Justice Thomas: rolling back 800 years of history
So everyone is pissed off that Senator Reid called Justice Thomas "embarrassing." In a word, boo-hoo. I would like you to read a post by Publius entitled, Justice Thomas - Not "Embarrasing," Just Radically Wrong. Also read all of the links in his post about what America would look like if Thomas got his way. Thomas makes Scalia's views quaint:
The first, and by far the worst, of these opinions was his concurrence in Hamdi. This was one of the post-9/11 cases involving the detention of a U.S. citizen who was unilaterally declared an "enemy combatant" and deprived of access to the courts. Of the nine Justices, only Thomas believed that Hamdi had no due process rights because such a decision was part of the president's war powers.
In other words, Thomas would allow the executive to be completely unrestrained in wartime and also be the final arbiter of his or her own powers. Under this theory, Bush could deprive any America citizen of due process rights in wartime by labeling that person an enemy combatant. This is radical stuff, especially considering that conservative thought is supposedly premised upon individual liberty and restraining the power of government. The Magna Carta offered citizens more protection against the executive than Thomas's concurrence. He's turning back the clock about 800 years.
But more interesting, Publius has this to say about Thomas the "Conservative:"
Thomas has expressed several times that he gives no weight to precedent (or stare decisis) if he feels the Court has gone astray from the "original understanding" of the Constitution. In other words, Thomas is willing to throw away generations of collective wisdom and impose his own views upon the Constitution, which in turn depend entirely on how he chooses to interpret and apply fragments of materials from the 1790s to 21st century problems.
Publius makes a great point: Thomas is as far away from classical conservative thought (think George Will) than any other Justice. Conservatives value the past as a knowledge handed down from the ages - and Thomas throws that away when it doesn't jibe with his personal feelings. How much more of an activist judge can you be?
Comments
Post a comment
This is the permanent home of Justice Thomas: rolling back 800 years of history. I wrote this post at 11:13 on December 9, 2004. This post is part of grubbykid.com, a weblog. If you liked this entry, why don't you read some other posts such as Pale Male's nest destroyed or Three Card Monte? Or you could go to the site archives or return home. All are good choices.
Remember this post with del.icio.us
Some descriptive tags for this entry are: justicethomas supremecourt ussc law conlaw politics quotes.
Mommy... what's a tag?
Some descriptive tags for this entry are: conlaw, justicethomas, law, politics, quotes, supremecourt, ussc.
Mommy... what's a tag?
