Tuesday July 4th
Independence Day
The only difference I am seeing from day to day is whether or not there are any clouds in the sky. The morning temperature is mostly the same. The morning humidity.. it’s mostly the same. And the dew point.. Don’t get me talking about the dew points.
Independence Day…
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.—
247 years ago an ideal was born. Over the last two centuries that ideal has had it’s ups and downs. For most of those years the phrase “All men are created equal” wasn’t honored quite in it’s stated form. It has taken a multitude of attempts to make real progress with the all men part of that statement… in attempts to add race, sex, religion, sexual orientation… And at every step, at every additional protection some parts of the body politic has fought the inclusion.
By hook or by crook, one side or the other has tried, and at many times in our history, has managed to stack the deck… and the courts and legislatures… to get what they want. And as the American people have become more open to and insistent on equality for all… the old powers to be have done all within their power to,, hang on to power.
Today we are celebrating the adoption of a document that was arrived at via compromise.. give and take.. even in those days the greater good was an ideal that could be agreed upon… Not so much today. Our institutions can’t even agree to protect the will of the majority.. putting a lie to the founding principles our Constitution was written to protect.
We all are proud of our “Democracy” even though our “democratic republic” was set up to protect the “rights” of those who wrote it not we the people. So, every time I hear a conservative jurist speak of “original intent”(1) I know someone’s rights are about to be trumped(sp) upon.
Enjoy the day… independently. Stay safe.. stay cool.. I’ll catch y’all down the road.
Counting Down To 70 Years – 217 Days
(1) The notion that the Constitution should be read as frozen in time is a relatively new invention. Certainly it is not what the founding generation had in mind. As Chief Justice John Marshall wrote, “We must never forget that it is a constitution we are expounding.” A great charter would enable a growing nation to meet new challenges. Dred Scott was the first major originalist ruling, claiming to find its defense of slavery and its assertion that even free Black people could not be citizens in the original intent of the founders. It was such a notorious disaster that the approach was shelved for a century.
Originalism Run Amok at the Supreme Court – by Michael Waldman – Brennan Center for Justice
