SCOTUS overturns 100 years of speech law

[--Pete]

Hi,

"Hello, Congress. I know you like to think you're in charge, what with that whole 'legislative branch' thing, but really? We get to make the decisions around here. Yours sincerely, The Supreme Court."

Actually, the Supreme Court can only address issues brought before it. Congress and the state legislatures can reformulate the laws if the original formulation was found to be unconstitutional. And, failing that, congress can initiate the amendment process. The SC has no power over amendments which are constitutional by definition.

I'm getting a little tired of the Supreme Court.

This set me to laughing. Not to label you, but for the first half, or so, of my life it was the conservatives who said this. More recently, it is the liberals. I guess Ricky Nelson was right.

They seem to only have a couple voting patterns: 9-0 (for conservative-biased commonsense rulings) 8-1 (for liberal ones; Thomas *never* votes liberal) and then the partisan 4-4 plus the Kennedy coin flip.

Yes. It is a bad thing when the SC becomes a political body. Throughout its history, it has oscillated between being nearly the apolitical organization it should be and being very partisan.

Glad to hear that corporations are getting their precious freedom to misinform the public, buy politicians, and otherwise screw with the electoral process. Once again, the abstract freedoms of imaginary people trumps the democratic rights of actual people. Marvellous.

Not that the situation has changed much. The system is flawed in many ways. Expecting true reform is optimistic, to say the least.

--Pete