Thursday, July 22, 2010

Priviledges or Immunities

David Hardy, over at Of Arms and the Law points to an essay by Marcus Cole. In the essay, Cole pays tribute to 4 black Americans who made the McDonald case possible: Frederick Douglas, his father, Clarence Thomas, and Otis McDonald. It's a powerful, and moving essay. Go and read it.

Note that only Clarence Thomas took Gura's arguments seriously, and points the way to overturning the Slaughterhouse Cases decision. It needs to be done. Right now, the doctrine of stare decis means that even if a decision is made wrongly, the longer it stands the more it becomes untouchable. The Slaughterhouse cases are just such decisions. The only way to correct them is for the Justices to go back and look at what the Constitution actually says. Until that happens, our Constitution will be subject to being interpreted out of existence.

No comments:

Post a Comment