Originally posted by Wookie06:
Because the fourteenth amendment did not amend the first amendment. The court simply chose to do it on their own.
[I started a longish blog-like post here but I'll do that in another thread at another time. I'm just going to dip back out of this thread because I really don't enjoy the back and forth like I did a decade ago. God we've been doing this for a long time!]
[I started a longish blog-like post here but I'll do that in another thread at another time. I'm just going to dip back out of this thread because I really don't enjoy the back and forth like I did a decade ago. God we've been doing this for a long time!]
I'm not surprised. I know exactly what you're gonna write tho, so here's my response anyway.
This is the problem you're having Wookie06:
Uniquely among other extant systems, the United States government (and the constitution that describes it) was not designed with political parties in mind. In fact, it totally falls apart once you introduce them - something that was well understood by the founding fathers and, contrary to their saintly status among certain Americans, exploited by them to gain power within the first decade that the constitution was ratified.
The problem with parties is that the American separation of powers is based on personal ambition. President, senators, representatives, and supreme court justices all have different personal interests. Congressmen have an interest in legislation that is favorable for their states, even at the expense of others, and presidents have an interest in vetoing legislation that is unfavorable for the nation as a whole.
Without political parties, the power of judicial review (which the constitution invests in the judiciary) is not problematic. Supreme court justices are chosen by both the president and congress. The president already has veto power, and congress already has legislative power, so it's not an issue if they nominate and confirm a supreme court justice they each find agreeable (respectively). The powers of the other two branches are effectively being devolved to the judiciary.
(Historical footnote: the anti-federalists wanted a permanent judicial review board, consisting of the president and the supreme court justices. This eventually turned into the presidential veto, on recognition that judges already had this power. Judicial review predates the presidential veto.)
With political parties, however, the interests of the president, congress, and (eventually) the supreme court all align. Laws become meaningless and the constitution is void. Yay. What a great system.