Comments on: A Dirty Job

By: Helga Fremlin

Helga Fremlin — Tue, 11 Oct 2005 00:36:49 +0000

So how was the Big Apple Blog Festival, A Guy in New York?
And FI, re the Florida recount what about those thugs in suits who were flown in from DC and other places and stopped a perfectly legitimate recount? And wouldn’t Gore have won Florida according to a recount organised by the NYT and other papers but whose results were then buried deep inside the paper in late 2001?

By: A Guy In New York

A Guy In New York — Mon, 10 Oct 2005 12:34:24 +0000

Big Apple Blog Festival – October 10, 2005

Welcome to the Big Apple Blog Festival (BABF), a representative roundup of this week’s posts by NYC bloggers. Next week’s BABF will be hosted by Englishman in New York … if you have a NYC blog or you blog about…

By: FI

FI — Fri, 07 Oct 2005 13:20:26 +0000

Re: Bush v. Gore, the 500,000 votes is totally irrelevant. That’s a strawman. All that matters was Florida’s votes. And the recount was ugly, but keep in mind that under Gore’s requested recount, he would have lost. But whatver- my bigger issue is that the Florida Supreme Court (9 Democrats) was making incredibly partisan decisions that were probably wrong under Florida law in their effort to get Gore elected, and that’s been lost in history already. The case should never have gotten to the Supreme Court, but the Florida Supreme Court ignored Florida law and allowed things to happen that shouldn’t have happened. THAT forced the issue to the Supreme Court, giving us a bad FL decision followed by a bad SCOTUS decision.

Re: Brown v. Board, I think you can make an excellent constitutional case for that decision. I think that was well-decided.

Re: Roe… well, the trimesteral (is that a word?) parsing was ugly and the SCOTUS is going to have to revisit it at some point, if only because science/medicine have advanced. 80% of babies born at week 27 survive, and 50% of babies born at week 25 survive. So if nothing else, the third-trimester part of the ruling is going to come back to the SCOTUS at some point, providing an opening for the rest. And even the justices in the majority, in their private notes that have been released posthumously, have acknowledged they didn’t have a consitutional basis for the decision. So I’d rather see Roe overturned and thrown back to the states.

By: homer

homer — Fri, 07 Oct 2005 12:42:14 +0000

Is there a point when the Supreme Court could lose its legitimacy? What if the SC reverses Roe v Wade, decides that gays don’t deserve equal rights, etc. I’ve wondered about this often, worried that I might spend the rest of my life as a second-class American because of the Scalia/Thomas crowd.

By: Tin Man

Tin Man — Thu, 06 Oct 2005 23:42:48 +0000

Well, that was a shitty decision because it went completely against the law.

By: Helga Fremlin

Helga Fremlin — Thu, 06 Oct 2005 22:53:10 +0000

I think this post is a bit too legalistic for me, Tin Man! And haven’t you forgotten something – the fact that the Supreme Court actually installed George W. Bush in the WH after Gore had got more than 500,000 votes than the Boy King? How did you feel about this decision at the time if I may ask?

By: Mush

Mush — Thu, 06 Oct 2005 21:33:46 +0000

Well said, well said.

By: Tin Man

Tin Man — Thu, 06 Oct 2005 21:09:00 +0000

I don’t think so, except that there might be more decisions in which I respect the legal reasoning but think the decision is a morally bad one.

By: kobenhavn

kobenhavn — Thu, 06 Oct 2005 21:02:55 +0000

I agree that courts’ opinions on controversial matters have always had legitimacy issues. However, do you think the fact that the Supreme Court may be about to make a hard turn to the right could inform your position?