Let’s have a thought experiment: what if government was restricting reporters from going out and doing their jobs (not that most seem to do more than sit at their desks and read Twitter and left wing outlets) during COVID, sued, and SCOTUS said “yeah, Freedom of the Press.” Do you think Democrats like Obama veterans Laurence H. Tribe and Michael C. Dorf would decry the ruling? What if government was cracking down on protesters (real ones, not the ones burning down black areas) and SCOTUS said “there’s a Constitutional Right to protest? Would they applaud the ruling, or say it was dangerous during Bat Soup Virus?
To this Supreme Court, religious freedom trumps public health — even amid COVID-19 plague
Balancing public health against the right to free exercise of religion poses a difficult challenge amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Accordingly, when cases from California and Nevada reached the Supreme Court earlier this year, the justices deferred to the judgment of their governors, who are, after all, accountable to the people.
They didn’t defer: the Progressives (nice Fascists) voted against the 1st Amendment
But those cases were decided by narrow 5-4 margins before Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died in September. The court changed its tune late Wednesday night, when her replacement — Amy Coney Barrett — and the four earlier dissenters formed a new 5-4 conservative majority that invalidated restrictions on worship services in hot zones designated by New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
Yeah, one who didn’t believe in the 1st Amendment was replaced by one who did
The ruling in Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn v. Cuomo, brought by Catholic and Orthodox Jewish congregations, was especially notable because it was unnecessary. As Chief Justice John Roberts explained in his dissent, by the time the court ruled, the New York houses of worship were no longer “subject to any fixed numerical restrictions.â€
Oh, it was necessary, to keep Government from attempting to do this again as COVID surges
Those comparisons are inapt. Government discriminates illicitly when it fails to treat like cases alike. One needn’t discount people’s spiritual needs to recognize that liquor stores, bike shops, groceries and pet shops differ from churches, synagogues and mosques with respect to public health. The risk of coronaviral spread is not merely a function of the number of people at a venue; it increases dramatically as they linger in a stationary position, especially when they speak or sing.
There’s no right to booze, bikes, and hamsters in the Constitution.
Moreover, the ruling’s majority didn’t appear to appreciate the challenge Cuomo faced. Any line the state draws in this realm is bound to be crude, but the alternatives are still worse: A blanket ban on all large gatherings with no exceptions whatsoever would be excessive; no restrictions on gatherings would have literally deadly consequences; highly specific determinations, focusing on, say, the duration or volume of songs, would entangle religious institutions with government.
And that’s why there is, specifically for this discussion, a right to practice religion without government interference, in both the federal and NY State constitutions. Because then there would always be “challenges” for which Government could do something negative to religion. If Cuomo was so concerned, perhaps he should have cracked down on all the protests, which he did not. You can’t support one Right without the other. Also, perhaps sticking sick people in nursing homes might not have been a good idea. Let’s skip to the end through their continuous whining and anti-Rights yammering
After introducing his foreign policy team last week, President-elect Joe Biden proclaimed that “America is back.†In important respects, that will be true come Jan. 20. But at the Supreme Court, America is increasingly unrecognizable. A court that affords no protection to unenumerated rights to bodily integrity and privacy, while simultaneously eroding the separation of church and state would look less like our familiar institution and more like the highest judicial authority of a place like Gilead — the theocratic and misogynist country in Margaret Atwood’s dystopian “The Handmaid’s Tale.”
So, the whole point of the screed is that the Supreme Court may very well rule on the side of the Constitution rather than Joe’s Modern Socialism. There is no separation of Church and State in the Constitution, and ruling that citizens and churches have Rights is exactly what the purpose of the Supreme Court is. To protect the Constitution and Citizens from the Legislative and Executive branches. And, if the Court is protecting Constitutional Rights, that’s dangerous for Joe Biden’s agenda? Think about that position.
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;
Teach left out a pair of important points from the essay:
“Though religious gatherings face greater restrictions than less risky activities like shopping, they are actually treated more favorably than comparably risky secular activities, such as public lectures, concerts and theatrical performances — as the trial judge in the Roman Catholic Diocese case observed. For the Supreme Court’s new and extremely conservative majority, it seems, failure to sufficiently discriminate in favor of religion counts as discrimination against religion.”
