{"id":5054,"date":"2010-11-17T13:41:00","date_gmt":"2010-11-17T13:41:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.com\/2010\/11\/17\/why-we-care-about-who-sits-on-supreme\/"},"modified":"2019-08-16T18:12:24","modified_gmt":"2019-08-16T18:12:24","slug":"why-we-care-about-who-sits-on-supreme","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.com\/?p=5054","title":{"rendered":"Why We Care About Who Sits On The Supreme Court"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class='__iawmlf-post-loop-links' style='display:none;' data-iawmlf-post-links='[{&quot;id&quot;:18692,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;http:\\\/\\\/onlygunsandmoney.blogspot.com\\\/2010\\\/11\\\/and-we-have-another-four-years-of-this.html&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:null,&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;}]'><\/div>\n<p>I had <a href=\"http:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.blogspot.com\/2010\/11\/and-we-have-another-four-years-of-this.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">a post yesterday which featured a letter from one of my home state U.S. Senators, Kay Hagan<\/a> (D-NC). The letter to me was in response to emails and letters I had sent opposing the confirmation of Elena Kagan to the U.S. Supreme Court. I was, and still am, incensed that it took four months since Kagan was confirmed and probably six months or more since I first wrote to get a response. This is, of course, in an era of modern communications totally unacceptable.<\/p>\n<p>A reader sent me a comment on my post on Hagan&#8217;s letter saying, &#8220;With all the crap going wrong in America today,  why would you get so  worked up over a Supreme Court Appointment?  Relative to jobs,  the  economy, our deficits, our nation being screwed by its bankers &#8230; the  make up of the Supreme Court is background noise.&#8221; <\/p>\n<p>The reason to get &#8220;worked up&#8221; over a Supreme Court appointment is  simple. The Justices on the Supreme Court, through their decisions, have  affected virtually all aspects of life in America. With a Court that is  divided 5 to 4, one new Justice can change the whole complexion of the  law for generations to come.<\/p>\n<p>Without Justice Souter being  replaced by Justice Alito, the Second Amendment would not be an  individual right in fact and law. We would have lost the <i>Heller<\/i> decision. Without that win we would never have even had a <i>McDonald<\/i> decision.<\/p>\n<p>If you don&#8217;t think the Supreme Court impacts every aspect of American life, let me give you some examples.<\/p>\n<p>Until <i>Brown v. Board of Education<\/i>, separate but equal was still legal.<\/p>\n<p>Until <i>Heart of Atlanta v. United States<\/i>, blacks could still be denied service in a restaurant or hotel due to the color of their skin.<\/p>\n<p>Until <i>Griswold v. Connecticut<\/i>, you could be prosecuted for using birth control in many states.<\/p>\n<p>Until <i>Roe v. Wade<\/i>, abortion was generally outlawed.<\/p>\n<p>Until <i>Gray v. Sanders<\/i>, one man, one vote was not the law of the land.<\/p>\n<p>Until <i>Lawrence v. Texas<\/i>, gays (and straights as well) could be prosecuted for engaging in consensual sex acts.<\/p>\n<p>Justice  Kagan is 50 years old and has a lifetime appointment. Justice John Paul  Stevens whom she replaced retired at age 90. She may very well be on  the Court for the next 20, 30, or even 40 years.<\/p>\n<p>THAT is why it is important.<\/p>\n<p>With regard to the letter from Hagan, any  elected official who doesn&#8217;t respond to a constituent&#8217;s concerns within  a reasonable period of time is treating him or her with disrespect.<\/p>\n<p>The  late Senator Jesse Helms, love him or hate him, was well known for  responding to constituent concerns very quickly. Liddy Dole, who was  defeated by Kay Hagan, did a decent job at responding to my letters,  calls, or emails. Even the philandering John Edwards wasn&#8217;t too slow in  his response. I have been appalled from the start by how lightly Kay Hagan treats responding to constituent letters and emails sharing their concerns.<\/p>\n<p>With modern computers and software, not to mention  their franking privilege (or free postage), there simply is no excuse for it to take months to receive a reply from a Senator or Congressman. The form letter or email with canned talking points is better than waiting months and months for  any response. It is a matter of simple courtesy and respect for the  people of their state or district as well as an acknowledgment of their  concerns.<\/p>\n<div style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;\" class=\"sharethis-inline-share-buttons\" ><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I had a post yesterday which featured a letter from one of my home state U.S. Senators, Kay Hagan&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":1,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[4543,4544],"class_list":["post-5054","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-constiuent-service","tag-scotus"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5054","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5054"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5054\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5941,"href":"https:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5054\/revisions\/5941"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5054"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5054"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5054"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}