memes are about fun, not about wisdom.....

[dwivian]

For those of you tossing out Supreme Court decisions willy-nilly, you might want to pay attention:

ABC News' Ariane de Vogue Reports: In an interview with CBS's Katie Couric on "The Evening News" Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin could not cite a Supreme Court decision she thinks was wrongly decided besides Roe v. Wade. (emphasis mine)

So... it isn't that Palin can't name SCOTUS decisions. It's that she had to name one she felt was wrongly decided, that is currently in force, and that impacts her worldview significantly enough to be remembered.

Now.... can *YOU* name one that meets those criterion?

Without resorting to Google, mind you....

Comments

[gwinna.livejournal.com]

I'm sure she was just trying to get her to talk about Roe v Wade, but I thought that one was a bit of a curve ball too.

[seriesfinale.livejournal.com]

Now.... can *YOU* name one that meets those criterion?

The obvious difference being no one on your LJ is running for VP

Anyway, my answer: Bush vs. Gore

[dwivian]

Well done!

So, are you looking for a position as VP of any large first world countries? I'm going to suspend the Constitution and run unopposed so I can follow the precident set by Mayor Bloomberg...

[dwivian]

As a second note -- I'd expect more of my friends to have opinions on the SCOTUS decisions than a politician. Why? If the decision goes their way, they are happy. If not, they work to change it, as that is their job. They may not remember the specific decision, but they know that the SYSTEM is wrong and needs to be fixed. Once you trigger a cascade of work, you focus on the work at hand.

BTW: What did you not like about Bush v. Gore?

[seriesfinale.livejournal.com]

I just felt the time-frame argument didn't hold water since the time-frame itself was mostly plucked out of thin air to begin with by people intimately involved with the Bush campaign.

[dwivian]

Hm... I'll have to disagree -- the time frame was picked to suit the requirement of seating delegates to the Electoral College. At least, that's my understanding. But, I also believe that a manual recount that attempts to discern "intent" violates Equal Protection. If you can't figure out the vote, it's a no-vote. That's equal. No guessing what the person MIGHT have wanted.

[seriesfinale.livejournal.com]

I thought it was the Equal Protection was being violated not necessarily because of the attempt to discern intent but that the recount itself was inconsistent.

That I didn't have as much issue with.

[operatic.livejournal.com]

I'd expect more of my friends to have opinions on the SCOTUS decisions than a politician.

Actually, it's more surprising than one would think that a social conservative politician couldn't think of one...

[dwivian]

Oh, yes, I am concerned that a journalism student could have cited SOME decision on the press, or that a conservative wouldn't know other cases, but as someone else said, she's recently released a press statement about a SCOTUS decision against Alaska's interests... why she couldn't remember her own statement, I can't say....

But, I will agree with others here and say "she's an idiot".

[cavalaxis]

That.

[dwivian]

Alas, I still feel that Bush v. Gore was well decided. And, since it was a 7-2 decision, it even held with some of the liberal faction. I don't like the end result of the decision, but that's the fault of a bad ballot design, faulty guidance for how to deal with spoiled ballots, and active efforts on the part of BOTH major parties to disqualify votors for dubious reasons.

I also fault the decision to use Diebold voting systems on this mess, and I'm even madder about THAT...

[juniper200.livejournal.com]

Hazelwood School District v. Kuhlmeier, 1988. First Amendment case involving censorship in school newspapers.

[dwivian]

Related directly to your industry, so you know it as a matter of course. Good show.

[juniper200.livejournal.com]

I was a crusading high school journalist -- I knew the exact limits on it to quote at the principal.

[dwivian]

W00t! I love it!

[harmonyfb.livejournal.com]

No, but I have several points to make:

A) By and large, I've been pretty happy with the Supreme Court - as it has been during my lifetime. While every once in a while they make what I consider to be a boneheaded move, they're pretty smart people, and can be trusted to make well-considered, fairly objective opinions.

B) I'm not running for Vice-President, and have no illusion that I'm qualified to hold that office...unlike Sarah Palin.

[cavalaxis]

That too.

In fact, MSNBC was reporting that the Governor herself opposed a Supreme Court decision. The one where they backed up the 9th Circuit CoA in lowering the punitive damages against Exxon for the Valdez oil spill.

You'd have thought she could remember THAT one, having put out a statement on it at the time.

[dwivian]

Indeed! It's troubling that she couldn't remember a problematic SCOTUS decision, since there are so many. Hell, just Dred Scott would have been enough to show she's had a decent education. She has a BS in Journalism, so any of the press decisions would have been good, too.

But, she was busy being a beauty queen, I suppose.....

[dwivian]

Why aren't you qualified?

Why would a memory for case law seem necessary to make HER qualified? She's not got a law degree, after all.

I agree about the SCOTUS... that's why we put smart people up there, after all!

[jost.livejournal.com]

"Why aren't you qualified?"

A valid question indeed. To my knowledge the only requirements are to have been born in the United States (or areas considered US territory, as in the case with John McCain being born in what was the Panama Canal Zone), been a citizen of the United States for at least 14 years prior to running for office, be at least 35 years old and the only other qualification for VP would be to be a citizen of a different state than that of the Presidential candidate. For there to be other "qualifications" placed upon her, or any other VP candidate, by third parties is at best supposition/opinion and at worst partisan.

I call bullshit

[mustangsally78.livejournal.com]

When my students try that shit with me, the answer is WRONG.

Of course the only two SPOTUS decisions I can remember off the top of my head are Plessy vs Ferguson and Brown vs the Board of Education.

Shame those aren't enforced properly, either.

She's an idiot.

Re: I call bullshit

[dwivian]

I suppose she could feel that EVERYTHING the SCOTUS has done, except RvW, was gospel...

Except, as others have said, she's actively cited cases in press statements....

yah, she's an idiot, but let's call her an idiot for the RIGHT reason.

[voltbang.livejournal.com]

United States v. Miller 1939. The ruling wasn't wrong, as such, based on the facts at hand, but it should never have been issued in the first place, and it has been misused ever since.

[captain-drew.livejournal.com]

No.
I can't name ONE decision by the SCOTUS that sticks in my craw. We didn't study constitutional law at Tech, and I certainly forgot everything I could from high school on the way to college, and didn't require that data afterward.

Real life is sort of like learning skills in The Matrix.

We learn things as we need them (in reality AFTER we need them) then compress or dump that data afterward when it become inactive.

That's one reason some in the press have referred to Couric's questioning of Palin as a couple of "gotcha" questions, but of course we're all indicating that the "gotcha" questions are okay if the interviewee is running for second banana for the most powerful job in the land.

You can't count on a sitting Governor to exhibit the oratory skills of a congressman, who lives and dies by the turn of a phrase. Being Governor is an entirely different catalog of functions you're calling upon to get the job done.

Putting Palin into "boot camp" a month or two before the election is hardly going to shape her into prime VP material.

I lean conservatively, but I must admit that Palin's moxie-filled encounters do not convey competency, but rather seem to indicate some sort of autonomic gregariousness... and I wish that she didn't because it would indeed be nice to have a woman at the highest levels of the Executive Branch.