What a relief! As it turns out, this has all been a gigantic waste of time. As celebrity intellectual and federal judge Richard Posner writes at the reliably leftist Slate:
And on another note about academia and practical law, I see absolutely no value to a judge of spending decades, years, months, weeks, day, hours, minutes, or seconds studying the Constitution, the history of its enactment, its amendments, and its implementation (across the centuries—well, just a little more than two centuries, and of course less for many of the amendments). Eighteenth-century guys, however smart, could not foresee the culture, technology, etc., of the 21st century. Which means that the original Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and the post–Civil War amendments (including the 14th), do not speak to today. David Strauss is right: The Supreme Court treats the Constitution like it is authorizing the court to create a common law of constitutional law, based on current concerns, not what those 18th-century guys were worrying about.
In short, let's not let the dead bury the living.
About time the Left were honest with us about what they really think. Screw the Constitution and the horses it rode in on. Let the good times roll!!
When it comes to elites, honesty is cause for alarm. It means they no longer see a value in condescending to common sense.
ReplyDeletePosner is a fine example why the USA needs an constitutional amendment to make all Federal judicial branch officials both elective and term limited.
ReplyDeleteWhen a judge denigrates the law in favor of power. He will have no protection from law when power shifts against him.
This is something that a President Trump may start to teach Judge Posner in Jan 2017.
"When it comes to elites, honesty is cause for alarm."
ReplyDeleteOr a Tushnet Award.
The mask is dropping now that we are ending Obama's second term.
ReplyDelete