Conservatives have long known that the Supreme Court has little regard for the American Constitution and the intent of its framers anymore, but it is still jarring to see it stated as baldly as this. According to the story:
The Supreme Court is looking beyond America's borders for guidance in handling cases on issues like the death penalty and gay rights, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said Saturday.As you may have seen, the Court cited international law in the Lawrence and Bollinger cases last month, which drew withering criticism from Justice Antonin Scalia. But according to Justice Ginsburg, this is the way it ought to be. It would be mere chauvinism to believe that Americans ought to be governed by their own laws and their own Constitution.
"Our island or lone ranger mentality is beginning to change," Ginsburg said during a speech to the American Constitution Society, a liberal lawyers group holding its first convention.But she's not done yet. She sends the American Constitution Society out with a word of encouragement:
Justices "are becoming more open to comparative and international law perspectives," said Ginsburg, who has supported a more global view of judicial decision making.
"While you are the American Constitution Society, your perspective on constitutional law should encompass the world," she told the group of judges, lawyers and students. "We are the losers if we do not both share our experiences with and learn from others."What world opinion has to do with the U.S. Constitution is a mystery to me, but it does affirm what we already knew: whatever criteria are being used to "interpret" the Constitition at this point, what it actually meant to those who wrote it is not among them.
But hey, on the bright side, at least the Associated Press finally identified someone as a "liberal group."
No comments:
Post a Comment