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April 03, 2005
Ginsburg's Folly
In a talk she gave to the American Society of International Law in Washington D.C. last Friday, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is another in favor of looking to other nations when shaping American law. Criticisms of relying too much on world opinion "should not lead us to abandon the effort to learn what we can from the experience and good thinking foreign sources may convey," she said in her speech.
Was this intended to be an April Fool's Day joke?
Unfortunately, no. Ginsberg is not alone in her opinion that we should be taking the laws of other countries into consideration. Just recently, of course, Justice Anthony Kennedy said the court looked to other nations when making their decision that the death penalty for killers under the age of 18 was unconstitutional.
And Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, a supposed conservative, has also jumped on the "good impressions" bandwagon. In a speech in 2003, O'Connor said, "The impressions we create in this world are important, and they can leave their mark."
Give me a break.
Do lawmakers in other countries, when creating legislation or law, say to each other, "Hey, I wonder how the Americans are doing it?" Of course not. Many other countries, in fact, make their disdain for America quite clear...except when they are looking for financial or military aid, of course. (Those Germans sure started squaking when President Bush said we'd be pulling our soldiers out of Germany in a few years.)
Do (responsible) parents allow their children to do whatever they want to do just because the other kids get to do it? Nope...Junior gets told that "just because Billy's parents are letting him go to the concert doesn't mean we'll let you go." And that is how it should be. Junior will get over it, and will be all the better for having parents who take his best interests to heart in making their decisions...not worrying about the opinions of Junior's friends.
So then, should our legislators and jurists make their decisions based upon what is right for Americans...not pantywaist Socialist Europeans who don't give a hoot about us no matter what we do, even if we try to emulate them in some ways. (It's like the kid at school who desperately tries to fit in with the "in" crowd but is shunned no matter what he does, because the "in" crowd is really just a bunch of dirtbag elitists anyway.)
President Bush knows all of this, and makes his decisions accordingly. When are Congress and the courts going to figure it out? And how many more guinea pig-like experiments must the American people be subject to before they finally get it?
Posted by at April 3, 2005 09:41 PM
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Comments
Sandra D is supposed to be conservative?
For future reference, it's really Ruth Buzzy Ginsburg.
Posted by: kitty at April 4, 2005 09:14 AM