Cross-posted from And The Horse You Rode In On
In 2000, what we used to call the Supreme Court found the Republicans’ Partial Birth Abortion Ban unconstitutional. After the addition of Justices Roberts and Alito to the court, the three stooges (Scalia, Thomas, and Kennedy) became five stooges, and a virtually identical abortion ban became constitutional.
It’s just amazing how fast the constitution is changing.
Price floors just became constitutional – the minimum prices set by manufacturers to prevent discounts at retail. I wonder if that means that senators can now set minimum bribes and minimum campaign contributions that K-Street lobbyists and big corporations will have to pay for earmarks and special favors at taxpayer expense.
Segregation used to be unconstitutional. As of this week, segregation is all but mandatory, since school desegregation programs were just ruled unconstitutional.
Campaign finance limits that the court upheld just two years ago have now become unconstitutional, too. It’s a matter of free speech. But students just lost the freedom of speech if what they say could be interpreted as celebrating the use of drugs. Drug companies, on the other hand, have all the free speech they can buy.
And, oh yes, the constitutional separation of church and state has been overturned, or at least it’s now unconstitutional for taxpayers to sue the federal government to enforce the separation in the case of "faith-based initiatives" that hand out taxpayers’ money to certain churches.
In the new stooge-based constitution, churches remain tax-exempt. Their police and fire protection, garbage pick-up, storm sewers, septic sewers, and street sweepers are all free — paid for by atheists, agnostics, smokers, backsliders, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus and Shintoists, among others; and on top of that the government gives them our tax money for faith-based initiatives such as advocating abstinence and preventing the use of condoms. Out of gratitude, the churches support Republicans and deny the sacraments to any politician who favors abiding by Roe vs. Wade or supports stem-cell research or same-sex marriages.
What would Jesus do?
He drove the moneychangers from the temple, and now the five stooges have invited them back in.