Al Franken Goes On The Attack, Blasts Conservative Judges For 'Judicial Activism'
I have high hopes for Sen. Al Franken, who never stops fighting for the things he believes in. How refreshing that a freshman Senator refuses to shut up and sit down, instead putting himself in the forefront of progressive fights:
Republican senators and conservative jurists found themselves on the defensive after Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) blasted "conservative activism" on federal courts.
Franken, in a major speech Thursday evening before the American Constitution Society, sought to set the stage for a summer confirmation battle in the Senate over President Barack Obama's pick, Elena Kagan, to join the Supreme Court.
The first-term senator launched a full-throated attack on originalism, the judicial philosophy often upheld by conservatives as an example for model nominees for the federal courts.
"Originalism isn’t a pillar of our constitutional history. It’s a talking point," Franken said, adding a jab at Chief Justice John Roberts for his famous comparison between judges and baseball umpires during Roberts's confirmation hearings.
"How ridiculous," Franken said. "Judges are nothing like umpires."
The Senate is set to take up the Kagan nomination in the Senate Judiciary Committee, on which Franken serves, later this month.
With the battle over Kagan and other judicial nominees having stalled in the Senate, Franken also took a moment to castigate GOP filibusters of Obama's court picks.
"The Republican obstruction that is standing between you and the work you’ve agreed to do for your country is unacceptable. And we will continue to fight it," Franken said, apologizing to Goodwin Liu and Dawn Johnsen, the president's picks for a circuit court spot and director of the Office of Legal Counsel, respectively, who were both in the audience.
Huzzah! W00T W00T!! and all that. Thanks for posting this. I was just thinking how nice it would be to have an open thread so I could post a link to this excellent speech. This is one of the best things I've seen since Al Gore's condemning the Bush administration in May of 2004. It's up there with Stephen Colbert's address at the White House Correspondents' Dinner as an enduring political event.
The 43 minute video can be seen HERE. There is also a link to an MP3 audio version. The full transcript (pdf) is HERE.
"In theory theory and practice are alike. In practice they are very different."
Using their own arguments against them. Who could have ever conceived of such a ploy? Anyway, this is the perfect tactic against Republicans since all of their arguments are pure projection.
It doesn't matter what Obama and the Democrats do...they could change
horseshit to gold and Limpballs, FOX and the Republican would sing the same song:
[Groucho]
I don't know what they have to say,
It makes no difference anyway,
Whatever it is, I'm against it.
No matter what it is or who commenced it,
I'm against it.
Your proposition may be good,
But let's have one thing understood,
Whatever it is, I'm against it.
And even when you've changed it or condensed it,
I'm against it.
I'm opposed to it,
On general principle, I'm opposed to it.
[chorus] He's opposed to it.
In fact, indeed, that he's opposed to it!
[Groucho]
For months before my son was born,
I used to yell from night to morn,
Whatever it is, I'm against it.
And I've kept yelling since I first commenced it,
I'm against it!
Watch it here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DtMV44yoXZ0
..that Susie chose to link to The Hill instead of to the ACS post with the video. GAWD, the wingnut comments over there! You'd think the collective American IQ was like the temperature of a refreshing summer beverage.
"In theory theory and practice are alike. In practice they are very different."
That temp is in Centigrade, correct?
..so you might assume that, but when posting to American blogs I convert to your quirky pre-Metric version of the old British Imperial System. Heck I even spell color without a 'u' on US sites, to avoid confusing anybody.
An IQ just above freezing (Iced tea or a cold beer) would still be pretty bad even in Fahrenheit.
"In theory theory and practice are alike. In practice they are very different."
Eh?
We'd just kick ya to the kerb...
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
nothing a tankard of ale can't cure you,,,
I much prefer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9fKSlRJT5dw
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
Just finished my last one last night. Too much road construction nearby in my neck of the woods here in Sarasota. Going to have to suffer on bourbon and aluminum can beer.
.
After all these years of Scalia droning on about so-called Originalism -- as if HIS way is the only way. And our goofy illiterate press corp sopping it up and feeding it to as gospel.
BAH! Franken finally calls it out as humbug. Keep it up. Encore. Encore.
Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.)
Well you can see now why they fraught so hard to keep him out.
great job for a rookie senator.
