The Supreme Court deserves presidential feedback

[babylonsister]

http://post-gazette.com/pg/10073/1042460-192.stm

Roberts objects: The Supreme Court deserves presidential feedback
Sunday, March 14, 2010
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette


U.S. Chief Justice John Roberts presides over one of the most closeted and insular institutions in the nation. He and his fellow Supreme Court justices send down their legal thunderbolts like Zeus from Mount Olympus unto the real world beneath.

That is why Justice Roberts' lament last week that President Barack Obama's first State of the Union address was "very troubling" is so unpersuasive. Among us mortals, being told the plain truth about job performance is considered normal.

Still, Justice Roberts was right in saying that State of the Union addresses have "degenerated into a political pep rally," but that was true long before Mr. Obama entered the White House. The nation has come a long way since President George Washington simply sent a statement to Congress.

snip//

But the State of the Union address is what it is -- a political pep rally, perhaps, but also a grand ceremonial occasion in the life of the republic, which all members of Congress, Cabinet appointees, members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and, yes, the Supreme Court ought to attend as a matter of duty.

Why should presidents speak pap because this has been a night of pomp and political circumstance? Mr. Obama didn't think so -- and he was right.

The fact is that the ruling in the campaign finance case was preposterous. The majority could have ruled on narrow grounds, but went out of its way in a fit of right-wing judicial activism to hold that corporations have First Amendment rights similar to ordinary citizens. The gods of the Supreme Court needed to hear from the mortals about that.

[harkadog]

1. No President in my memory has given an accurate

State of the Union. Most of the speech is just political pap with the media keeping score on how many times he gets a standing ovation. No one except members of Congress and the President should be there. No military, no Supreme Court, or any appointees. and no audience which are used as stage props.

[hack89]

2. And the President deserves Judicial feedback

feedback is good.

[sallyseven]

3. Not from Roberts it isn't

nor from that pimp Alieto.

[hack89]

5. What's good for the goose is good for the gander

don't want to be hypocritical, do we?

[Cha]

11. We're not hypocrital..speak for yourself.

Oh, and fuck roberts.

[hack89]

13. Of course not. nt

[patrice]

15. I'd agree with that if Media were not brainwashing tools for Trans-Nat Cos

Without a level playing field inherent biases, such as the fact that Justices have their entire lives to propagate their perspectives from a position of ultimate power, MUST be recognized. They cannot be recognized as long as media monopolies are allowed to exist.

[Cha]

8. Fuck that fucking hack roberts..he has nothing

but whining facist bullshit.

[KingFlorez]

4. Seeing as the Supreme Court is an appointed entity, criticism is very important

Any body that is unelected and has lifetime appointments has to be scrutinized, seeing as there is no way to hold the court accountable.

[hack89]

6. That assumes the disagreement is not partisan political sniping.

I like my judiciary independent and willing to tell the executive and legislative branches to fuck off if necessary.

Not every Supreme Court will be conservative and not every President will be liberal.

[Cha]

10. The SC 5 is nothing but fucking facist bullshit

and good for the President calling them on their decision to roll back campaign finance restrictions.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/01/21/supreme-court-rolls-back_n_431227.html

[hack89]

12. And now that Roberts told him to fuck off

where does that leave us exactly? No where as far as I can see.

[Cha]

14. Too bad for you.

[Vattel]

7. Did the "gods of the Supreme Court"

really need to hear the President shoot off a couple of talking points with no opportunity for response or discussion? That's a stretch.

[patrice]

9. K & R forever!!

[DFLforever]

16. I got a better idea.

Let's not criticize the court.

Let's increase it - from 9 to 11 justices. :evilgrin:

[terrell9584]

17. Roosevelt tried that once

It didn't go well for him. In fact, that marked the beginning of organized resistance within the Democratic Party to Roosevelt and the New Deal. In the current political environment such a move would be met with riots in the street.

[DFLforever]

20. Yah I know all about that.

Thus the evil grin. DU is always complaining that Pres Obama should be more FDR like. Right?

FDR lost much of his political capital with it but then got lucky. Sen Borah? was able to get one anti-New Deal justice to resign and another to change his views.
Would that Pres Obama could pull something like that... I know, I'm dreaming.

[Cha]

18. And, now Clarence Thomas' wife has launched her own teabagger

party.:silly:

"Justice's Wife(Thomas) Launches 'Tea Party' Group"
Source: LA TIMES

As Virginia Thomas tells it in her soft-spoken, Midwestern cadence, the story of her involvement in the "tea party" movement is the tale of an average citizen in action.

"I am an ordinary citizen from Omaha, Neb., who just may have the chance to preserve liberty along with you and other people like you," she said at a recent panel discussion with tea party leaders in Washington. Thomas went on to count herself among those energized into action by President Obama's "hard-left agenda."

She is the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, and she has launched a tea-party-linked group that could test the traditional notions of political impartiality for the court.

In January, Virginia Thomas created Liberty Central Inc., a nonprofit lobbying group whose website will organize activism around a set of conservative "core principles," she said.

The group plans to issue score cards for Congress members and be involved in the November election, although Thomas would not specify how. She said it would accept donations from various sources -- including corporations -- as allowed under campaign finance rules recently loosened by the Supreme Court.

"I adore all the new citizen patriots who are rising up across this country," Thomas, who goes by Ginni, said on the panel at the Conservative Political Action Conference. "I have felt called to the front lines with you, with my fellow citizens, to preserve what made America great."

http://www.latimes.com/news/nation-and-world/la-na-thom...

I didn't realize fascism made "America great"?

The gag reflex is off the charts.

[Orsino]

19. "Feedback"? Several of them deserve impeachment.

Sternly-worded criticism will not correct their behavior.

[Atticus]

21. Has anyone compared Chief Justice Roberts'( R-Heritage Foundation) recent comment

to his previous complaints about having to attend the BUSH (R-Arbusto Energy, Texas Rangers, whatever) "pep rally"?