Don't forget: This (the Supreme Court) is for all the marbles

[LawDem]

Maybe we should fight Roberts to the death; maybe we should give him a pass. We just don’t know yet and there’s time enough to decide.

But the inference in some posts that this just isn’t that big a deal, “Nothing to see here, folks, move along and get back to Rove,” is dead wrong.

And the biggest issue isn’t Roe vs. Wade or any of the other hot button social issues. The biggest issue is the Commerce Clause. As many of you know, the power to regulate interstate commerce is the jurisdictional basis for most New Deal and other federal social legislation. It’s how we protect the environment; it’s how we regulate security transactions: And it’s under attack.

Already the Supreme Court has taken radical steps to cut back on federal power; but we ain’t seen nothing yet.

Take the Endangered Species Act: Many conservative legal authorities argue that the act is unconstitutional because protecting endangered species is not directly enough tied to interstate commerce. With one more extreme conservative added to the Supreme Court this may well become the law of the land. What then? No more protection of endangered species, to take that example forward; and it won’t matter a wit if the Democrats win control of the White House and Congress. If the Endangered Species Act is declared unconstitutional as being beyond the power of Congress, then that’s all she wrote folks. If Congress doesn’t have the power to protect endangered species, it doesn’t have the power, whoever is in charge of writing the statutes.

We may well just be screwed. But don’t pretend it’s no big deal. We may well be playing for all the marbles.

[fooj]

1. It's a very big deal. Just don't want to buy into their game yet.

We played for all of the marbles in November and we know how that turned out.

Peace.