Behold, the limited mental worldview of The Constitutional Originalist. Joe Jervis:
Speaking on Friday at the University of Richmond, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia denounced the concept of a “living Constitution” and said the 14th Amendment was not written with the intent of granting equal protection to ALL Americans. Just the heterosexual ones.
“The due process clause has been distorted so it’s no longer a guarantee of process but a guarantee of liberty,” Scalia expounded. “But some of the liberties the Supreme Court has found to be protected by that word – liberty – nobody thought constituted a liberty when the 14th Amendment was adopted. Homosexual sodomy? It was criminal in all the states. Abortion? It was criminal in all the states.” “The way to change the Constitution is through amendments approved by the people, not by judges altering the meaning of its words,” he added.
Joe points out that Scalia also believes women’s rights fall under the same category. Basically, he’s a misogynistic, homophobic pig. Excuse me, YOUR HONOR is a misogynistic, homophobic pig.
Every judge in the land is activist, you see, what with the way they read the law and stuff:
WASHINGTON – The Supreme Court has declined to step into a lesbian custody dispute between a woman who has renounced her homosexuality and her onetime partner.
The justices on Monday turned down an appeal from Lisa Miller, the biological mother of an 8-year-old girl. Miller wanted the court to undo a Virginia court decision allowing Janet Jenkins visitation rights with the girl.
Lisa Miller is still on the lam, of course.
This comes on the heels of the Vermont Supreme Court granting full custody of the kidnapping victim, Isabella, to her mother Janet Jenkins.
A University Park father learned this week that he will not be able to serve as a leader in his 9-year-old’s Cub Scout pack because he’s gay.
For the last two years Jon Langbert has organized a popcorn fundraiser for Pack 70 at University Park Elementary. Then at a September Scout meeting, someone complained about his homosexuality, Langbert said.
He said he was told this week that he can’t wear the Scout leader shirt he was given last year and that he cannot serve in a leadership position because of his sexual orientation.
“What message does that send to my son? It says I’m a second-class citizen,” Langbert said.
Robert McTaggart, the Cubmaster for Pack 70, said Langbert will be allowed to continue as a popcorn fundraiser. That position is not considered a leadership role and can be held by a volunteer.
How big of them.
A couple of things about this: The Boy Scouts are, obviously, working within their rights as current law stands, thanks to a 2000 Supreme Court Decision which allowed them to keep discriminating. The father in the article does bring up the sticky fact that the Highland Park public schools grant use of their facilities for the Scouts to meet, and says that he’s contacted attorneys about it. He should. The Boy Scouts of America, as a private organization, can be as discriminatory as they want, but that doesn’t mean that we should share our public facilities with discriminatory organizations.
Max Simon at Queerty points out the positive ramifications of Langbert taking his son out of the Scouts:
On the plus side, if he pulls his son out of the Scouts now, there’s a great chance he won’t be molested in a few years.
I appreciate this recent Target protest for two reasons:
1. They wrote a song and flash mobbed the place. That’s fun for the whole family.
2. They understand that the most important issue with Target’s donation to the anti-gay Tom Emmer is the ability of corporations to be counted as “people” because of the Citizens United decision. The anti-gay part is secondary.
The Senate has confirmed Justice Elena Kagan to the Supreme Court. It was expected, of course, but there you have it.
UPDATE: For the real reporting on this, we of course go to Jack over at the Wonkette:
There she is, Miss Supreme Court. There she is, your ideal. At long last, Elena Kagan has gone from the cocoon of Senate confirmation hearings and emerged a beautiful judicial butterfly. In what is now a great American tradition, Kagan made sure not to answer a single question during the entire marathon, and now the Senate has voted to confirm her, and now she is your new John Paul Stevens. Lindsey Graham yelped and lept in the air in excitement when the final votes were tallied. “Ham biscuits!” he squealed, probably, but we aren’t completely sure because we wrote this post in May.
The judicial confirmation process has become a spectacle almost as comical as one of Al Franken’s (D-MN) jokes. Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan was not grilled on whether she believes Americans have a First Amendment right to oppose homosexuality — i.e., whether their religious and moral liberties are overridden by “sexual orientation” laws.
A. Peter LaBarbera acknowledges that Al Franken is funny.
B. Um, of course people have a First Amendment right to oppose homosexuality. Our American system is such that you can “oppose” the blueness of the sky or the round nature of the earth if you want. That doesn’t mean we in the reality based community aren’t going to call you a slobbering moron, but yes, you have that right.
But yeah, seriously, read the rest, because it’s a particularly entertaining temper tantrum.
I feel like I’m still detoxing from the in-depth special report I posted yesterday, my account of my experience inside the belly of the beast at Lou Engle’s Gateway House of Prayer. Apparently, though, there is no limit to the number of delusions Lou Engle has in a given week, because now he’s weighing in on the recent Supreme Court decision of Christian Legal Society v. Martinez, where the court simply held that a Christian group at Hastings College of the Law has to abide by the same nondiscrimination policies as anyone else, as long as they want to accept school funding. But no, for Lou Engle everything has World of Warcraft-style implications:
A 5-4 Supreme Court decision Monday requiring Christian campus groups on public universities to accept gay students as members and leaders may signal the beginning of religious persecution in the U.S., says prayer leader Lou Engle.
