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This book could change the way conservatives read the Constitution

I mean did i just get ****ing lied to in every ****ing history class or am i going through some bizarro mandela effect? Jfc this country.
 

It's not as black-and-white as you make it seem. I wouldn't be in favor of prosecuting President Obama for ordering the killing of US citizens who happened to be presumed terrorists, would you? (see, for example, the case of Anwar al-Awlaki)

By the same token, though, I wouldn't want to give a President carte blanche to assassinate their political rivals.

BTW - there's no barrier within the text of the Constitution to stop a President from pardoning himself, is there?
 
But the supreme court made it black and white. Thats what absolute immunity means. Except in cases of impeachment.
 
Im in favor of prosecuting presidents after they have served their term. Qualified immunity would have been much more preferable but they went so so much further than that.
 
But the supreme court made it black and white. Thats what absolute immunity means. Except in cases of impeachment.

Not exactly.... when a President acts outside of their powers, they aren't immune from prosecution. Article II §3 of the Constitution specifically says that the President must "take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed". When he acts to subvert those laws, then he obviously is acting outside of those powers and therefore can be held responsible for his actions.
 

That seems to be very different than your post before.
A President can do no (legal) wrong
 
That seems to be very different than your post before.
A President can do no (legal) wrong

I specifically made that point in Post #63 of this thread. As for President doing no legal wrong, I stand by it... when the President falls short of taking care that the laws be faithfully executed, then he is no longer acting as President, but as an individual who happens to be holding the office. If he were acting as President, he would have taken care that the laws were faithfully executed in accordance with his oath of office.
 
He would be doing legal wrong. Hes still the president.
 
He would be doing legal wrong. Hes still the president.

The key distinction to make is between actions taken by what a President can do under the constitution and actions that go beyond what a President is constitutionally allowed to undertake.
 
A "living constitution", is one that constantly changes. But it does this by being constantly changed through new legislation (like in the UK), not by constant new interpretations by the courts (like in the USA).
Do you think rote repetition is at all persuasive? (It's not)

Here's an idea, you post any scholar who describes "living constitution" as you have. You could start with Wikipedia, https://www.law.uchicago.edu/news/living-constitution - oh, wait, it agrees with me....

Okay, I'll post five who describe it as I have:






I don't even agree with all these people, but they all at least agree on the term.
 
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Do you think rote repetition is at all persuasive? (It's not)

I'm not trying to persuade you by some form of Chinese water torture but to try and make you see the difference between the US and UK constitutions, with respect to this issue

Both countries have a "written" constitution, but whereas the US Constitution is codified into a single document, that is very hard the change, the UK employs a much more flexible constitution in the form of multiple and separate constitutional laws.
Each one of the UK's constitutional laws has exactly the same legal status of any other national law - meaning they can be repealed and replaced by a simple majority in the legislature (Parliament)

For example, in 2011 under the then PM David Cameron, Britain introduced the Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011 which set in legislation a fixed date for general elections in the UK, similar to what the USA has.
A subsequent UK government disliked this and repealed it in 2022, which was fairly simple for them to do.

That is a "living constitution" - it can and does react to changing political conditions to suit the requirements of the day

In the USA, if say an electoral feature was changed by constitutional amendment - say the Electoral College was abolished and the presidency was decided purely by the popular vote - then a subsequent congress couldn't just re-instate it.
It would need to go through the whole constitutional amendment process again - regardless of how beneficial it was perceived to be. IMO tis rigid constitution can act like legislative "handcuffs" on the US government and people
The USA is "stuck" with what the Constitution says.

QED: the US Constitution is much less flexible than the UK constitution. Therefore, because of its flexibility, the UK Constitution could be seen as "living", while far more rigid constitution of the USA could not be.
 
Originalism is a hoax, used only to justify opinions. Where is the originalism in the Immunity decision?

Don't think that originalism has always been a thing. The origins of originalism can be traced back to the 1970s and 1980s, when it became a prominent conservative response to the Warren Court's decisions. Remember the Warren Court? It was a SCOTUS that expanded Americans rights and liberties.
 
And actually followed the founder's concept of how the Constitution was expected to work.
 
You still don't get it, but I needn't belabor the point. You're discussing bananas when the topic is literature.
 
You still don't get it, but I needn't belabor the point. You're discussing bananas when the topic is literature.

Sorry, but I gave you a valid example to illustrate why you are wrong, which you dismissed with a child-like response rather than with any reasoned counter-argument.

