High Court Ducks Hot Potato Case

[dArKeR]

 Even if you are disappointed that the United States Supreme Court refused to decide the Pledge of Allegiance case on its merits, you shouldn't be surprised that the Court chose the least controversial means available to end the challenge to the 112-year-old patriotic ode. One of the bedrock principles of judicature encourages judges never to decide more than is absolutely necessary to resolve a case.

So when the justices were given the opportunity to knock Michael Newdow out of the water on a technicality — that he lacked standing to sue on behalf of his daughter — they embraced it as a tidy way to get this decidedly untidy case off their docket. And on Flag Day, no less. In the end, the justices declared that the federal courts should not and would not ride to Newdow's rescue at the expense of either his daughter or his ex-wife, who has custody of the young woman at the heart of this fight.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/06/14/opinion/courtwatch/main623036.shtml

[fdr_hst_fan]

1. The Supreme Court,

as currently constituted, SUCKS MAJOR CHEESE! Where are the Douglases, the Blacks, the Warrens and Thurgood Marshalls of yesterday? These men were GIANTS; the current sitting justices are PYGMIES!

[AlabamaYankee]

2. It's probably just as well

Given the timing, if the Court had ruled correctly and upheld the Court of Appeals it would have beem a major rallying point for the Pat Robertson/Roy Moore wing of politicized fundies. This would not have been good news in states like Alabama where they could swing some elections.

Hopefully a new and more clear cut case will come through at a less politically critical time and we can get a ruling.