“This is the first time in U.S. history where the Supreme Court has actually ruled that gender rights now trump religious rights, which means this is the beginning of the possible coming harassment and persecution of the church because it’s going to be clear that the true church will take a stand only on the Word of God,” Engle, founder of TheCall prayer movement, said today. “So these campuses will find out who the real Christians are, who is willing to take a stand and risk their status with the school as a club.”
He will take any opportunity, no matter how tenuous, to keep his followers in a constant state of fear, won’t he? He has to keep up a constant stream of faux-victimization, because if he doesn’t, his followers might accidentally forget that they’re persecuted and go on to live productive lives. Quelle horreur!
SCOTUS simply said that no, Christian groups are not entitled to a special right to discriminate. But as I explained in my report yesterday, Lou Engle and his worshippers don’t hold the United States or the US Constitution in high regard, believing as they do that American government should conform to their idea of “God’s government.”
If Peter LaBarbera, Brian Camenker and Amy Contrada are “investigative reporters,” then I’m the Mayor of Cowboy Spaceman Ballerina Ninja Turtles, and you will respect my authority as such!
Anyway, the She-Spies up there have released a report on Elena Kagan’s “Radically Pro-Homosexual, Pro-Transsexual Record” when she was at Harvard, so let’s have a look:
WARNING: Offensive Language
Apparently Contrada couldn’t refrain from dropping F-bombs throughout the slumber party, I mean “investigation.”
Many will be shocked at just how extreme Harvard has become ‚Äî and the radical sexual/gender policies advanced by Kagan. Kudos to Amy and our friends at Mass Resistance for doing the reporting that most in the liberal media refuses to do (because too many agree with Kagan’ left-wing social agenda).
It’s nice when SPLC-certified hate groups are able to play nice with each other. It shows they don’t just hate willy-nilly, but rather can unite under the common cause of hating gays and SCOTUS nominees anywhere to the left of Genghis Khan.
Anyway, the whole report is at MassResistance’s website, and you can peruse it for yourself if you’re bored to tears or waiting for a dishwasher to be delivered or something, or if you want the Cliff Notes version, go to Peter’s site. Basically, they’re angry because Elena Kagan isn’t a bigot. That’s all you need to know. What’s funny, though, is that, though I understand that, naturally, hard right extremist hate group leaders aren’t likely to fall in love with a centrist Democrat’s pick for the Supreme Court, they don’t seem to understand democracy at all. Their side lost fair and square in the last election. Unless they pull a rabbit out of a hat (and abandon their hilarious belief that they need to run further to the right to beat Obama next time around), they will lose fair and square in the 2012 elections.
So, you know, deal with it. Obama gets to appoint justices to the Supreme Court, and neither of his picks so far have been all that radical. Actual progressives (as opposed to the caricatures of progressives that conservatives draw) wish he would name a real liberal to the court, but it hasn’t happened. If and when the Republicans take back the White House, that president will get to make SCOTUS appointments.
An ideologically split Supreme Court ruled Monday that a law school can legally deny recognition to a Christian student group that won’t let gays join, with one justice saying that the First Amendment does not require a public university to validate or support the group’s “discriminatory practices.”
The court turned away an appeal from the Christian Legal Society, which sued to get funding and recognition from the University of California’sHastings College of the Law. The CLS requires that voting members sign a statement of faith and regards “unrepentant participation in or advocacy of a sexually immoral lifestyle” as being inconsistent with that faith.
But Hastings, which is in San Francisco, said no recognized campus groups may exclude people due to religious belief or sexual orientation.
The court on a 5-4 judgment upheld the lower court rulings saying the Christian group’s First Amendment rights of association, free speech and free exercise were not violated by the college’s nondiscrimination policy.
Note the important factor here is that the group in question wanted to have it both ways: to be sponsored/funded by the university, yet discriminate against an entire class of people. The Religious Right will, as they commence moaning about “activist judges,” gloss over this fact, but the Christian group wasn’t hurt in any way. They simply have to play by the rules of any other organization on campus, which, to them, is sometimes the greatest offense of all.
The Supreme Court ruled Thursday that the names of people who signed petitions in an attempt to overturn a new gay rights law in Washington must be made public, a victory for state officials who said the case was a test of open government laws.
Justices ruled 8-1 in a case called Doe V. Reed. Only Justice Clarence Thomas dissented.
Interjecting: Because Clarence Thomas is pretty much a dingus. When even Scalia understands, and Thomas still doesn’t…
“This is a good day for transparency and accountability in elections–not just in Washington but across our country,” Washington Attorney General Rob McKenna said. “We’re pleased the Supreme Court ruled in favor of disclosure, upholding the public’s right to double-check the work of signature gatherers and government — and giving them the ability to learn which voters are directing the state to hold an election on a new law. Citizen legislating is too important to be conducted in secret.”
“I wonder if they’ll call Roberts, Alito and Scalia ‘activist judges’.”
Heh.
UPDATE II: If you’d like to read the ruling, it’s here. Thomas’s dissent (AKA “the funny part”), starts on page 49. I had no idea he knew so many words!