I can only assume that you either can't comprehend basic politics, or more likely that you're willfully refusing to do so rather than to admit that you're wrong.
 
Because - let me be explicit - You don't have a ****ing clue what you're talking about. You make shit up and pretend your opinion is reality. It's not. What you're describing isn't what the term has ever meant, which is why you can't back your speculation up with any history or support, because there is none.

I don't discount your  opinion, but pretending it is more than that is irritating. It's no better than the rightwing penchant for "redefining" terms to disparage them. It's straw manning, poor and simple. I think you're better than that, so it's disappointing.
 
Because - let me be explicit - You don't have a ****ing clue what you're talking about.

Another childish response
"When the debate is lost, slander becomes the tool of the losers." - quote attributed to Socrates

He was speaking about people like you, who substitute vitriol for argument and won't ever admit when they're wrong.

You make shit up and pretend your opinion is reality. It's not. What you're describing isn't what the term has ever meant, which is why you can't back your speculation up with any history or support, because there is none.

The UK example was absolutely NOT made up - and you can look it up on line if you want
It demonstrates how the UK constitution is readily changed and constantly adapting to changing political needs, unlike the US Constitution that is quite static by comparison

If you think that a Supreme Court can from time to time, interpret a constitution differently, is a measure of a living constitution, then you are quite wrong, and indeed it's you who do not know what you're talking about.

I don't discount your  opinion

Of course not, making abusive comments like:
You don't have a ****ing clue what you're talking about
Is showing the utmost respect
/s

....but pretending it is more than that is irritating. It's no better than the rightwing penchant for "redefining" terms to disparage them. It's straw manning, poor and simple. I think you're better than that, so it's disappointing.

You need to "wind your neck in" and try to employ genuine argument, and not simply state personal opinion, with zero substance, as fact; along with your childish personal abuse

If you think changing judicial opinion, qualifies the US Constitution as "living", please can you explain which democracies do NOT have a "living constitution".
Does the UK have a 'living constitution" in your mind ?
Does Canada, Australia or New Zealand...or so you think the USA is somehow special in this regard ?
 
The fact is, the Founders had a much narrower view of freedom of speech than we have.

Do you want legal rulings based on their point of view or ours?

So the founders supported laws against "misinformation" that contradicted the party? What Harris/Biden do when subverting the 1st Amendment is just what Thomas Jefferson would support? George Mason would be totally down with a "Ministry or Truth" such as the one the Harris/Biden Regime attempted to put in place?
 

Harris/Biden subvert the 1st Amendment ?
Really, how and when ?

Just out of interest, do you also think Donald Trump also subverts the 1st Amendment ?
 
So I must ask you?

"Would you still recommend this book in the bolded?"

To someone not familiar?

From the reviews, I think the section on the Framers' bios alone may be worth the price of admission.
The Beard and Bork books arrived today. Gienapp's book arrives in November. Just from thumbing through them I see that both books are much more than I remembered. Beard as economic and constitutional history. Bork as a practitioner and defender of originalism. By the time Gienapp's book shows up, from rereading Bork I ought to have a fair grasp of Gienapp's critique of "originalism’ Fair enough for a layman, anyway.
 
I have provided you with numerous citations with reams of historical background to educate you, but you stubbornly prefer remaining ignorant, which unequivocally demonstrates that my assertions were not insulting, but accurate. If being accurate injures your tender feelings, that's unfortunate but, under the circumstances, unavoidable. You have repeatedly demonstrated the accuracy of my assertion: you still don't know a single **** about the subject. Pretending otherwise is both silly and insulting.

Unlike you, I not only learned this stuff - it's a fundamental part of constitutional law, my profession - I taught it (albeit briefly and informally). I didn't just pull it out of my ass, like some tend to. Again, your assertions are nonsense. All of the common law jurisdictions that follow the British tradition have "living" Constitutions, in the sense that the courts apply the laws and constitutional principles to new and developing circumstances without the need for legislation or Amendments. That's a different subject entirely. What you are discussing is actually the Civil Law system, such as in France, where courts are very circumscribed.

I didn't start this discussion to cast aspersions, I started with simple education. But, as I said, sometimes being gentle is insufficient to get the point across. I tried to give you a humorous, face-saving way out, but you've persisted. Give it a rest and maybe admit you might be just a teensy bit out of your depth.
 
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