Sunday, March 16, 2014

Did you know?

With some of the recent rulings from the highest court in the land, I got to thinking, is it possible to impeach a justice of the Supreme Court?

So lets review what the court has gotten wrong in the past 50 years?  First on my list is Citizens United.  You know that ruling where they said that corporations can basically buy an election.  It stemmed from the ruling that money is speech.  These two rulings tie in together, in a straight forward way.  Since money is now equivalent to speech, and companies also now have the right to free speech, they can spend as much as they wish for the candidates they want.  Now the hitch is, Unions can do the same thing.  Conservatives, are you so sure its a good idea now?

The court also stated that the mandate was legal.  While I agree with the beginning of the progress towards a single payer option, or full blown single payer system, I agree that the overall legality of the PPACA.  However, not the mandate which includes fines for not having insurance.  Sure, it is a measure to enforce compliance, but one that will punish more people who are poorer in states that have elected to not expand their medicaid programs.

Don't take this the wrong way, but I disagree with the courts getting into the second amendment debate.  Sure the rulings have assisted in clarifying the second amendment, but at some point, states have to make their own rules as well.  What the supreme court has done with their rulings is stripped just a little power away from states.  In the future, it has placed precedence for the court to step in on the matter, and lets face it, future rulings might just be more hazardous to your gun rights than helpful.  But what else has the court stepped into recently?

Oh yeah, did you know that if you are suspected of being a terrorist, the system does not need a warrant to seize your papers?  How about you as an American citizen can be detained indefinitely, without due process for being suspected of being a terrorist?  How do I know, well, it seems this has already happened to one such person.  He currently resides in Cuba, at a base that was to be shut down.  Speaking of which, it has taken a liking to Voter ID laws, so, hope nothing goes wrong with your ID in the near future.

Last one, if one person occupant consents to a search of your home, the police can search away legally.  However, in a recent decision, all that needs happen is for the occupants to be taken into custody, and they can search away anyway. 

So, members of the court are appointed for life.  So, if I as a 32 year old man was appointed to the court, I would have a job until I either retired, or died.  So what should we do?  Well, first we can put limits of time in office, I am not saying that they should be limited to one term of 2 to 8 years, but they certainly should not be allowed to sit for two decades.  To be fair the average is around 16 years (shortest was 100 days, longest was 36 years), but the longest they should sit is 10-15 years (I am leaning towards 13-15 years as it would allow for a better spread of both liberal and conservative justices).  Of course we can always disallow some of their more archaic rules, sorry but I think that every case they hear should be on video, which can then be viewed by all persons.  But the first thing we really need to do, impeach members of the supreme court.

What we have here is a court of activists.  And that is not always a bad thing, but it is when it goes against the best interest of the people, constantly, it is.  When it stepped in on school segregation it was doing the right thing, it was protecting the rights of people (sorry, but my mother as an immigrant's daughter of Jewish heritage was forced into an all black school, you see the point).  They have said if you are labeled as a terrorist, you have no right to due process, no protections from unreasonable searches and seizures.  That was an error on their part, we should all have our day in court, and evidence should be gathered, but not while we are held for an alleged crime.  But we have crossed a line between being an activist, to towing political ideology.  Not what protects the rights of the majority, but what protects the rights of a few. So, what are we to do, impeach them.  All it takes is 2/3's of the Senate, and they are out.  Oh and it has happened before, but you have to go back a while.  1804 was they year, and Samuel Chase (who signed the Declaration of Independence was impeached.  Now, if you are wondering why, it was because of his political leanings.  See Justices are supposed to be neutral, independent, something this current court is not.  Their spouses work for corporations, some of whom are directly related to the cases they are hearing.  They do not recuse (remove) themselves from said cases, and could potentially make biased rulings. 

This directly undermines the political process, and causes harm to the people.  As such, they need to know that we the people, will not tolerate it anymore. 

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