Closing out the term
Today, the Supreme Court announced more decisions for this term. We've had an expansion of the application of eminent domain; a legal aid door opened for the poor; and now these decisions on religious displays in and around courthouses.
What I don't get is -- for a man who lives and kills federal law over plain meaning in statutory interpretation, Scalia seems to be awfully flexible when it comes to the First Amendment.
What part of "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion..." is so ambiguous to allow an interpretation of large stone monuments and mosaics with the Ten Commandments -- in and around courthouses -- as secular? And since when do textualists say stuff like, "The determinative factor here, however, is that 40 years passed in which the monument's presence, legally speaking, went unchallenged."???
::sigh::
My naiveté is showing.
What I don't get is -- for a man who lives and kills federal law over plain meaning in statutory interpretation, Scalia seems to be awfully flexible when it comes to the First Amendment.
What part of "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion..." is so ambiguous to allow an interpretation of large stone monuments and mosaics with the Ten Commandments -- in and around courthouses -- as secular? And since when do textualists say stuff like, "The determinative factor here, however, is that 40 years passed in which the monument's presence, legally speaking, went unchallenged."???
::sigh::
My naiveté is showing.
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