I don't actually want to live in a democracy; I want to live in what the U.S. was designed to be: a republic. To me, the proposition system in California is not a good thing, because it is pure democracy, unfettered by a legislative system that can look at the larger issues, such as "Won't freezing property taxes ultimately make it difficult to fund educating?" What the founding fathers did fear was mobacracy.
I would argue that is is important to look at the intentions of the founders, and that rooting our legal system in a fixed document that was largely designed to protect us from the government and from mob rule. The reasonable thing to do is to apply the concepts to 21st century reality, e.g., is intercepting e-mail unreasonable search and seizure.
The problem with the yahoos who are always nattering on about the founders is that they don't know who the hell the founders were or what the Constitution says. They have a vague notion that the Pilgrims wrote the constitution to create a Christian government that protects their rights while abusing the rights of people not like them.
Gazes in delight at Ginger's spicy brain.
Wow. Everything Ginger just said.
That dissent is, at the very least, going to make it difficult for the SCOTUS to turn around and overturn this ruling.
I don't think so. Dissents set no precedent, so Scalia and the rest of 'em are free to ignore it.
The problem with the yahoos who are always nattering on about the founders is that they don't know who the hell the founders were or what the Constitution says.
I have a packet Constitution that my Law and Policy prof (a judge) gave us last semester. My all time favorite thing is to hand it to people when they talk about their Constitutional right to vote for the President. I may be outwardly cranky about that particular item.
Dissents set no precedent
This question has nothing to do with Prop. 8 -- what's the point of the dissents, then? If they don't mean anything, why bother to commit them to record? Just an ego thing?
YES, Ginger.
I am REALLY cranky today, but I want to throttle my boss for telling someone to type in "H-T-T-P-colon-Backslash-Backlash"
Ha ha ha! I was cranky like that last week. Things that are objectively eye-rolly were making me apoplectic. (That specific thing still makes me insane, though.)
It's an ego thing, an outrage thing (see Ruth Bader Ginsburg on Lily Ledbetter), a not so subtle hint for attorneys who might want to argue in the future... But they are nothin' but dicta.
