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The Role of the Courts
There’s quite a bit of fallout from Sen. Buttar’s comments on Tom Grover’s radio show two night ago. I blogged about it on this site where I labeled what Buttars is doing as “neo-totalitarianism. Charley Foster and others chimed in as well.
Sen. Buttars also reported back—several times. He was on KCPW with Laura Jones. He was back on For the People with Tom Grover, and he blogged about it himself on the Senate Site.
As an aside, what ever other disagreements I may have with Sen. Buttars, I love that he’s willing to blog about it in his own words and engage the public.
On The Senate Site, Sen Buttars said:
I appreciate SLC Spin, the Utah Beehive, and Phil Windley for being vigilant, but I did not intentionally challenge centuries of progress in the inalienable rights of mankind.
The decision in Brown v. Board of Education was a pivotal moment in American History. In the larger context of dismantling institutionalized racism in the South, I believe it was the right decision.From The Senate Site: Vigilance
Referenced Wed Aug 23 2006 09:18:36 GMT-0600 (MDT)
He goes on to explain more about his thoughts on “brown vs. Board of Education.” Unlike many of the other responses to his comments, I wasn’t writing about segregation, Brown, or racism. I doubt very much that Buttars is a racist or that his thoughts in this area stem from racism.
I think Buttar’s problem is a fundamental misunderstanding of what makes America great and on what basis we enjoy the incredible freedoms that we have. My concern is with his earlier comment that he doesn’t “know of any example where the minority is being jeopardized by legislative action.”
If this is the case, maybe we ought to just do away with the right of the people to sue the government? After all, since legislative action doesn’t ever infringe on the rights of the minority, it follows that no lawsuit challenging the law has merit and so they’re all a big waste of time.
He can’t really believe that. So what does he believe? He hasn’t said, as far as I can tell.
One of his favorite examples in the role of the courts is eminent domain and the “monster that must be fenced on all sides.” Makes a nice picture, but the question is not whether you like the rulings that the courts give in this area, but whether you think they’re following the law. If they’re following the law, then the problem lies with the legislature, not the courts. I don’t know and without specific examples from Sen. Buttars, we can’t know. It’s just a big boogeyman to scare voters with.
Senator Buttars, write another blog post on the Senate Site and tell us what you really mean here. Give some specific examples. I’m a reasonable guy and I don’t like courts making laws any more than you do. Show me the evidence. Build a case. Convince me something needs to be done rather than trying to scare me and making off the cuff, throw away comments.
Posted by windley on August 23, 2006 09:31 AM
Comments
Perhaps I can provide two recent examples of proposed legislation (neither passed, fortunately) which, in the eyes of the minority, would have infringed on their rights. In these cases it was a social minority not an ethnic one.
1. 2006 SB 97 "Student Club Ammendments"
2. 2006 SB 96 "Instruction and Policy Relating to the Origins of Life"
Any guesses who the sponsor was?
Posted by: Tom at August 24, 2006 09:36 AM
Being the redest of red states, it is not in the state's nature, that what Buttars says, thinks, or does makes any difference to the reds of his district.
He may be so impressed (being an incumbent) that he will want to run for president as soon as possible with the support he receives from the reds in Utah.
But he is no different from cannon and that guy that votes for his own charter school development and yet they just keep on being elected.
Their must be a lot of sheep in Utah, and these herdsman are leading them to greener pastures no matter if they lose something along the way, they keep their eyes open, and wince and accept as if they are different from other humans, which they are not unless they are truly sheep.
Posted by: bob butcher at August 27, 2006 04:19 PM
Buttars suffers from foot-in-mouth disease. Maybe his alleged "gay friends" can help him out. Buttars has to find a thing or two each year that pushes a vendetta or agenda and gets his name in the paper. Meanwhile we have to endure his rhetoric, even if we might agree nominally with him. Don't forget his bills some time ago on the property seizure and other issues. Buttars seems to consider himself an expert on a lot of things. I guess when you are a politician, you think you are.
To Bob, Jim Ferrin, one of the charter school guys, did get voted out. But that's another issue.
I'm sick and tired of people like Howard Stephenson, Buttars, Paul Mero, and others make us look like a laughingstock. The fact that Howie gets reelected is a mystery, considering this past year. But liberals like him just keep on ticking.
It's time to get rid of the special interest influence (the liberal ones especially like the Utah Taxpayers Association, the UEA, the Parents for Choice people, the Sutherland Institute, the Eagle Forum, and so on) and time for politicians to truly serve whom they were elected to represent.
Posted by: ohwell at August 31, 2006 11:08 PM
The legisatlures have become more like dictators or corporate CEO's with little regard to the little people who's tax dollars keep them on the state payrolls.
In poll after poll the legislatures keep NOT passing legislatation even after money has been needlessly wasted on voter "refernedums".
There was trax, people did not want, we got it, there was the syncrete fiasco on I15 and oh wait the porn in the house or out. The people voited to not waste tax payer money to ban all porn on cable tv but the state attorney general did it anyway. Despite an overwhelming vote of the public that porn was meant to be a choice of the viewer.
I know there have been other issues that time and time again the legislautres have ignored but the issues escape me at this time.
Posted by: Cathy at September 27, 2006 05:04 PM
The underlying issue is Judges like Judge Lewis, and others. See utcourts.us for the 2008 issues. Judging the Courts should not be an idiological test, but a competency and fairness test.
Posted by: Bad Judge at January 21, 2007 02:30 PM
The underlying issue is Judges like Judge Lewis, and others. See utcourts.us for the 2008 issues. Judging the Courts should not be an idiological test, but a competency and fairness test.
Posted by: Bad Judge at January 21, 2007 02:30 PM
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