The new reactionary majority favors religious gatherings over “public lectures, concerts and theatrical performances”. Fair enough. Any “semi-strict constructionist” would see any limits on a religious gathering as violating the 1st (unless in a mosque). The “Congress shall make no law…” modifier was scuttled.
“There is a more chilling reading of what Gorsuch wrote about Jacobson, however. He described Jacobson’s claim as “an implied ‘substantive due process’ right to ‘bodily integrity’ †of the sort that some jurists “have found hiding in the Constitution’s penumbras.â€
These phrases are a legal dog whistle. Each of those terms — substantive due process, bodily integrity and penumbras — is closely associated with Supreme Court precedents recognizing a right to privacy that encompasses contraception, abortion, child rearing, choice of sexual partners, control over one’s intimate private information and determination of how one faces death. Religion, Gorsuch clearly implied, is a genuine constitutional right enshrined in the text, whereas these other rights are just made up and not entitled to similar respect.
…
A court that affords no protection to unenumerated rights to bodily integrity and privacy, while simultaneously eroding the separation of church and state would look less like our familiar institution and more like the highest judicial authority of a place like Gilead — the theocratic and misogynist country in Margaret Atwood’s dystopian “The Handmaid’s Tale.”
The esteemed Mr Dowd wrote:
How was the decision “eroding the separation of church and state”? It was an injunction, pending trial resolution, against an entanglement of the state with religion.
The ‘unenumerated’ rights are just that: unwritten, and therefore subject to change. Privacy? If that is an unenumerated right, why does it not also include the right to privacy and government non-involvement with your choice to go to church?
Sadly, the Sixth Circuit just overturned a lower court judge’s ruling that the Commonwealth of Kentucky could not prevent private religious schools from in person classes because Reichsstatthalter Andy Beshear (NSDAP-KY) was treating all public, private and religious schools identically; he closed them all down. We do not yet if they will appeal to the Supreme Court.
Yet, while Reichsstatthalter Beshear closed all of the K-12 schools, he did not stop the high school football playoffs. For those who’ve never played football — which would almost certainly include the whiny soy boy liberals — let me describe it to you.
If you are an offensive lineman, you are lined up, maskless, against a defensive lineman, also maskless, his face and exhaled breath just a few inches away from your own. When the ball is snapped, you won’t be social distancing, but really up close and personal, in physical contact, as jour job is to block him, and his job is to plug up holes and try to tackle the runner or sack the quarterback.
If you are a receiver, while your job is to gain separation from the defender if the football is coming your way, it is also to get in contact with the defender, to block him if the play isn’t a pass heading toward you. Every defender’s job is to make contact with the ball carrier.
None of these players are wearing masks, and all are doing things completely against rules to slow contamination, but the Reich Governor didn’t seem too worried about that.
Fortunately, the GOP won veto-proof majorities in both chambers of the state legislature, and the Republican leaders of both chambers have already said that a serious restriction of the Reichsstatthalter’s ’emergency powers’ under KRS 39A will be undertaken.
By the way, Mr Dowd, this is for you!
Mr Dana typed (with a wee bit o’ help): … experience has taught us the bitter lesson; some cultures (e.g., trumpists) are not so ready for democracy that they will not willingly surrender to a strongman.
After our experience with trump, we thought you’d be more self-aware.
Kye denied that conservatives were in government during the early 2000s, which is risible. It may be true that those conservatives were not as cruel and ignorant as today’s NuCons. But back in the 2000s they had no dishonest, unprincipled, ignorant, brutal strongman to lead them.
Labeling today’s trumptilians as “conservative” necessitates redefining the word. Look up “reactionary”.
Those who style themselves as “conservatives” today are reaching back in history for white nationalism, corporatism, male supremacy, a de facto christian state religion… they want to re-craft a white, straight, male, christian dominated state and culture, driving others into the dustbin of history.
“America as an experiment is genuinely important to the world not because of the accidents of history that made us the most powerful nation on Earth, but because America is the first real experiment in building a large, multiethnic, multicultural democracy. And we don’t know yet if that can hold. There haven’t been enough of them around for long enough to say for certain that it’s going to work.†– President Barack Obama
These NuCons (trumpists) believe in rights for themselves but not for others. The parallels with ultra-conservative Islamists is uncanny.
