48 Comments
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Sam Mertens's avatar

Even if that’s what was meant by “We the people”, don’t the amendments count for anything? I’d have flunked him for failing to consider the 14th alone. I might be biased, but so is he.

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Dale of Green Gables's avatar

It's called "conditional originalism," which includes somehow communing with the spirits of the founders to deduce intent and then ignoring the inconvenient stuff. Kinda like those compilation albums that used to be hawked on TV: "The world's greatest music with all of the unfamiliar portions removed."

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Sam Mertens's avatar

Thank you for the justification in legalese. Democracy a la carte.

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Melissa's avatar

he forgot to point out that women aren't people either, after all only men could vote in the original Constitution.

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Gene Weingarten's avatar

My personal view is that men aren't people.

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Lynne Larkin's avatar

Ha.

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Nancy Meyer's avatar

Indeed. Do women also have ten years to pack up and leave the country? After they go, who will wash his socks? And if Damsky had joined in the currently-popular whining about the U.S. birth rate NOW ....

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MitchF's avatar

That’s next, and not far behind.

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Gregory Dunn's avatar

Originalists work like tax accountants who first enter zero as the amount of tax owed a then fill in the rest of the form to justify that result.

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Sandy's avatar

This is such a ridiculous and scary story. And the Supreme Court’s recent decision saying it’s OK to rendition people to random countries that they aren’t from is even more frightening. If we ever get control again, we need to expand SCOTUS and impose term limits.

And I sometimes ride on the sidewalk when it is not safe to ride on the road. I always yield to pedestrians and I’m super careful. I’m sure there are plenty of idiots who ride unsafely on the sidewalk and act like assholes. That is not me.

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Bjorn Toulouse's avatar

I voted for cyclists on sidewalks because the difference in speed between cyclists and pedestrians presents a greater hazard than the other choices. A considerate cyclist can mitigate the hazard and reduce the probability of a collision, but there is a residual hazard.

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Sandy's avatar

Totally agree! But I am very deferential to pedestrians when I do this, so hopefully I am not scaring anyone. I’ll ride in the unprotected bike lanes (sharrows?) but I hate it b/c I fear being doored almost as much as I fear drivers who are staring at their phones.

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Lynn Brezina's avatar

No surprises in any of your words today. We are in the deepest, rankest, most toxic, hateful shit possible.

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Sasquatch's avatar

The judge who gave Damsky the award has had an interesting career. After reading his Wikipedia entry, I'm not sure what to make of him.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Badalamenti

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Gene Weingarten's avatar

All you need to know, IMO , is that he is a Federalist Society asshole.

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Lynne Larkin's avatar

Yep, speaking of fingerprints, theirs are all over the map now

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Sasquatch's avatar

Gene, I'm with you on the Federalist Society. I believe that a person has to be able to prove they are a flaming asshole before being allowed to join. I was ready to write off Judge Badalamenti until I got to where he ruled against the MAGAt who sued a local school board for terminating his food supply contract after the MAGAt posted anti-vax propaganda online. Badalamenti is a Federalist asshole, but he may not be completely in the tank for Trump.

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Dale of Green Gables's avatar

The FedSoc leans conservative rather than MAGA, although these days that's "damning with faint praise." You may remember Demento attacked former chairman and head conniver, Leonard Leo and the FedSoc after the U.S. Court of International Trade struck down his tariffs in May, so it can't be all bad. On second thought...

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Dale of Green Gables's avatar

Ah yes, the University of Florida from which Pamela Jo received her degree in criminal justice. Apparently she didn't learn anything either.

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Sasquatch's avatar

...other than which asses to kiss to get ahead....

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Dale of Green Gables's avatar

This (almost) just in... Jeff Bezos has reportedly been forced to move his Venice wedding celebrations after residents threatened to fill the city’s canals with inflatable crocodiles to stop guests arriving. For those interested, blow-up crocs are available on Amazon for as little as $17.99. A round-trip to Venice (from the US) however, could set you back as much as $1,500 depending on your departure city.

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Louise's avatar

So MANY exciting inflatables! So little time.

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Louise's avatar

I have two infant Diaper Dons that I would love to have filled with helium and then fly them from my mailbox. Sadly, said mailbox has already been hit once this year. SO much effort required to a.) Find the box and, B.) reinstall.

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Sasquatch's avatar

When I first saw the story, I thought "What a croc!"

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Sasquatch's avatar

Today it really bites to be Bezos.

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WolfBite🐺's avatar

The 2nd is the only one they have ever heard of, the majority of them tell you with a straight face that the second amendment is constitutional and therefore can not be changed.

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Dale of Green Gables's avatar

Yes, the founders were deeply divided on the issue of slavery and its implications for race and citizenship, and the Constitution in draft form at one time appeased slaveholding interests. Yet, Adams, Madison, Washington, Jefferson, and others said at the time that the doctrine of equality rendered slavery repugnant. True, Jefferson also wrote the infamous passages suggesting that “the blacks…are inferior to the whites in the endowments both of body and mind,” but he thought even that was irrelevant to the question of slavery’s immorality. “Whatever be their degree of talent,” Jefferson wrote, “it is no measure of their rights. Because Sir Isaac Newton was superior to others in understanding, he was not therefore lord of the person or property of others.” Flawed, conflicted certainly, but not all morally blind.

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Sasquatch's avatar

Good Jefferson quote. Was it in a letter or some official document?

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Dale of Green Gables's avatar

It was in a letter to Henri Grégoire. Abbé Grégoire, was a French Catholic priest, a prominent figure in the French Revolution, and a staunch abolitionist.

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Sasquatch's avatar

Thank you.

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Karen Bock-Losee's avatar

Runners. We are runners sneaking up on you on the sidewalk. Joggers are the ones running on lovely park paths who find murder victims.

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Sam Mertens's avatar

Or are murder victims! Don’t sell yourselves short, you fulfill multiple roles.

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Sasquatch's avatar

I don't do stock options.

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Dale of Green Gables's avatar

So-called "originalism" as practiced primarily by Alito and Thomas is thin, hollow and almost hypocritically inconsistent. Even worse, they celebrate the inequities of the American "tradition." Yet, there have been counter voices, among them a Republican congressman from Ohio. Rep. John Bingham is widely considered to be the principal author of the landmark 14th Amendment. In drafting it, he demanded generalization and convinced the committee involved to scrap limits and restrictions. He wanted, he said:

"A simple, strong plain declaration that equal and exact justice shall be secured within every state for any person, no matter whence he comes, or how poor, or how weak, how simple, how friendless. We propose to put it into the power of every man, woman and child, black or white, when his rights are invaded, to raise his hand toward the flag and say, ' I am an American citizen.'"

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Hortense of Gotham City's avatar

What's with the name Damsky anyway? It sounds kind of ... semitic, no?

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John's avatar
2dEdited

"Originalism" is a transparent lie. In Alito's view, he dropped the mic when he declared that the word abortion doesn't even appear in the Constitution. Well, neither do the words AK-47 or abortion, but so-called originalism is no obstacle when it's antisocial right wing obsessions on the table .

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I'll Do Fleas's avatar

Original? We the people,.... (side note, why is there no comma after we?) Since who the people are is not restricted in any way, surely it means all people. Or, if they did not mean to include all people and they didn't say who to exclude, the only conclusion is that it applies to the signers and their direct descendants only.

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Marilyn B's avatar

Badalamenti?. . . was there someone of that name among the Englishmen that had that beef with George III?

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