Standing up to the Supreme Court

[Hannah]

Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito frowned and shook his head as President Barack Obama spoke to Congress Wednesday. Obama had taken the unusual step of scolding the high court in his State of the Union address.

So he can stand up to a bunch of old judges but not the Republicans and their overwhelming superminority, at least he hasn't completely given up. Look at those douchebags just sitting there, I know there's not much they could do but I loved it when people all around them stood and clapped. That's the america I fought for, I wish it was real 

[Sandy]

Well, actually, protocol for the justices is that they are not supposed to have any sort of reaction during the speech.  They stand when the president enters and applaud the entrance and stand and applaud the exit.  Other than that, they are not really supposed to react.

You'll notice that Allito is the one (who gave the majority opinion) mouthing the words "that's not true".  That has caused almost as much commotion as that republican clown who shouted out "You LIE!".

Anyway it's all rhetoric.  I'm so disheartened that all I hear now is empty rhetoric from an empty suit.  Real soon now the president is going to commission a panel to develop a strategy to pose a question to a panel to evaluate the possibility, that if they *did* ask the question about the possibility of maybe repealing DADT, would anyone have an objection?

Besides, according to John McCain, DADT works!

-Sandy

[Janet_Girl]

And of course we ALL believe Mr. McCain.    And of course the Justices don't have any opinion till they are paid for it.

[lizbeth]

after years and years of the conservatives warning over and over about 'Activist Judges' legislating from the bench I can't help but point out that they were right all along. I don't say it much but the republicans were RIGHT on something!!  it just turned out that the activist judges we were warned about are all 5 republican appointed justices, Kennedy, Scalia, Alto, Roberts and Thomas.

[Hannah]

I just, er, meh what a load of crap that place has become. I know it has been since ww2, but these days they don't even seem to try and hide it.

There are not many reasons I would put the uniform of the centurion back on, but if he called on us to surround the congress and supreme court and send all those posers home I'm afraid to say I'd have no moral hangups about it. Of course, I'd have to have them let out the chest first  I first had this discussion when Clinton was president, and I was appalled by the idea. These days...viva la revoloution

I hate to say I told you so, but Hillary would be a lot further along with things.

[lizbeth]

I hate to say I told you so, but Hillary would be a lot further along with things.

how would the court have come to a different decision than what they did under Obama? 

if you mean overall I sincerely doubt that - not because I don't believe Hillary could do the job, but because the same OMG WHARGARRBL coming from republican'ts right now would be just as bad and maybe even worse with 'HillaryCare Part Deux' among other things. congress is where the hangups are, the House seems to be able to legislate just fine and even get some republican contribution from time to time but the senate can never seem to move anything through anymore (even the defense supplemental apparently).

I think the senate should be returned to what it was prior to the 17th amendment (i think) where it was not an elected office and was an appointment by the state legislature. that way if a senator is holding up legislature that could benefit the state the state government could kick them out or not renominate them. I'd much rather this scenario that term limits especially since it puts more emphasis on your state reps who often go unnoticed in the eyes of the public.

[tekla]

Not a lot of 'A' Civics students here.  It would have made absolutely no difference in this decision had Obama, Hillary, Sara or myself been elected the last time around.  This is a result of past appointments to the Court, which are for life.  Obama has only put one person on the Court, replacing someone who would have voted the same way.  5-4 decisions have been par for the course for the last 15 or so years, and until one of those 5 (Roberts, Alito, Scalia, Thomas and Kennedy) retires and is replaced with someone less conservative and less activist it's going to remain the standard decision.

[Hannah]

No, not this decision of course. I go back and forth on Hillary, but I do think she would have been less submissive over the last year. Oh well, barring cataclysm in Dec 2012 there's at least seven more years to get things together.

It will be interesting to see what kind of legislation they come up with to counter it, or if that was just good speech writing.