Separate Is Unequal
Today is Monday, 17 May 2010.
On this date in 1954, the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) unanimously ruled that “separate educational facilities are inherently unequal”, and that state laws establishing segregated schools were unconstitutional (Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, 347 U.S. 483).
The nine godless justices thus spat upon the Founding Fathers of the Constitution, whose obvious original intent was that neither amendment nor judicial ruling should elevate sub-humans (Blacks, women, etc.) to human status.
Or so are logically obligated to say the strict constructionists and original intentionists of the Teabagger Party and other far-right extremist cults. Not that many of even so woefully brainwashed as those would have the nerve to say what is obviously in their hearts.
What had Thomas Jefferson to say in regard to Original Intent?
"Some men look at constitutions with sanctimonious reverence, and deem them like the ark of the covenant, too sacred to be touched. They ascribe to the men of the preceding age a wisdom more than human, and suppose what they did beyond amendment. . . . Let us follow no such examples, nor weakly believe that one generation is not as capable of taking care of itself, and of ordering its own affairs . . . Each generation is as independent of the one preceding, as that was of all which had gone before." (Quoted in “Immaculate Conception and SCOTUS”, Joseph J. Ellis, Washington Post, 7 May 2010.)
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On this date in 1838, died Charles de Talleyrand-Perigord (born 2 February 1754). Talleyrand was one of the great survivors of politics, serving Louis XVI, the French Revolution, Napoleon I, Louis XVIII, Charles X, and Louis-Phillipe.
Uttered one of my favourite quotations. “What is treason? Merely a matter of dates”.
On this date in 1954, the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) unanimously ruled that “separate educational facilities are inherently unequal”, and that state laws establishing segregated schools were unconstitutional (Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, 347 U.S. 483).
The nine godless justices thus spat upon the Founding Fathers of the Constitution, whose obvious original intent was that neither amendment nor judicial ruling should elevate sub-humans (Blacks, women, etc.) to human status.
Or so are logically obligated to say the strict constructionists and original intentionists of the Teabagger Party and other far-right extremist cults. Not that many of even so woefully brainwashed as those would have the nerve to say what is obviously in their hearts.
What had Thomas Jefferson to say in regard to Original Intent?
"Some men look at constitutions with sanctimonious reverence, and deem them like the ark of the covenant, too sacred to be touched. They ascribe to the men of the preceding age a wisdom more than human, and suppose what they did beyond amendment. . . . Let us follow no such examples, nor weakly believe that one generation is not as capable of taking care of itself, and of ordering its own affairs . . . Each generation is as independent of the one preceding, as that was of all which had gone before." (Quoted in “Immaculate Conception and SCOTUS”, Joseph J. Ellis, Washington Post, 7 May 2010.)
_____________________________________
On this date in 1838, died Charles de Talleyrand-Perigord (born 2 February 1754). Talleyrand was one of the great survivors of politics, serving Louis XVI, the French Revolution, Napoleon I, Louis XVIII, Charles X, and Louis-Phillipe.
Uttered one of my favourite quotations. “What is treason? Merely a matter of dates”.
posted by HH at 3:49 PM
2 Comments:
Excellent column, all around.
As for Brown v. Board of Education, I'll toast the amazing Thurgood Marshall who argued the case before the Supreme Court, and Earl Warren for persuading the other Justices to render a unanimous decision.
And who clerked for Thurgood Marshall decades later, when he was a Supreme Court Justice? Elena Kagan. Soon I hope to be lifting a glass to her as the newest Justice.
I admit to being somewhat nervous, essentially being forced to trust Obama that Kagan is solidly progressive, given the paucity of documentary evidence on her views. As TV journalists say, "Only time will tell".
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