For the purposes of disclosure, I read Ann Coulter's column every week. It used to be funnier, to be honest. Now it's just sort of habit. Once you realize that most of it is there to pander and/or rile up liberals, it loses a lot of its sting, but the sheer audacity of some of the claims keeps it entertaining.
I thought I had prepared myself for all the silly claims she could throw at me. I had a hard time believing this one, though...
Ms. Coulter has
graced us all this week by opining on the Terri Schiavo case. Coulter's point is more or less that the courts, when tyrannical, need to be put in their place. Don't worry, she assures us, it's all been done before:
President Andrew Jackson is supposed to have said of a Supreme Court ruling he opposed: "Well, John Marshall has made his decision, now let him enforce it." The court's ruling was ignored. And yet, somehow, the republic survived.
This is where my jaw hit the floor.
This quote concerns a very specific, very egregious Supreme Court case, and should sound at least familiar to any high school student of US History. The specifics of the case do not help Ms. Coulter, to put it mildly.
Stephen Breyer, Supreme Court Justice, explains the consequences of Jackson's Coulteresque decree:
In 1832 the Cherokee Indian tribe lived on land guaranteed them by treaty. They found gold on that land. Georgia tried to seize the land. The Cherokees sued. And eventually the Supreme Court, in Worcester v. Georgia, held in favor of the Cherokees. Georgia then refused to obey the Court. President Andrew Jackson reportedly said, "John Marshall has made his decision; now let him enforce it." And Jackson sent troops to evict the Cherokees, who traveled the Trail of Tears to Oklahoma, thousands dying along the way.
Jesus H. Christ-- when you pick an example, you usually don't pick one where the party you are supporting is engaged in a systematic act of genocide and exploitation of a native people! ILLEGALLY!
[This is where I'd put in a similarly ridiculous example to illustrate how ludicrously bad this one is, but I can't for the life of me think of a worse example than the one that has fallen into my lap]
Ann Coulter may be dead wrong on a lot of issues, but she's not dumb. There's only one word, however, for this particular example: stupid.