Friday, February 26, 2010

He Doesn't Have A Clue

Dave Kopel has a wonderful post at The Volokh Conspiracy about Goodwin H. Liu, who has been nominated to serve on the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. Kopel writes:

Some readers and Senators may be interested in his viewpoint on Second Amendment and other constitutional issues related to firearms policy. So here’s an excerpt from his article Separation Anxiety: Congress, The Courts, And The Constitution, 91 Georgetown Law Journal 439 (Jan. 2003). Liu’s co-author on the article is Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton. The article is based on a 2002 speech that Senator Clinton presented at Georgetown, sponsored by the American Constitution Society. Senator Clinton and Professor Liu criticize recent Supreme Court decisions declaring two federal gun control laws unconstitutional.

Liu and Clinton were upset that SCOTUS overturned the Gun-Free School Zones Act. Here's a brief excerpt from Liu and Clinton's article:

The Gun-Free School Zones Act passed the House by a vote of 313 to 1; it cleared the Senate by unanimous consent. . . . But even more astounding than the Court’s willingness to override commonsense legislation with such broad support is its eagerness to do so in terms which are deliberately designed to exclude Congress—and by extension, the American people—from playing a part in defining what the Constitution requires and what it permits.
To which a commenter responds:

That would explain why Article 1, Section 8 starts out “Congress shall have Power to do the following things (unless, you know, they want to do more than that).”

Wish I'd said that!

This guy's nomination should be vigorously opposed by every American who believes that the U.S. Constitution actually, you know, means something.

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