The dissent in Heller
I haven’t read them yet (for reasons explained here) but David Hardy notes some errors in it, and I mean errors other than just being on the wrong side of history.
I mean, if I were a Republican running for office, I’d remind the over 70% of the population who think there is an individual right to arms exactly who appointed these four justices. Of course, they’re to blame for Souter.
Update: For some reason, I thought Stevens was a Carter appointee. Nope, a Ford guy. So, two of these bozos were Republican appointees?
This is making the McCain case pretty weak.
June 26th, 2008 at 9:03 pm
As someone else pointed out, with McCain there is a 50% chance of decent judges. With Obama it is 0%.
June 26th, 2008 at 9:19 pm
Yep. There’s only two Democrat appointees on the court.
June 26th, 2008 at 9:24 pm
Before throwing out the “McCain case” because of a Ford appointee, recall that without Nixon/Ford it would have been a McGovern appointee. Would that have been better?
The “McCain case” isn’t based on McCain upside, it’s based on Obama downside.
June 26th, 2008 at 10:23 pm
Republicans Presidents generally bat around .500, but Democrats bat 1.000 the other way. Reagan’s record was mixed as well; three appointees and only one reliable conservative. Similarly, Eisenhower famously quipped that his two biggest mistakes were sitting on the damned Supreme Court. By contrast, JFK was the last Democrat to appoint a Justice who didn’t turn out to be a reliable liberal.
June 26th, 2008 at 10:28 pm
Also bear in mind that Stevens wasn’t always as loopy liberal as he is nowadays. Back in the 1970s, he authored the lead anti-affirmative action decision in Bakke. Unfortunately, he “grew” in office quite a bit since then, but I’m not sure how Ford could have seen that coming.
June 27th, 2008 at 9:39 am
Stevens “grew…”? Sounds a lot like ‘evolving standards’ to me. What a shame the oath of office isn’t punitive.
June 27th, 2008 at 10:33 am
Hey, McCain PROMISES to appoint SC Justices like Alito and Scalia. I know this because during the Texas primary, I got a recorded phone message from John his own self saying exactly that.
Also, he is a Reagan Republican, and will follow the Reagan lead in cutting taxes.
Got to go feed my unicorn some rainbows now.
McCain might respond to pressure regarding judicial appointees the way GWBush did with Harriet Myers. Then again, with Obama, we’d be lucky to get anyone as principled, qualified, and conservative as Myers.
So McCain’s got that going for him.
Vote McCain, or just go sahead and aim for your foot…..