Why do you think they kicked Governor Crist to the curb running for senate? I may be a leaning progressive,,,, but I will vote for Crist if he keeps up this. He seems to be a centrist,,, and what he does with the >>>not an oil spill<<< debacle will make him. And Rubio is having a house foreclosed on in Tallahassee. LOL,,,personal responsibility????
Green, Crist and Rubio in the general it will be Crist for me but I'm voting for Meek in the primary
Franken makes the rest of the Senate look like turds in a punchbowl, especially the GOP members. I'd vote to dump Harry Reid and make Franken Senate majority leader in a heartbeat.
" you'd think the collective American IQ's " , I have bad news for you , they are .
Maybe Darwin did get it wrong.
Even the Federalist Papers anticipated judges having to interpret the laws, because they can't be written to cover all exigencies, and some laws are just badly written due to the deal making that has to be made to pass them.
If the laws were so clear-cut we'd have no need for judges, just administrating bureaucrats and lynch mobs.
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
Would the doctrine of originalism have countenanced boosh v Gore, Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad Company, 118 U.S. 394 (1886), or citizens united?
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
Damn good in fact, considering that Citizens United stems directly from Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad Company. Add to the fact that the determination of corporate personhood was NOT part of the SCOTUS decision in Santa Clara, but comes from a note appended by one of the law clerks assigned to write out the decision - it's hard to assign 'original intent' to the post-Civil War era writers of the 14th. amendment.
The whole idea of corporate personhood is so divorce from the idea of Constitutional originalism to render it ridiculous -- but not the kind of ridiculous that invokes laughter.
"In theory theory and practice are alike. In practice they are very different."
Why do you think actors like Béla Lugosi could so easily and effectively turn around from horror to comedy?
Both are absurdist forms of entertainment that invite extreme responses.
http://booksprung.com/wp-content/uploads/2008...
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
Clinton's nominations also... just waited him out until they could get Bush in there to put conservative judges in place, and it worked too. Now it looks like they are up to their old tricks. Will it work this time, too?
Only when the last tree has died
and the last river has been poisoned and the last fish has been caught
will we realize we cannot eat money.
what they did for Exxon. Cut down billions in damages down to few hundred million.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/26/world/ameri...
Since SCOTUS shook down the American people over the Valdez, Obama and the Dems need to make sure BP gets "shook down" on behalf of the American people over the disaster in the gulf
I'm only sorry Al didn't call em what they are , Reich wing fascists , traitors and saboteurs , they are shredding the Constitution , turning the Supreme court into a mockery .
That would help his credibility.
it probably would
Where in the doctrine of originalism is there that there would be any exception for churches not having to pay taxes like other businesses?
Or for that matter where is any mention of the function of Congressional Chaplains, religious mottos on government buildings and coinage etc?
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
Someone has the smarts and guts to start calling these subversive right wingers out.
Who knew that Stuart Smiley could wield such excellent verbiage in such a Samuari cutting way?
And, doggone, I like me (him).
Hate to pin a mis-used name on him and Grayson,,,, but they are the REAL tea-partiers
I was almost sick when it looked like Al might lose to that nimbrod Coleman. I had a feeling he would be one of the few to take on the corporate fascist MSM and their 24/7 bulls**t GOP talking point machine.
He does it honestly, and by making them look like the laughable hypocrite idiots they are. If there were a few more like him, the dems could crush the GOP. But alas, so many dems are now working for the opposition, that seems nearly impossible.
I just hope Al, Grayson, and a few other liberal leaders can drag the rest of the party - including the sellout bluedogs - kicking and screaming back into the fold.
Rush Limbaugh is what a smart person thinks a stupid bigot sounds like.
Everyone recites the write in margin by some incompetent jurist (yes incompetent as if it wasn't it would have been removed so the intent was set in motion long ago), now you take the Racist, Nazi SCOTUS with its activist judges who LIED and Manipulated to get in the position they are in for the Sole purpose of doing what has been done. Am I over the top, think what has almost every remark from these Socialist Corporate henchmen been, the American People HAVE NO RIGHTS, please check every Amendment they have attacked, check and see HOW MUCH unlimited power they are GIVING to the NEW GESTAPO called Police.
