RE: The US Supreme Court and Constitutional Interpretation

["Tom Hansen" <thansen@moscow.com>]

Title: Message

Mr. Courtney -

 

The New Jersey Supreme Court simply decided not to decide. 

 

Just like the US Supreme Court, each state supreme court has the power to select which cases they will hear and which cases they will not hear.  The New Jersey Supreme Court simply set aside that case.  No ruling, no interpretation.

 

Tom Hansen

Moscow, Idaho

-----Original Message-----
From: Dale Courtney [mailto:dmcourtn@moscow.com]
Sent: Sunday, November 17, 2002 4:57 AM
To: 'Vision2020'
Subject: RE: The US Supreme Court and Constitutional Interpretation

Tom,

 

I think that the real issue here is one of "judicial activism" verses "judicial restraint".

Case in point: the New Jersey law that says you cannot replace a candidate on the ballot within  51 days of the election. It is not up to the judges to decide that the law is bogus and need not be followed; that's up to the Legislature.

 

Would you say that the New Jersey judges were interpreting the law when they set it aside?

 

Dale Courtney

Moscow, Idaho

-----Original Message-----
From: Tom Hansen [mailto:thansen@moscow.com]
Sent: Thursday, 14 November, 2002 18:12
To: Vision2020
Subject: The US Supreme Court and Constitutional Interpretation

Greetings Visionaires -

 

For those of you who believe that there is no room in the US Constitution for interpretation (you, too, Mr. Harrell), here is a link to one of the pages on the US Supreme Court website.  You must have Adobe Acrobat Reader prior to clicking on the link below.  This requirement is not part of any Liberal "Elitist" conspiracy.  The documents that the Court wishes to share with you are formatted as portable data files (pdf) and require Adobe Acrobat Reader to access them.

 

http://www.supremecourtus.gov/about/about.html

 

Once you get to that page, click on the link titled "The Court and Constitutional Interpretation".

 

For those of you who understand the branches of government and how they work, sorry about the interruption.

 

I now return you to regular programming,

 

Tom Hansen

Moscow

 

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Where would Christianity be if Jesus got eight to fifteen years, with time off for good behavior?
-- New York Senator James H. Donovan commenting on capital punishment.

 

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