Tag Archives: Scalia

Gay Marriage Not LIke Murder, More Like Slavery

On the heels of all the attention to Antonin Scalia’s analogizing gay marriage to murder, GOP SC Sen. Lindsey “Butters” Graham says the correct analogy is not to murder, but to slavery.

Arguing that the Supreme Court shouldn’t rule in favor of gay marriage, Graham says it should be done only be constitutional amendment because, um, that’s how slavery was abolished.

Roberts Did Flip

CBS News is reporting that rumors that Chief Justice John Roberts flipped his vote on Obamacare are true.*  Roberts originally was with Scalia, Alito, Thomas, and Kennedy in striking down the individual mandate as unconstitutional and not justified under the Commerce Clause.

When Roberts flipped, the others conservatives, led by Kennedy, spent a month trying to get him to switch back to their side.  Roberts, for his part, tried to get Kennedy to join with him to create a larger majority.

The conservatives were (and are) so angry that they refused to join the portions of Roberts’ decision with which they completely agree, such as his views on the Commerce Clause.

* “Roberts switched views to uphold health care law,” Jan Crawford

The GOP Wrapped in a Pretzel

The GOP/Fox News machine is twisting itself into a pretzel over the “mandate is a tax” part of the Obamacare decision.  They now effectively have their heads up their tushes.

First, they demonize Justice Roberts for calling the thing a tax.  It’s not a tax, he’s wrong, he’s evil, he’s a moron.

But then, in the next breath, they turn around and start campaigning against Obama for imposing this horrible new tax.  It is a tax.  It is, it is!  We are going to call it a tax every minute of every day from now till November.

So eight Supreme Court justices from both the left and the right agree that the mandate was purposefully written as a penalty and is not a tax.  The GOP and Fox say these justices have interpreted the Constitution correctly, but when President Obama says it’s not a tax, he’s no legal scholar, he’s a liar.

You can say it’s not a tax if your name is Antonin Scalia, but not if your name is Barack Hussein Obama.

Don’t Be Fooled By “Moderate Mitt”

From “The Sweet Spot,” Bill Keller, NYT:

“My hunch is that Romney will manage to shake off most of his extremist accouterments, because they never seemed to fit him.  It is true that if elected…Romney would be obliged to tithe generously to the right, by choosing Supreme Court nominees of the Scalia/Thomas persuasion, for example, and by populating regulatory agencies with polluters and plunderers.  But those concerns tend not to alter election outcomes.  Even with pro-Obama super PACs painting him as a mean-spirited zealot, Romney should be able to recapture the old campaign aura of a moderate Mr. Fixit.”

I agree with Keller that “those concerns” don’t affect elections, but they should!

So Mitt is re-setting the Etch a Sketch for the general to run from the base and then will re-set it again if elected to embrace them.  They’ll keep him on a short leash under the threat of getting primaried for 2016.  They already don’t like or trust him, so he’d better behave.

It’s All Harvard’s Fault!

Campaigning today, Mitt said that President Obama “spent too much time at Harvard.”

Both Mitt and Obama got their law degrees there.  But Mitt also got an M.B.A., which takes an extra year, so he must have spent way too much time at Harvard.  But maybe he was protected by his magic Mormon underwear, which Muslims aren’t allowed to wear.

Why isn’t Mitt complaining about the time Supreme Court justices Roberts, Kennedy, and Scalia spent at Harvard?  They also got their law degrees there.