Wow. It’s the end of March, and it’s been an interesting month for those who thrive on following current events. Between the continuing presidential election (and hopefully will stop in November), the Zimmerman/Trayvon Martin shooting and aftermath, to a record breaking lottery jackpot (otherwise known by a former co-worker as the ‘redneck retirement fund’), and topped off with a week of arguments at the supreme court concerning the health care law passed two years ago. I’m going to skip the lottery, it’s interesting but not that I would want to discuss the whole system. Elections? Done and overdone. Pox on everyone’s house as far as I’m concerned. The shooting? I’ll only say that no matter what the end result is, people will be unhappy because that result will be ‘a travesty of justice’. I’m going to focus on the Supreme Court arguments, because something within that issue really piqued my interest.
I found it extremely interesting, and not a little humorous, how much time was devoted and is continuing to be spent, on trying to ‘read the tea leaves’ of where the Supreme Court is going to fall in regards to the health care act affectionately (or maybe not so affectionately) known as ‘Obamacare’. You would have thought a Hollywood celebrity was talking about an awards ceremony or speculating on what their next role was going to be, considering all the ink spilt and electricity burned over each question and comment made by the justices. There was one or two articles in my readings this week however that touched at least in passing on what I really think should be the issue: how did we let this country get to the point that nine people (or even one person) in black robes who were never elected by anyone get to decide policy in this country? As an aside, the ‘one person’ who attracted the largest amount of speculation and energy, Justice Anthony Kennedy, has a bit of history of his own. I didn’t see mentioned in any of the analysis or articles that he was the THIRD choice by President Reagan for the seat vacated by Lewis Powell, Jr. in 1987 (Kennedy was seated on the court in 1988). The first two were Robert Bork, whose confirmation was defeated in one of the most acrimonious debates in recent memory, and Douglas Ginsburg who withdrew his nomination after he admitted to marijuana use over a number of years.
In my lifetime, the court has more and more often become the final arbiter in this country regarding issues of public policy. Religion, abortion, anti-sodomy laws, and even public college admissions policy have more and more often ended up in the court system to determine what the laws should be. Funny, but I thought you were supposed to go back to the people who made the law in the first place (the legislature and executive) to air your grievance and change the law (either through lobbying or getting people who agree with your policy elected). I guess it’s the result of our overly litigious society, but it’s still really sad to me how this has come to pass.
One thing which really got to me was how quickly the discussion of the arguments before the Supreme Court (which I thought was supposed to be a non-political entity) became an issue of politics. The first day of oral arguments weren’t even done before the comments of ‘this is why elections matter’ started coming out. Really? That’s the most important thing about being a President? Not dealing with the myriad of issues facing our country, oh no. It’s getting to choose someone to sit on the court ‘with the advice and consent of the Senate’. I know, I’m being rather idealistic in my thinking, but we’re back to the Youtube video of bunnies bouncing on the trampoline devolving into a heated verbal war about something having nothing to do with the bunnies (by the way, I’ve seen some bunnies in my yard recently but they were nowhere near the trampoline. Maybe I need to make sure I have my video camera ready, just in case).
