Ruth Bader Ginsburg passes

Fantine said:

... if the Court is stacked with 50 year old conservative ideologues, AOC could be our president in 2024, with Democratic majorities in both Houses of Congress, and the ideologues would rule that every single law they passed was unconstitutional.

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No. Conservative justices don't implement their personal policy preferences the way leftists do. They interpret the constitution as written. That's why it makes no sense to call a justice extreme right. There is no extreme. The goal is to accurately represent what the Constitution says.

Leftist justices, on the other hand, implement personal policy preferences.

KenJackson said:

No. Conservative justices don't implement their personal policy preferences the way leftists do. They interpret the constitution as written. That's why it makes no sense to call a justice extreme right. There is no extreme. The goal is to accurately represent what the Constitution says.

Leftist justices, on the other hand, implement personal policy preferences.

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Do you have a few examples ready?

Pommer said:

Do you have a few examples ready?

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what ever think right wing Christians hate, probably gay marriage.

ChristianForCats said:

People elect city, county, and state judges. Do you think that is a bad idea too?

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Yes. I don’t think they should elect sheriffs, either.

KenJackson said:

No. Conservative justices don't implement their personal policy preferences the way leftists do. They interpret the constitution as written. That's why it makes no sense to call a justice extreme right. There is no extreme. The goal is to accurately represent what the Constitution says.

Leftist justices, on the other hand, implement personal policy preferences.

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Citizens United would beg to differ.

ChristianForCats said:

One thing that never made any sense to me is this:

Voters elect the President.
Voters elect the Senators.
Voters elect the Representatives.

So why don't voters elect the Supreme Court judges?

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That's not how our system of government was designed initially.
The State Legislatures used to elect Senators

FenderTL5 said:

That's not how our system of government was designed initially. The State Legislatures used to elect Senators

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Then came along a Constitutional amendment that switched it to voters electing Senators.

KenJackson said:

No. Conservative justices don't implement
their personal policy preferences the way leftists do.

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Yes they do.

They interpret the constitution as written.

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No more than leftist judges.

That's why it makes no sense to call a justice extreme right. There is no extreme. The goal is to accurately represent what the Constitution says.

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Nope, it's to put extreme conservative Christian slant on what the constitution says.

Leftist justices, on the other hand, implement personal policy preferences.

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Nope, that's definitely the Rightists ones.

KenJackson said:

No. Conservative justices don't implement their personal policy preferences the way leftists do. They interpret the constitution as written. That's why it makes no sense to call a justice extreme right. There is no extreme. The goal is to accurately represent what the Constitution says.

Leftist justices, on the other hand, implement personal policy preferences.

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Sorry, but Naive Realism isn't taken seriously by most modern philosophers.

The Constitution is a text and it's up to human beings to interpret it. There is no objective reading of the text outside of human consciousness. That means that conservative justices are at least as prone to ideology as liberal ones.

Does anyone know if Ginsburg ever declared if she was an atheist or believed in God? Her work with the ACLU suggests she was an atheist, but googling I can't find where she ever actually said it.

KenJackson said:

Does anyone know if Ginsburg ever declared if she was an atheist or believed in God? Her work with the ACLU suggests she was an atheist, but googling I can't find where she ever actually said it.

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She identified as a Jew and was raised as one. Many Jews in the US of her cohort are Reformed.

Unlike Christianity, Judaism is not necessarily a creedal religion, and doesn't emphasize the place of faith the same way that Christianity does, nor is it a particularly individualistic religion. It's a covenantal religion.

Thank you, RBG for giving the last days of your life to preserving America. You could have stepped down sooner at age 87, but you didn't. You knew what that would mean for so many who remain alive. Holding the torch till the very end was truly a selfless act.

KenJackson said:

Does anyone know if Ginsburg ever declared if she was an atheist or believed in God? Her work with the ACLU suggests she was an atheist, but googling I can't find where she ever actually said it.

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We are not a theocracy. How dare you question or criticize her beliefs? She showed her character and ethics every day of her life. She was so dedicated to human and civil rights that she attended hearings from her hospital bed, working and giving until she had nothing left to give.

When she and her husband were in law school with a new baby, her husband developed testicular cancer. She attended BOTH their classes, taking notes for him, and typing his term papers as he dictated them to her. He survived and they were a loving, faithful couple until he died.

Compare this principled and loving work ethic to someone, for example, who had five deferments for military service, the last one for "heel spurs," and who needed to pay someone to take his SAT's so he could get into the college of his choice.

If you're looking for an atheist---there's one for you.

Ginsberg may have been a "cultural Jew" and a "secular humanist." I don't know. I don't care. What a shame it is when secular humanists put Christians to shame by living their values every day of their lives.

Fantine said:

We are not a theocracy. How dare you question or criticize her beliefs?

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Oh good grief. How does my question imply anything like a theocracy? I always figured she didn't believe in God, though I now realize I don't think I ever heard if she actually said that. Criticize? This is the Christian Forums site, so is it OK to ask her beliefs?

Fantine said:

She showed her character and ethics every day of her life.

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Perhaps. Though by upholding the right to abortion she didn't stand up for the rights of babies to be born.

KenJackson said:

Leftist justices, on the other hand, implement personal policy preferences.

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Conservative justices are also guilty of this. I feel they're less guilty of this than liberal justices, but are still guilty.

KenJackson said:

Perhaps. Though by upholding the right to abortion she didn't stand up for the rights of babies to be born.

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Not everyone agrees that such rights exist.

KenJackson said:

Perhaps. Though by upholding the right to abortion she didn't stand up for the rights of babies to be born.

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Maybe you should start a thread on that, we’re sitting shiva in this one.

Pommer said:

Maybe you should start a thread on that, we’re sitting shiva in this one.

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More that a few tears have been shed over the 62 million unborn babies murdered in the US.

GreatLakes4Ever said:

True, there is nothing to stop them from voting. But no sitting senator who has been nominated for the Supreme Court has voted on their own nomination. Similarity, Jeff Sessions voted “present” when he was up for nomination as Attorney General.

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But it’s 2020. Anything can happen.

AvilaSurfer said:

You don’t know that.

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Turns out that is exactly what he is doing.