It's Alito - Bush picks SCOTUS nominee

[Whoha]

Originally posted by flash9286
Can anybody tell me the defintion of an activist judge? I hear all these pundits throwing the term around, but I have never acutally defintion for an activist judge.

Ok, here goes. The law says one thing, and the judge does something else(or alternatively in the case of the constitution is not mentioned at all, and the amendment process is bypassed) Obviously Kelo falls under this, public is not private. Another such case was a law that stated that if an American is convicted of a crime in any court he can be denied the right to have a firearm. In this case an American was convicted of a crime in a foreign country(possession of either a bullet or a gun in Japan) that is not a crime here in the US, so he took this to court. SCOTUS said that any in that context didn't mean any, but any American court, and that they should have said any if they meant any

[Odin]

We went over Roe v. Wade in my Contemporary Moral Issues (basically an easy Ethics course for non-Philosophy majors) class today, and the reason for the ruling was that according to the 14th amendment you had to be BORN to have rights, therefore most abortion was allowed by the 9th (or was it 10th?) Amendment (as a result of precedent from another case that protected the right of privacy). Doesn't sound very "activist" to me.

[Whoha]

Not talking about unborn children's rights, I am supportive of abortion as a state issue, not a federal one.

abortion isn't mentioned anywhere in the constitution period. If you want it in there, you go to the bat for the 28th amendment.

[Wycoff]

Originally posted by reismark
Alito looks like a corporate scumbag

A corporate scumbag has a better chance to get Republican support than anyone, even a social conservative.

[Imran Siddiqui]

The law says one thing

The problem is people disagree what exactly the law says . For example, what exactly IS the freedom of speech? Quite obviously saying 'fire' in a crowded theater isn't mentioned as prohibited in the Constitution, but is it speech? People would disagree. Is speech simply political speech? Or all speech?

[DinoDoc]

Well substantive due process seems like it'd qualify.

[Imran Siddiqui]

You'd think so, but then you have people like Berz and David Floyd saying it comes directly from the text of the document, because they seem to believe the 9th and 10th Amendments can allow for anything... well, that they want .

[Whoha]

Originally posted by Imran Siddiqui

The law says one thing

The problem is people disagree what exactly the law says . For example, what exactly IS the freedom of speech? Quite obviously saying 'fire' in a crowded theater isn't mentioned as prohibited in the Constitution, but is it speech? People would disagree. Is speech simply political speech? Or all speech?

The first amendment says you can't prevent speech, in your example just because someone might yell fire doesn't mean all or any speech should be prevented. It doesn't say that someone who does that act can't be drawn and quartered

[Imran Siddiqui]

Originally posted by Whoha
The first amendment says you can't prevent speech, in your example just because someone might yell fire doesn't mean all or any speech should be prevented. It doesn't say that someone who does that act can't be drawn and quartered

Huh?

English please.

[Whoha]

Speech can't be prevented, but you can punish people for doing the fire in a crowded theater thing.

[Kuciwalker]

That's the stupidest interpretation of the 1st amendment I've ever heard.

[Whoha]

how so?

[Imran Siddiqui]

Originally posted by Whoha
Speech can't be prevented, but you can punish people for doing the fire in a crowded theater thing.

Are you saying that you can't ban speech, but you can punish people for that speech? If so, I'm going to agree with Kuci on this.

[Whoha]

No, I'm saying that it means that all speech can't be banned because of such a situation.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Originally posted by Whoha
No, I'm saying that it means that all speech can't be banned because of such a situation.

Who said that ALL speech should be banned because someone may say "Fire" in a theater?

Are you tonight?