Pissing on the First

By Michael J.W. Stickings

Capt. Fogg commented earlier on the Supreme Court's "Bong Hits 4 Jesus" ruling. For more on that ruling, see the The Washington Post, which calls it "[the Court's] most significant ruling on student speech in almost two decades". John Cole is right to refer to the nanny state: "I guess we will just let the strict constructionists explain their position on this one. Apparently the founders were in favor of every kind of speech except those that got in the way of government aims."

But pissing on the First Amendment was not all the Roberts Court got up to yesterday. Lyle Denniston of SCOTUSblog looks at the Court's other terrible rulings, which included weakening endangered species protections and campaign finance restrictions, and protecting Bush's faith-based initiatives program (more pissing on the First). See also The Carpetbagger Report, where Steve Benen sums up the rulings and offers this overview of what happened:

Ultimately, the high court sided with conservative interests across the board. In each instance, the ruling was 5 to 4, and the minority was made up of the same four left-leaning justices (Ginsburg, Breyer, Souter, and Stevens). Alito wrote two of the opinions, and Roberts wrote the other two.

Had Kerry won Ohio in 2004, the right probably would have lost in each of these cases. I guess it’s one of those elections-have-consequences moments, isn't it?

Yes, sadly, it is. But it isn't just Kerry in '04, it's Gore in '00 -- he won, didn't he? And so we're stuck not just with an ongoing war in Iraq and the obliteration of American credibility and leadership around the world but a right-wing Supreme Court that will continue to soil the Constitution long after Bush has left office in disgrace.

Makes you feel all warm 'n' fuzzy, eh?