Wednesday, July 20, 2005

"By a narrow 5 to 4 vote, the Supreme Court struck down this portion of the Violence Against Women Act and second-guessed the judgment of Congress on this remedial cause of action...Sadly, it was not enough to save this important aspect of our legislative program from a declaration of unconstitutionality by an activist Supreme Court." --Senator Patrick Leahy


I just love it when liberals twist things around. The pejorative term "activist Supreme Court" is commonly used to criticize the court's tendency to create new laws by substituting their own judgment or the judgment of the "international community" for the rule of law. But in this statement, the honorable Senator accuses the conservative side of the court of being "activist."


The case was United States v. Morrison (2000) . The law under consideration was the Violence Against Women Act, in which Congress attempted to impose harsh penalties for gender-based crimes under the interstate commerce clause. Congress argued that since women affected commerce, they could regulate violent crimes against them. The conservative/moderate side of the court (Rehnquist, Scalia, Thomas, O’Connor, Kennedy) struck down the law and denied Congress's ability to regulate whatever it wants. The law was clearly unconstitutional and by striking it down, the Court made a small step toward affirming the principles of federalism laid down by the founders.  Thank you Supreme Court. And thank you President Bush for appointing an "activist" judge yesterday who probably would have joined the majority in limiting the power of the federal government in Morrison. I hope the Court continues to be "activist" in limiting federal power, if "activist" means upholding the Constitution as written.

3 comments:

LadyAnneCordelia said...

So is this a law that should be passed on a state level?
It will be interesting to see how Bush's appointments do...

tpaulshippy said...

Yes, exactly.

LadyAnneCordelia said...

So I actually did learn something from my short time in Con Law law!!