Let the sun shine outside Virginia
If the Supreme Court doesn’t open Virginia’s FOIA, lawmakers should.
Virginia was on trial before the Supreme Court last month. The question in the case is whether the commonwealth may limit its Freedom of Information Act to Virginians only. In other words, may it deny public records to requesters who live outside the state?
During the hearing, Justice Antonin Scalia wondered, “Is it the law that the state of Virginia cannot do anything that’s pointless? Only the federal government can do stuff that’s pointless?”
March 13, 2013 - 6:21 AM
You know, for supposedly smart people, the SC judges can say some stupid stuff.
#1 As Scalia’s quote is the only manifest one here, I assume it is the point of your ire.
The Supreme Court does not exist to determine what is, or is not, “pointless”. They exist to determine whether any given law is, or is not, Constitutional.
But you are right about the fact that people “say some stupid stuff”.
The Supreme Court does not exist to say stupid things like that either, I guess that must be a bonus. A political and bitterly partisan Supreme Court is offensive.
#3 No doubt, to those (one) with an agenda….checks & balances will be “stupid” and “partisan”.
Whether in the SC or a branch of Congress.
It is “stupid” & “partisan” to thwart progress. (“Ergo”).
The voters who have been effectively purchased have recently prevailed. Yet, in my observation, more and more of John/Jane Q. Public are seeing through (transparency?) this president & his ilk.
In the mean time, those destestable (“stupid”, “partisan”) checks & balances are keeping us, potentially, viable.
How about you state your POV without parsing my posts, Jim Lucas? I support checks and balances, but this SC is biased and political and that is a dangerous precedent. Funny how you can see that so well when it is not in your favor.
This whining about voters being “purchased” is so disingenuous and wrong headed. Name one damn thing that any of them “got” for their vote that they would not have “gotten” with Romney? You know better. Or do you?
One of the benefits of lifetime employment is that you are allowed to say stuff that is controversial. That is, after all, the purpose of tenure for university professors.
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Let’s try not to turn this blog into an episode of the Jerry Springer Show.
I thought the benefit of the SC having lifetime appointment was for them to be unbiased and unaccountable to either branch. This one seems hell bent on being neither.