« Upgrade to 3.2 | Main | Petty Idea, Silly Game »

R.I.P.

The New York Times is currently reporting on their website that Chief Justice William Rehnquist has died. I'll put up a link when they have a permanent story. My condolences to his family and friends.

(UPDATE: Story here.)

With one retiree and the passing of the Chief, the Court seems headed for interesting times.

Comments

"interesting times"? More like "hell in a handbasket."
Oh, I don't know, Katherine. Who knows, it might all work out for the best. In someone's opinion, anyway.
Interesting times indeed. I can't imagine how fascinating the next few months are going to be.
Yeah, so Roberts is an ok replacement for Rhenquist; now we need some sort of moderate for O'Connor. Or we could go the hell in a handbasket route.... (Looks like comments are working just fine now.)
It continually astonishes me this quest for "balance" on the Supreme Court. Supposing Kerry had won the election in 2004, would one really suspect that Democrats would be pushing for a "moderate" rather than another liberal?
Anthony, the rationale is really quite simple: anyone who doesn't believe that the Constitution guarantees an unfettered right to abortion is an "extremist;" anyone who thinks that equal-protection calls into question the Constitutional fitness of affirmative action wants to roll back the clock on civil rights; anyone who thinks that the Commerce Clause was part of a scheme meant to limit the power of the federal government to certain enumerated powers, rather than a flexible e-z-pass to federal power on any old road you like, wants to undo the New Deal, promote child labor, and destroy the environment and ESPECIALLY endangered toads. There are not "liberals"--there are "moderates"--reasonable people who agree with the NYTimes Editorial Page vision of America, and there are extremists, radicals, extreme radicals and radical extremists. Once you have that taxonomy down, you can easily understand why it is necessary, proper, just and meet that President Bush put a moderate on the Court--it's what the Framers would have wanted. And short of it, they would want endless hearings and demands for documents to make sure the Senate minority got the nominee it wanted--that must be what advice and consent means. T.
I want to destroy the environment and endanger toads? Cool.
That's funny, T. Because people -- even those dratted New York Times editorials -- say O'Connor was a moderate, despite her votes in Lopez and Morrison. And, for that matter, SWANCC.
T. More, Once you have that taxonomy down, you can easily understand why it is necessary, proper, just and meet that President Bush put a moderate on the Court--it's what the Framers would have wanted. You may be getting the conservative conception of things -- "it's what the Framers would have wanted" -- muddled with what non-originalists think. As for the New Deal, how much of it as an enactment of federal power (as opposed to the aspects that most states now would mimic to retain the status quo) would remain without an expanded Commerce Clause power and the dump of economic substantive due process? You can love endangered migratory birds (as toads were unmentioned in SWANCC) tremendously, but if you don't think the federal government should have the power to enforce a national policy for their protection, then they're out of luck under your reading of the Constitution. To paint those who worry about that as somehow hysterical about the actual effect of conservative jurisprudence is an unfortunate failure to make the case for the view that preserving the real meaning of the Constitution is more important than temporary policy concerns.

Post a comment

(If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. Until then, it won't appear on the entry. Thanks for waiting.)

NOTICE TO SPAMMERS, COMMENT ROBOTS, TRACKBACK SPAMMERS AND OTHER NON-HUMAN VISITORS: No comment or trackback left via a robot is ever welcome at Three Years of Hell. Your interference imposes significant costs upon me and my legitimate users. The owner, user or affiliate who advertises using non-human visitors and leaves a comment or trackback on this site therefore agrees to the following: (a) they will pay fifty cents (US$0.50) to Anthony Rickey (hereinafter, the "Host") for every spam trackback or comment processed through any blogs hosted on threeyearsofhell.com, morgrave.com or housevirgo.com, irrespective of whether that comment or trackback is actually posted on the publicly-accessible site, such fees to cover Host's costs of hosting and bandwidth, time in tending to your comment or trackback and costs of enforcement; (b) if such comment or trackback is published on the publicly-accessible site, an additional fee of one dollar (US$1.00) per day per URL included in the comment or trackback for every day the comment or trackback remains publicly available, such fee to represent the value of publicity and search-engine placement advantages.

Giving The Devil His Due

And like that... he is gone (8)
Bateleur wrote: I tip my hat to you - not only for ... [more]

Law Firm Technology (5)
Len Cleavelin wrote: I find it extremely difficult to be... [more]

Post Exam Rant (9)
Tony the Pony wrote: Humbug. Allowing computers already... [more]

Symbols, Shame, and A Number of Reasons that Billy Idol is Wrong (11)
Adam wrote: Well, here's a spin on the theory o... [more]

I've Always Wanted to Say This: What Do You Want? (14)
gcr wrote: a nice cozy victorian in west phill... [more]

Choose Stylesheet

What I'm Reading

cover
D.C. Noir

My city. But darker.
cover
A Clockwork Orange

About time I read this...


Shopping

Projects I've Been Involved With

A Round-the-World Travel Blog: Devil May Care (A new round-the-world travel blog, co-written with my wife)
Parents for Inclusive Education (From my Clinic)

Syndicated from other sites

The Columbia Continuum
Other Blogs by CLS students