LET’S ONLY ENFORCE SOME OF THE LAWS, OK?….Atrios draws our attention to an editorial in the Washington Post today:
Buried deep in the appropriations legislation the House passed for the departments of Commerce, Justice and State is a little-noticed pair of amendments that attack the independence of federal judges. The amendments, offered on the House floor by Rep. John N. Hostettler (R-Ind.), are designed, as Mr. Hostettler put it, to “block federal funds from being used to enforce court decisions that found the use of ‘under God’ in the Pledge of Allegiance unconstitutional and ordered the Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court to remove the Ten Commandments from the courthouse.”
Let’s see now, what was it that Andrew Jackson said when the Supreme Court ruled against the forcible removal of the Cherokee from land where gold had been discovered? Ah, yes: “John Marshall has made his decision; let him enforce it now if he can.”
It’s the same spirit, but at least you have to give Old Hickory credit for laying his bigoted opinions right out in the open instead of trying to hide them in the bowels of some obscure legislation. Why, you’d almost think Rep. Hostettler was ashamed or something.