Yes, please do go on, Rimjob.
Describe that experience and then tell us how much better things will be under a Biden administration.
Go on, give it shot.
Bwaha! Lolgf
dogsucker,
13,500,000 Americans with Covid-19 (probably more like at least 30,000,000) and 270,000 dead, so far. It will be approaching 400,000 by the time trump is evicted. That’s more dead American’s from Covid in under a year than all of WWII.
The recession has caused the poverty and unemployment rates to jump. Economists call this a K-shaped recovery where the upper income level folks continue to prosper while the poor and service industry workers are getting shat upon. Now that we’ll have a Dem president, Senate GOPhers will suddenly become fiscal conservatives further harming the poor.
trump has buddied up with dictators like Kim, Putin, Duterte while alienating allies.
Infrastructure still deteriorating. Rich getting richer, poor getting poorer.
Still shooting blanks, Rimjob.
Guess that’s all you have left.
Didja hear the one about Joe tripping over his dog?
Bwaha! Lolgfy
The dog, a German Shepherd named “Major”, was a gift from KamalaToe no less…
Do you know who else owned German Shepherds?
Bwaha! Lolgf
Dogsucker,
Didja hear that when he tripped over his dog, Major, it bruised your jaw?
The dog story was actually a cover for what really happened.
Seems he tripped over a passed-out drunken son of a bitch named Hunter.
Lolgfy
“After our experience with trump,…”
Yep, it was terrible. Rising middle class employment especially in the black and Hispanic communities, a steady economic growth 50% higher than the last 6 years, fewer layoffs, more American manufacturing, America becoming not only energy independent but the largest supplier of energy in the world, dynamic growth of exports due to America First trade and tariff policies, growth in small businesses, recognition of Jerusalem as the capitol of Israel, removal of American troops from many places all over the globe, NO NEW WARS, reductions in welfare and lower drug costs, we can go on and on and on but none of that matters to a man seething with hate. All the left has is hate. And it won’t stop if Trump loses to the two corrupt commies either. The hate will only grow.
“Kurt Schlichter has been known to say, never forget they, that is the left, WANT US DEAD. This is not hyperbole; it is becoming clearer by the day that the desire to consign roughly half of the nation to reeducation camps or mass graves is so prevalent on the left that when they do, as they say, “say the quiet part out loud,†no one on the left is shocked. There are no calls for toning down rhetoric or disavowals of the proposals.
Just a couple of days ago, a prominent California Democrat said that Republicans needed to undergo “deprogramming.†Presumably, this was to make us think, against all evidence, that socialism is a viable economic theory, that same-sex marriage is normal, and that giving little kids life-altering drugs and surgery to change their sex is good parenting. Read Jen Van Laar’s reporting on this nasty little fascist, DNC Member David Atkins Says His “Deprogramming†Comment Didn’t Really Mean Deprogramming; His History Says Otherwise.”
And here’s a little 11 min. Keith Olbermann rant about how they should “Romanov” the Trump’s right down to the grandkids, imprison any people who served in the administration along with their friends and families and take us, the voting supporters and “reeducate” us if possible, eliminate if necessary (like Bill Ayres wanting to murder 25 million American Christian conservatives). At the very LEAST Trump supporters should be denied the ability to earn a living, open a business, have a bank account, get legal representation, own a credit card, get a driver license or vote. But the conservatives are the “fascists”. https://youtu.be/S9Mo5_cgkKo
Why is it that the people who most HATE this country, like Elwood, want so much to RULE it?
Kye,
Trump inherited 6 years of steady economic improvement following President Bush’s Great Recession (that Congress would not fix – allowing millions of Americans unnecessary suffering). As said, Trump would be fine if he didn’t fck it up. He fcked it up. Funny how the strategy of claiming Covid was a hoax, claiming it was ending, claiming it was ended and claiming a cure was expected next month, didn’t slow the spread of the virus. It’s now worse than ever and has led to another recession – mostly on the backs of the working poor.
