Wednesday, March 02, 2005
Why is the Supreme Court so misunderstood?
When law students derided television shows about the Supreme Court -- there were 2 about 4 years ago -- it was largely because most of the Court's decisions do not make headlines. A sizable percentage are very boring indeed.
But with yesterday's decision the juvenile death penalty, and today's arguments on the 1o Commandments cases, it begins to make sense why people think these are the kinds of cases the Court handles all the time.
On the 10 Commandments cases, there was a very carefully drawn editorial in the NYTimes today. It attempts to pit Catholics and Orthodox against Protestants by noting that both the TX and KY displays used the "Protestant" version. By this, I figure they could mean either of two things. First, the display could be from the King James Prottie translation of the Bible. Second, the display could use the numeration more often used by Protestants. (There are at least 2 lists of the 10 C's in the OT; Catholics tend to use one and Protestants tend to use the other. The difference is solely in how the Commandments are grouped together and numbered.)
But I am just wondering about the Times' attempt to raise Catholic hackles against the displays. Do they think it will work? Does the Democratic machine that was fed by Catholic support in the post-WWII era fear that it has finally lost their support? Any other thoughts?
But with yesterday's decision the juvenile death penalty, and today's arguments on the 1o Commandments cases, it begins to make sense why people think these are the kinds of cases the Court handles all the time.
On the 10 Commandments cases, there was a very carefully drawn editorial in the NYTimes today. It attempts to pit Catholics and Orthodox against Protestants by noting that both the TX and KY displays used the "Protestant" version. By this, I figure they could mean either of two things. First, the display could be from the King James Prottie translation of the Bible. Second, the display could use the numeration more often used by Protestants. (There are at least 2 lists of the 10 C's in the OT; Catholics tend to use one and Protestants tend to use the other. The difference is solely in how the Commandments are grouped together and numbered.)
But I am just wondering about the Times' attempt to raise Catholic hackles against the displays. Do they think it will work? Does the Democratic machine that was fed by Catholic support in the post-WWII era fear that it has finally lost their support? Any other thoughts?
# posted by Anonymous : 1:56 PM
