker candidate — is that anyone is surprised at all.  What we’re witnessing from the far-right #NeverKevin caucus has been the plan for some time; it’s just that too many political journalists and commentators too easily dismiss or ignore the utterances of political figures deemed “fringe” by the mainstream – regardless of the power held by those supposedly fringe players.  You might think that given the prominent role played by former White House strategist Stephen K. Bannon in fomenting and organizing the insurrection whose two-year anniversary we mark today, political journos might pay more attention to what he’s saying to the MAGA crowd every day, but you’d be wrong. And you might surmise that major right-wing events such as the Conservative Political Action Conference might draw the interest of people tasked with coveri
Read more