Comments on: a problem we could fix https://archives.lessig.org/?p=2593 2002-2015 Fri, 04 Jun 2004 15:07:45 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=5.7.2 By: Aaron Swartz https://archives.lessig.org/?p=2593#comment-4587 Fri, 04 Jun 2004 15:07:45 +0000 http://lessig.org/blog/2004/05/a_problem_we_could_fix.html#comment-4587 While Seth gave the obviously correct answer, I suspect Feehery might have actually meant the Presidency, the Senate, and the House.

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By: lessig https://archives.lessig.org/?p=2593#comment-4586 Wed, 02 Jun 2004 12:47:34 +0000 http://lessig.org/blog/2004/05/a_problem_we_could_fix.html#comment-4586 Just what Nixon thought about Blackmun, till he authored Roe v. Wade.

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By: Beau Vrolyk https://archives.lessig.org/?p=2593#comment-4585 Thu, 27 May 2004 23:05:03 +0000 http://lessig.org/blog/2004/05/a_problem_we_could_fix.html#comment-4585 I’m certain that the folks who appointed them, feel they own ’em. Seems pretty darn clear to me.

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By: rod https://archives.lessig.org/?p=2593#comment-4584 Thu, 27 May 2004 21:39:31 +0000 http://lessig.org/blog/2004/05/a_problem_we_could_fix.html#comment-4584 when were they told? cheney explained it to scalia on air force two, but scalia said he had inferred it in December 2000.

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By: WJM https://archives.lessig.org/?p=2593#comment-4583 Thu, 27 May 2004 15:09:57 +0000 http://lessig.org/blog/2004/05/a_problem_we_could_fix.html#comment-4583 he Congress may, if two thirds of each House agree, reverse a judgment of the United States Supreme Court � to the extent that judgment concerns the constitutionality of an Act of Congress.�

What happens when the Supreme Court declares that provision unconstitutional?

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By: subduedcitizen https://archives.lessig.org/?p=2593#comment-4582 Wed, 26 May 2004 11:09:43 +0000 http://lessig.org/blog/2004/05/a_problem_we_could_fix.html#comment-4582 I also thought this was a funny comment but I wonder if he really meant to refer to the three parts of the federal government that are (usually) elected – the House, Senate and Presidency.

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By: Matthew Saroff https://archives.lessig.org/?p=2593#comment-4581 Tue, 25 May 2004 13:36:43 +0000 http://lessig.org/blog/2004/05/a_problem_we_could_fix.html#comment-4581 Glen, FDR DESERVEDLY got his head handed to him over his attempt to pack the court.

FWIW, the fact that the low point of his administration is compared to business as usual for the right wing (Save the flag by wiping your ass on the constitution) is telling.

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By: Alan https://archives.lessig.org/?p=2593#comment-4580 Tue, 25 May 2004 13:25:05 +0000 http://lessig.org/blog/2004/05/a_problem_we_could_fix.html#comment-4580 I would think a more recent and continuing example of judicial “legislative involvement” is the test of their stance on Roe v Wade as to whether or not a judicial candidate has any hope of getting through.

You’d think it would be irrelevant because the judiciary should be ruling on the law (not what they think of it).

Unfortunately, as we’ve seen, the judiciary has become a defacto legislative arm of the government (statists 1, constitution/citizens – 0)

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By: glen https://archives.lessig.org/?p=2593#comment-4579 Tue, 25 May 2004 12:48:48 +0000 http://lessig.org/blog/2004/05/a_problem_we_could_fix.html#comment-4579

And when did political parties begin to claim �control� of the Judicial Branch?

I think it happened some time around 1937

The Court in addition to the proper use of its judicial functions has improperly set itself up as a third house of the Congress – a super-legislature, as one of the justices has called it – reading into the Constitution words and implications which are not there, and which were never intended to be there.

We have, therefore, reached the point as a nation where we must take action to save the Constitution from the Court and the Court from itself. We must find a way to take an appeal from the Supreme Court to the Constitution itself. We want a Supreme Court which will do justice under the Constitution and not over it. In our courts we want a government of laws and not of men.

I want – as all Americans want – an independent judiciary as proposed by the framers of the Constitution. That means a Supreme Court that will enforce the Constitution as written, that will refuse to amend the Constitution by the arbitrary exercise of judicial power – in other words by judicial say-so. It does not mean a judiciary so independent that it can deny the existence of facts which are universally recognized.

How then could we proceed to perform the mandate given us? It was said in last year’s Democratic platform, and here are the words, “if these problems cannot be effectively solved within the Constitution, we shall seek such clarifying amendments as will assure the power to enact those laws, adequately to regulate commerce, protect public health and safety, and safeguard economic security.” In their words, we said we would seek an amendment only if every other possible means by legislation were to fail.

When I commenced to review the situation with the problem squarely before me, I came by a process of elimination to the conclusion that, short of amendments, the only method which was clearly constitutional, and would at the same time carry out other much needed reforms, was to infuse new blood into all our courts. We must have men worthy and equipped to carry out impartial justice. But, at the same time, we must have judges who will bring to the courts a present-day sense of the Constitution – judges who will retain in the courts the judicial functions of a court, and reject the legislative powers which the courts have today assumed.

FDR, Fireside Chat on Reorganization of the Judiciary, March 9, 1937

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By: James Day https://archives.lessig.org/?p=2593#comment-4578 Tue, 25 May 2004 11:45:14 +0000 http://lessig.org/blog/2004/05/a_problem_we_could_fix.html#comment-4578 They proximately began to do it on March 9, 2004 with the introduction of the Congressional Accountability for Judicial Activism Act of 2004:

“The Congress may, if two thirds of each House agree, reverse a judgment of the United States Supreme Court … to the extent that judgment concerns the constitutionality of an Act of Congress.”

So, no more Constitution, in effect, because won’t be able to regulate the populists in Congress who will always be swayed by the fashion and discriminatory tendencies of the majority.

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