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PaperclipPerfector  7d ago (text post)   27741 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of January 13, 2025

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Just last month, 120 Democrats in the House and 46 in the Senate signed letters asking Biden to take this step, since, in their view, the amendment was already validly approved.

I have a hard time believing that attitude is anything but kayfabe. If it wasn't an amendment they liked, I don't think they would have the same view on the ratification process.

Almost all views on con law- especially blue coded ones- are keyfabe eventually. The ‘living breathing document’ interpretation seems to be code for viewing the constitution the same way I view municipal zoning requirements- as annoying hurdles that need some ‘campaign contributions’ to get them waived.

Almost all views on con law- especially blue coded ones- are keyfabe eventually.

Right. The progressive-aligned school of constitutional interpretation is living constitutionalism—essentially, if we like it, and we can get away with it, that's what the text means. The conservative-aligned school of constitutional interpretation is originalism, where they attempt to find a justification from the original text, when it's convenient, and find a workaround otherwise, unless you've really got a spine. Originalism is better than living constitutionalism, because they won't drift as far.

My state legislators don't even kayfabe it, they not-my-job it. When they were considering, and eventually passed, bills that clearly violated the stipulations of Bruen, I wrote them cathartic letters expressing as such, not expecting to get more than a form letter response.

I did end up getting a substantial response from a staffer. After some back and forth, I found the position was essentially this: It would be inappropriate for the legislator, not being a constitutional scholar or a member of the Supreme Court herself, to even entertain the question of whether the bills she votes on are constitutional.

Here's one of the responses, obfuscated slightly by ChatGPT to make it difficult to link me to this exact text:

Senator X, who is not an attorney and does not serve within the judicial system, operates in the legislative branch and is unlikely to participate in any cases before state or federal supreme courts. Therefore, it would be inappropriate to expect them to form an opinion on constitutional matters or to provide historical examples for judicial proceedings.

If clarification is needed, I can share a document outlining the separation of powers and the distinct roles of each branch concerning the creation, execution, and interpretation of laws.

Therefore, it would be inappropriate to expect them to form an opinion on constitutional matters or to provide historical examples for judicial proceedings.

Wow, “trust the experts” applied to the literal law. How (D)emocratic!

Let’s just abolish the whole “representation” thing if our legislators are going to be this dense.

Oh, I agree. My point was that Biden didn’t make this decision out of nowhere. Influential members of his party were pushing him to make this announcement (and actually to go further, but it sounds like Biden isn’t planning to apply pressure to the archivist to certify the ratification).

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