Judge, Jury and Executioner
"Question comes up: is there a constitutional right to homosexual conduct? Not a hard question for me. It's absolutely clear that nobody ever thought when the Bill of Rights was adopted that it gave a right to homosexual conduct. Homosexual conduct was criminal for 200 years in every state. Easy question."
A: Jerry Falwell
B: Pat Robertson
C: James Dobson
D: Phyllis Schlafly
Tough choice, isn't it? These are all hateful bigots who have no respect for our constitutional freedoms and civil liberties. They would tear down a couple hundred years of hard work to establish the world's first truly secular government and replace it with their own god in a heartbeat. They have limited understanding of constitutional legal principles and use childish arguments based on ignorant, intolerant traditions and outdated laws. They view the Bill of Rights in the most narrow of terms in order to justify their discrimination. They see the establishment clause of the first amendment as a barrier to theocracy rather than as a protection against religious persecution.
Give up? Well, I have to admit something. It was a trick question (or rather, trick answers). Even though each of the above could have just as easily spoken those words, it wasn't any of them. No, it was someone far more dangerous to our country. Someone who actually has the ability to put those words into our laws. Someone who has the capacity to legalize bigotry. Those words were uttered by Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia within the past month.
Yes, this is the logic of one of our supposedly most brilliant legal minds. If it isn't specifically granted in the Bill of Rights, then you don't get it. If it has been illegal in the past, for whatever reason, then you don't get it. If the Founding Fathers didn't have the foresight to consider it, then you don't get it. And this was the role model Bush used for his last two Supreme Court appointments!
This is Bush's America. This is the Religious Right's America. This is Scalia's America. You may someday be denied the right to control your own body. You may eventually be prosecuted, fined, and/or imprisoned for your behavior with another consenting adult or adults. And this will all be done with the approval of the United States of America.
And don't think that this will stop at homosexuality. It is true that God hates fags, but he also has a lot to say about straight folks too.
posted by Bruce at 2:00 PM
2 Comments:
Good post, Scalia has really been in the news a lot lately and I think he certainly deserves much more negative press than he's received. It's scary to think that if my rights are being questioned, this is the guy that's going to help decide the case. It's really an embarrassment to a country to have such wackos on their highest court.
The problem isn't only that at least one of the Supremes seems totally unaware (is Scalia really that stupid?) that the U.S. Constitution limits the powers of government, not the rights of the people:
Amendment 9: "The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people."
The big problem is that most Americans are ignorant when it comes to our Constitution, and so believe what someone like Scalia says because they view him as an "authority," rather than one of our employees who has taken an oath to "preserve, protect, and defend" the Constitution.
As far as I'm concerned, Scalia, by showing his lack of understanding of, or total disregard for the Constitution, has failed in his fiduciary responsibility, and should be removed from the Court.
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