The biggest FEAR and Hesitancy the Founding Fathers had was First CORPORATIONS, they were the cause of almost ALL WARS that ENGLANDZ was involved in and the Founding Fathers new this and DID NOT want Corporations PERIOD, the other GREAT Evil was Institutionalized RELIGION, yes that hate based twisted Hate and Fear filled philosophy that that demands undying loyalty to it. The Founding Fathers vacillated long and Hard and they ONLY Reason they gave in was because we were a REPUBLIC and as a New Republic we had to be fair in giving these two EVILS fair play, sure wish that would have never ever happened.
Just check out the White Supremacist, Nazi,Racist of the Anti American republican party of NO to America. The AMERICA MUST FAIL party known as the republican Party, the Death to AMERICA party known as the republican party. Yes these disgraces that AMERICA is paying for and they are selling out to a Foreign Power the American party of TRAITORS known as republicans.
Can you imagine what would happen if we had a president that spoke these truths aloud instead of mumbling nonsense about bipartisanship? You know, someone showing leadership and actually articulating traditional Democratic values. Nah, too radical.
Candideinnc
It is past time that someone did. This is arguably the most politically activist court (or at least the conservative wing is) in my life time, and I was born during the Truman administration.
12 years on the bench. That is it. The country can change too much in 8,,, much less have some stick in the mud sitting for 30 years holding back progress.
I often say I wish someone in congress would....
Increasingly Senator Franken is the one that finishes that sentence and does. God bless you.
"How ridiculous," Franken said. "Judges are nothing like umpires."
I didn't hear his whole speech but this is right on and the essence of the disagreement. Umpires do not adjudicate the reasoning between the pitcher and the batter. That's what judges do. The right seems to think it is one or the other. They seem to forget the human element and reasoning is involved. They think empathy has no place in our system of justice. In my world they are sick **cks. In their world I am sure they make perfect sense.
Ducks?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mh85R-S-dh8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=irgJPqkuakM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcmjWWcxMeY
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
Thanks for this post Susie. And kudos to Al Franken, an exceptinoal senator.
I like Al Franken very much.
Barack Obama: Change we can only imagine
I'm good enough, I'm smart enough, and doggone people like me
Franken is an old-school Democrat. I wish there were 58 more of them. (58 because Bernie Sanders is near enough to the 59th)
Franken is a real Democrat. The only one in the Senate.
If somehow the winds would blow so that Franken, Feingold and their ilk could join Sanders' as Social Democrats? Or make a new Progressive Party?
Anyway, back to reality . . . .
Everyone is equally entitled to the pursuit of happiness. Wasn't that once self evident?
You're dreaming but it's a nice dream , I agree.
Justice William Brennan correctly observed that the doctrine of original intent was "arrogance disguised as humility." It is nothing more than so called conservative judges bolstering their own philosophy by pretending they have some special connection into the minds of long-dead lawmakers. They don't. They just pretend that they do in order to pretend that they are showing some sort of deference. All they're really doing is saying, "The founders would agree with me if they were alive today, and I know this, and you don't."
By the way, though, there are different strains of originalism. Original intent is the bad one. Original meaning is the good one.
Personally, I'm neither an Originalist nor a Living Constitutionalist (which is what Brennan was). I'm actually a Textualist who incorporates "original meaning" into my method simply to resolve ambiguities. It makes me quite the judicial liberal. Geez, Karen, WTF are you talking about? . . . Sorry. ;)
Anyway, good for Al Franken! 'Bout time someone took on judicial conservatives for all their bullshit!
Everyone is equally entitled to the pursuit of happiness. Wasn't that once self evident?
It's not in the Constitution that a Corporation are people.
The Alito/Robert's Supreme Court make it up and we the
people/country are F$$ked because corporations can now
offically take over. They have more power then the
President or Congress.
Thanks to the Republicans Money - Money - Money.
Corporations are legal entities that are subject to the rules and protections that the law provides them. Constitutional rights only apply to individual human beings. Seems straightforward and simple to me. Yet, the Supreme Court has invented the notion of corporate citizenship from whole cloth. It's gross judicial activism.
Alright Al!
My favorite part of the speech:
Al nailed it with that remark.
I pledge allegiance to the Constitution of the United States of America, and to the republic which it established, one nation from many peoples, promising liberty and justice for all
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