The "system" still has some integrity

posted by Jeff | Friday, June 29, 2012, 12:12 AM | comments: 0

One of the things really lost in the news of today's Supreme Court decisions was that the institution of the court itself still functions as it should. With our elected Congresscritters, you can pretty much predict their behavior based on where they sit in the chamber. The justices, however, are tasked with interpreting the Constitution and applying it to the laws that the critters come up with.

To that end, knowing that the justices obviously have some political bias, they did the right thing anyway. Justice Roberts, the conservative who upheld the ACA, apparently said during oral arguments or in the written majority opinion, that it isn't the court's place to question the wisdom or morality of the law, but rather its constitutionality. That's so critically important to understand, whether you agree with the law or not.

Similarly, the court upheld that a law making it a crime to lie about military service or honors violated the First Amendment. Yes, obviously, you have to be a serious douchebag to do such a thing, but using words to be a douchebag, for better or worse, is protected free speech.

Whether you agree with the politics or not, I think it's important to recognize that our system of government works. It doesn't mean that it always does the right thing... far from it. It does mean that the authority is still the document we've followed for more than 200 years.

Laws can be modified and repealed. If we can, as a nation, get past all of the divisive bullshit and talk through complex issues, maybe we'll actually start fixing problems instead of bitching about them. Am I naive to think that's possible? I'm certain that the with-me-or-against-me culture is not going to get us anywhere. It's certainly not going to lead us to elect better people. The more divisive people are, the more these assholes will pander to this low level of anti-intellectualism.


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