Strict Construction and the Dred Scott Decision

On March 6, 1857 the United States Supreme Court delivered the decision commonly known as Dred Scott. This catastrophically wrong-headed decision was firmly rooted in strict construction. If you have any doubts about the capacity of strict construction to subvert the fundamental values and continuing evolutionary application of these values to American life, read the coverage below and think about how the right of women to vote, own property, hold office and countless other basic rights that no one would challenge wilt under the application of strict construction combined with ideological goals.

Today, in the USA, we live in the aftermath of another Dred Scott quality decision - Citizens United - a decision that marries a corporate, profit-driven ideology with application of strict construction application of first amendment rights - the right of free speech to come to a new Dred Scott moment: today, the Supreme Court believes that corporations are persons and can spend as much money as they like to influence elections and legislation in the US.

In an obscene mirror image of Dred Scott, a decision that looked at a black man and said, that is not a human being, that is property, the Roberts Court looked at a legal fiction, a corporate charter, and said, that is a person with inalienable rights that must be protected.

If you want to do something about Citizens United, jump to www.movetoamend.org and sign up.

“I hope we shall… crush in its birth the aristocracy of our moneyed corporations, which dare already to challenge our government to a trial of strength and to bid defiance to the laws of our country.” ~ Thomas Jefferson, letter to George Logan. November 12, 1816

clipped from www.nytimes.com Decision of the Supreme Court in the Dred Scott Case The Ordinance of 1787 and the Missouri Compromise Declared Unconstitutional Washington, Friday, March 6 - The opinion of the Supreme Court in the Dred Scott Case was delivered by Chief Justice Taney. It was a full and elaborate statement of the views of the Court. They have decided the following important points: First - Negroes, whether slaves or free, that is, men of the African race, are not citizens of the United States by the Constitution. Second - The Ordinance of 1787 had no independent constitutional force or legal effect subsequently to the adoption of the Constitution, and could not operate of itself to confer freedom or citizenship within the Northwest Territory on negroes not citizens by the Constitution.

This entry was posted on March 6, 2010 at 12:23 pm and is filed under News, Politics, Connect the Dots. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.

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