So there’s the fascist faction, the communist faction, and Anthony Kennedy. Kennedy is overall a libertarian-leaning moderate. He agrees with the liberals on certain gay rights, and with the conservatives on the right of the Boy Scouts to exclude gays. He agrees with the left of habeas corpus and with the right on the Second Amendment.
On the other hand, Kennedy is terrible on the drug war, the 4th amendment rules on searches and seizures, and the federal government’s authority to override local marijuana law. But he’s the best we can do, folks. Carlin might be right about the public.
When the liberal justices retire, let’s hope there’s not a Republican president to put another Roberts or Alito on the bench*. It is a delicate balance now, with Kennedy holding the sway between the fascists and commies. Too many commies or too many fascists, and there goes the formula. Of course, when Kennedy retires, we can expect to see the whole delicate balance screwed regardless.
* One hope: The Democrats will fillibuster a fascist Republican appointment, and the Republicans will fillibuster anyone who will overturn Heller. Gridlock under Reagan got us Kennedy. Let’s hope for more judges who are only totalitarian on relatively minor issues like privacy, prohibition, and the right of dying people to use medicine.
Anthony, I assume you’ve been following the dueling opinions on the LRC blog about the DC gun law decision. There’s Heubert’s take, DiLorenzo’s, Shaffer’s, and Kinsella’s dissenting view.
Even with Kinsella’s piece, he acknowledges that it’s good to get rid of the DC law by whatever means available. All of the opinions seem to be “the ends justify the means”. Sure, SCOTUS wildly exceeded its authority by using the Bill of Rights to strike down a pseudo-state’s law, but at least they struck down a bad law.
Every time libertarians have something good to say about something the State does, I wonder if they aren’t legitimizing the institutions. It’s important to remember that all of this is illegitimate — SCOTUS, the Constitution, all of it. They’re descending to the level of the right/left when they talk about how it’s good that SCOTUS wildly exceeded its authority but some good came of it.
We shouldn’t bother being drawn into discussions like this. We should talk about our “public servants” truthfully — they’re robbers, tyrants and murderers.
I don’t see how the Supremes overstepped their authority here.
The Supreme Court might have gotten it mostly right this time, but it’s not because of their love, or rather, a Love Supreme.