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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsTexas decides what is, or isn't constitutional
Didn't we fight a war over this already? Am I being hyperbolic by seeing this as truly horrid? Where does this type of legal argument take us?
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/texas-tells-court-states-may-reach-own-conclusions-about-abortion-n1281581
WASHINGTON Lawyers for supporters of the Texas abortion law told a federal appeals court Thursday that the state was free to pass its law banning abortion after about six weeks because states can reach their own conclusions about whether abortion is constitutional.
The Supreme Court's interpretations of the Constitution are not the Constitution itself - they are, after all, called opinions. The federal and state political branches have every prerogative to adopt interpretations of the Constitution that differ from the Supreme Court's, and they have every prerogative to enact laws that deprive the judiciary of opportunities to consider pre-enforcement challenges to their statutes."
"Abortion is not a constitutional right; it is a court-invented right that may not even have majority support on the current Supreme Court," they said.
In reply to the Justice Department's warning that upholding S.B. 8 would encourage other states to pass laws that violate constitutional rights, the lawyers said it's unlikely that states would do so "against better-reasoned Supreme Court rulings or against doctrines that enjoy strong support among the current justices."
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So, we are only required to follow Supreme Court precedents that we think a majority of the current Supreme Court justices "strongly support"?
How does this end well for anyone?
This isn't Democracy. This is anarchy.
Saboburns
(2,807 posts)Instead they get rewarded for their bullshit, not punished. They continue to devolve.
And NOTHING will change their bullshit until they face real, painful consequences.
It's hard for me to believe that this is merely business as usual in 2021 America. It's a shock to any sane America. And makes me wish (sometimes) that the hot civil war would indeed kick off. I'm not sure America survives without it.
sanatanadharma
(3,747 posts)Liberal States get to decide the constitutionality of their own "well regulated' 2nd amendment restrictions and bans.
madville
(7,413 posts)Its basically the throw mud against the wall strategy and see what sticks, either flat out disregarding established precedent or to test the limits. CA or NY have passed gun laws and then many years later it or parts of it get overturned in the courts.
maxrandb
(15,378 posts)if the "current majority of the court" support those precedents.
I swear, the current Retrumplican Party acts as if they will never be in the minority, or even if there will ever be future electio.........
Oh! Nevermind!
Buckeye_Democrat
(14,859 posts)... representing Texas in this case.
They might be like Charlie Harper, and his "bird lawyerings", from It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia.
ratchiweenie
(7,755 posts)they are that "bought" or that stupid.
stillcool
(32,626 posts)they will enforce, and those they won't....and people elect them to do just that. You would think some media organization would do a story on this, but guess it isn't such a big deal.
Buncombe 'constitutional' sheriff candidate wants to wield 'ultimate power in America'
Tom FiedlerAsheville
https://www.citizen-times.com/story/news/local/2021/08/18/buncombe-county-sheriff-candidate-david-hurley-constitutional-sheriffs/5560544001/
Under a Carolina-blue sky, shaded by the oaks framing Pack Square, the small crowd formed a loose, attentive circle around a man speaking and gesticulating with the fervor of a revivalist. This was David Hurley, 37, a candidate to become the Buncombe County sheriff in 2022.
The sheriff is the ultimate power in America, Hurley declared, pacing inside the circle. Its been the best-kept secret that they didnt want to get out. Even sheriffs that are in the seat today dont know the power that they have.
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Hurley is running as a Democrat, the only one so far to file against incumbent Sheriff Quentin Miller, also a Democrat who says hell seek reelection. The folks in Pack Square were Hurleys kind of people, united by a shared belief that their government isnt only to be mistrusted, it is malevolent and to be feared and opposed.
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Hurley would first need to wrest the Democratic Party nomination from Miller, the incumbent sheriff, who on July 22 announced his intention to seek reelection. This may seem unlikely given Hurleys prior Republican Party registration and his public assertions that Donald Trump was cheated out of reelection in a fraudulent vote.
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Hurley explained to the crowd in Pack Square how he would act: Come election time, youre going to have candidates for sheriff who want to blindly enforce the law. And when that law comes down that you have to be vaccinated, they will make sure its enforced. I will not.
If Asheville Mayor Esther Manheimer mandates vaccinations for all, Hurley continued, he said he will come on TV and say, Mayor, say that to the public again I will walk down to your office and youll be leaving in silver handcuffs. The crowd applauded vigorously.
https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2021/10/08/rod-iron-antigovernment-christian-right-and-far-right-movements-join-freedom-festival
Rod of Iron: Antigovernment, Christian Right and Far-Right Movements To Join at 'Freedom Festival'
October 08, 2021
Creede Newton
A broad range of Christian Right, antigovernment and other far-right extremists will appear at the gun-toting, anti-LGBTQ Sanctuary Churchs Rod of Iron Freedom Festival in Greeley, Pennsylvania, from Oct. 8-10.
The event showcases a widening coalition intent on destabilizing democracy, with Pastor Hyung Jin Sean Moon, who in 2013 founded the Sanctuary Church, playing a prominent role, experts tell Hatewatch. Steve Bannon, Joey Gibson of the far-right Patriot Prayer group, former Pennsylvania state Rep. Rick Saccone and pastors Dan Fisher and Gary Haskell, who want to revive a Black Robed Regiment of clergy to fight for liberty, are scheduled to speak.
2019 Rod of Iron Freedom Festival
John Lott, a discredited researcher who briefly served in the Justice Department and uses dubious research to claim undocumented immigrants commit more crime, and Richard Mack, founder of the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association a group that claims sheriffs have more power than the federal government will also speak.
https://www.orlandosentinel.com/opinion/editorials/os-op-constitutional-sheriffs-wayne-ivey-brevard-20210727-5wak74q3pvc23kjdnhobukgpfi-story.html
The anti-constitutional beliefs of self-proclaimed constitutional sheriffs
By ORLANDO SENTINEL EDITORIAL BOARD
ORLANDO SENTINEL |
JUL 27, 2021 AT 1:40 PM
If a countys top elected law enforcer wants to call himself a constitutional sheriff, fine. Were all for sheriffs and other elected officials keeping their oaths to uphold the federal and state constitutions.
For some sheriffs, however, upholding the Constitution has increasingly come to mean that they not the courts are the final arbiters of whats constitutional and whats not.
Picking and choosing which laws to enforce based on individual constitutional interpretations is a theme of the movement, theoretically allowing sheriffs to rule over their counties like one-man supreme courts.
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Its a terrifyingly un-American movement as the nation Florida in particular continues its descent toward right-wing extremism and authoritarianism. Its adherents have either a willful or accidental ignorance about Article III of the Constitution, which places all judicial power in the hands of courts not county sheriffs.
Mad_Machine76
(24,452 posts)since the wacky SCOTUS "shadow docket" decision and to a one they are all flummoxed by what has been happening, saying that the "shadow docket" isn't supposed to be used like that and that lower courts are *supposed* to decide cases on the basis of CURRENT law, not what they'd like it to be or even if they think that there's a good chance that SCOTUS decides differently in the future. Everybody agrees that this is all HIGHLY IRREGULAR. And SCOTUS was the one that opened this can of worms in the first place.
maxrandb
(15,378 posts)like, maybe some collusion between the courts, Retrumplicans and the Federalist Society.