How do you get the reality of the Incorporation of the 14th Amendment through these dimwits' heads?

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

Listening to Palin's knee-jerk, "It's a matter for the States" routine...

Before the Civil War the federal government was quite limited. The First Amendment meant what it literally says: "Congress shall make no law..." State legislatures could, however, do any crazy thing they wanted.

Some states had formal religious tests for state office well into the early 1800s, for instance.

Only after the 14th Amendment were states widely barred from violating their citizens' federal rights. Federal courts used the 14th Amendment to expand federal rights in a glacial process lasting a century. That process is referred to as the incorporation of the 14th Amendment.

Conservatives think that sucks, but the thing is... it happened. Like, a long time ago. Sorry guys, but black people can vote in your state no matter what the state legislature says!

There is no fucking way a woman in one state has a privacy right and a woman in another state doesn't. And that goes for ALL individual rights.

The alternative view is that a citizen's fundemental rights ebb and flow as they cross state borders.

(And that is why the early 1980s 'community standards' pornography decision is my pick as the worst Supreme Court decision since WWII. It formalized the retrograde concept that any aspect of the 1st Amendment is properly tied to local attitudes. That marked the beginning of the decline of incorporation.)

[BrklynLiberal]

1. She is always saying things that she has no clear idea the meaning of..

She is like a

Only not as smart..

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

3. yup, only not as smart

[AspenRose]

2. And clearly Senator Biden understands this

as was evidenced by his response re: his disagreement with an SC decision.

[jody]

4. Agree, the 14th applies to all rights including the right to keep and bear arms protected by the 2nd

Thanks for recognizing that important fact that those who advocate different laws for Chicago than Cheyenne ignore.

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

5. If it is an individual right, I agree

Since the SC has said that it is an individual right then I think all gun laws are probably unconstitutional. I don't see an individual right in the 2nd akin to the 1st, 4th, 5th, 6th, etc., but I am consistent on these matters so I now consider all disparate gun laws unconstitutional.

The phrase 'individual right' is supposed to mean something.

The fact that the court found an individual right in the 2nd that does not void all gun laws shows just what contempt they have for individual rights as anything more than "serving suggestions."

(And I am just tickled to death that our 'constitutional scholar' nominee takes the same incoherent view as those bankrupt constitutional trimmers.)

[endthewar]

6. Watch the Couric interview closely. Palin has no idea what the 14th amendment is.

Right after saying that she wants Roe v. Wade outlawed, Couric asks her if the Constitution grants an individual's right to privacy and Palin says yes. She clearly doesn't have a clue as to what is going on here.