You obviously didn’t listen to the Keith Olbermann rant. Or you did listen and decide to lie and project. No mention of Romanov, kids, grandkids, no mention of prison for friends and family, no mention of reeducation, no mention of eliminating anyone, no mention of keeping Trump supporters from earning a living, or opening a business, having a bank account, getting legal representation, owning a credit card, getting a driver’s license or voting. None of that. You lied about every bit of that, liar. You should be ashamed, but guys like you have no shame. Much like your god-king trump.
Olbermann did rant that any and all administration members who broke the law should be investigated and prosecuted. None of that “healing” the nation BS like President Obama said when asked if Cheney, Bush et al should be pursued for war crimes.
Certainly you believe in law and order, right? Obermann’s point was that unless the guilty are punished the reactionary fascists will try again, next time with a competent pseudopopulist instead of the incompetent trump.
Kye, it’s people like you who hate America today and want to turn it into a fascist paradise.
It’s people like you and trump who are trying to overturn the election based on bullshit claims, and lacking evidence have attempted to get state GOP legislatures to seize control of the Electoral College. What are the penalties for treason?
Rimjob shooting blanks again.
Great job there.
Bwaha! Lolgfy
Well-crafted rebuttal there, spunky.
Funny-the libs in a melt-down over SCOTUS ruling in favor of the 1st Amendment. News on the crumbling of our nation at 5:00….if we don’t burn up first
trump campaign lawyer wants to shoot Chris Krebs, Trump’s head of cybersecurity…
Joe diGenova, an attorney for Trump’s campaign, said during an appearance on “The Howie Carr Show”: “Anybody who thinks the election went well, like that idiot Krebs who used to be the head of cybersecurity. That guy is a class A moron. He should be drawn and quartered. Taken out at dawn and shot.”
Do you actually believe Chris Krebs want to take Joe DiGenova and draw and quarter him and shoot him? Or maybe, just maybe it was an emotional hyperbole directed out of frustration with all the cheating going on? Have you never said “That guy should be shot” as a passing comment or do you actually mean it if you say it? You know, like: “I could grab them by the pussy” is a loud mouthed exaggeration and not an actual fact.
IOW, is every word you’ve ever spoken in your quite long life to be taken literally?
President,
You have it backwards but your point is well taken. Should the death threats directed at Mr Krebs and his family or at Mr Raffensperger and his family be taken seriously or are they just vile threats from immature losers like diGenova?
We noticed you didn’t condemn diGenova’s threat. What’s the irony of a petty asswipe like diGenova threatening an honest public servant like Mr. Krebs?
According to The Hill:
“Attorney General William Barr on Tuesday said there has been no evidence of widespread voter fraud that would change the outcome of the election, undercutting President Trump’s repeated baseless claims to the contrary.”
“There’s been one assertion that would be systemic fraud and that would be the claim that machines were programmed essentially to skew the election results,” Barr said. “And the DHS [Department of Homeland Security] and DOJ [Department of Justice] have looked into that, and so far, we haven’t seen anything to substantiate that.”
So the FBI, DOJ and DHS HAVE been investigating Big Sid Powell’s and Lil Donnie’s claims and have yet to find anything to substantiate the outlandish claims. Should Big Sid turn her evidence over to the DOJ… or is the DOJ in on the fraud???
Will the increasingly unhinged and desperate trump fire AG Barr? Do you think Barr is in on the fraud, too? Or is it more likely that trump is either deranged or a grand lying wannabe dictator?
Do you still believe that trump won the election? If the FBI can’t find evidence of fraud, why would you think Sidney Powell could? Just because she’s being paid millions to find fraud? Maybe it’s time for an independent prosecutor to investigate Barr to see if he was paid off by the Chinese.
The conspiracy against trump now includes: Hugo Chavez, Dominion, Bill Barr, FBI, DOJ, DHS, many Republican governors, Lt governors, Secretaries of State, legislators, vote counters, all Dems, Dem mayors, Dem governors, Dem county supervisors, the media, China, Cuba, Stacy Abrams, Obama, arithmetic, George Soros..
One’s reluctance to admit they’re wrong after obsessively supporting what turns out to be a lie told by someone admired if not worshipped, is understandable.
https://i2.wp.com/www.powerlineblog.com/ed-assets/2020/11/Screen-Shot-2020-11-26-at-7.23.57-PM.png?w=992&ssl=1