Let us bow our heads for a minute in silence to honor the recently departed.
Now, it must be admitted that our dear friend the Constitution had not been feeling that well for the better part of the last century. But still I think we can all agree that it's a dreadful, heartbreaking day to see the final nail driven into the coffin. For an epitaph I propose we put this excerpt of the dissent opinion in the SCOTUS's ruling on Obamacare today:
"The Constitution, though it dates from the founding of the Republic, has powerful meaning and vital relevance to our own times. The constitutional protections that this case involves are protections of structure. Structural protections—notably, the restraints imposed by federalism and separation of powers—are less romantic and have less obvious a connection to personal freedom than the provisions of the Bill of Rights or the Civil War Amendments. Hence they tend to be undervalued or even forgotten by our citizens. It should be the responsibility of the Court to teach otherwise, to remind our people that the Framers considered structural protections of freedom the most important ones, for which reason they alone were embodied in the original Constitution and not left to later amendment. The fragmentation of power produced by the structure of our Government is central to liberty, and when we destroy it, we place liberty at peril. Today’s decision should have vindicated, should have taught this truth; instead, our judgment today has disregarded it."
- Justices Kennedy, Alito, Scalia & Thomas
Rest in Peace.
*Btw, here's a link to a pdf of the whole decision.
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