Miers will need a crash course

Arlen Specter thinks Harriet Miers will need a “crash course” in constitutional law. And that’s probably true. To find a requirement for every state to provide abortion on demand in any of the eleven plainly written pages of our Constitution or its amendments requires some sort of high brow education that teaches one to place one’s own judgments and preferences over that of the founders as expressed in the constitution. To read the 1st amendment and conclude that it prohibits religious displays in the public square requires not only a “crash course in constitutional law” but special glasses, as well, to read the secret text between lines that trumpets “separation between church and state.” The rest of us cannot find that phrase anywhere within the visible text known to mere mortals outside the Supreme court. Harriet Miers will need a “crash course” to learn how to use the Supreme Court’s divining rod that will point to that part of the Constitution that supersedes the 1st amendment’s guarantee to free speech in failing to strike down Hardball co-host John McCain's campaign finance bill. Miers will need a “crash course” in crystal ball reading from Madam LaRue so that she may interpret the public takings clause in manner that allows cities to redistribute private property to the highest bidder. Harriet will need a “crash course” in Tarot card reading so that she may understand how to read the equal protection clause in a manner that allows the government as a matter of law to actually place one group of Americans ahead of another based solely on skin color or sex.

I have no idea how Ms. Miers would rule on any of the big questions of the day. I don’t think that having someone on the court that provides a less rarified reading of a rather simple document is a bad thing. Some Supreme Court rulings remind of a group of Lieutenants asked by a Captain how they might erect a flag pole for a new camp. The more the Lieutenants talk, the more men, equipment and money it's going to require to accomplish a rather simple mission. After a few minutes, the Captain steps in and says, “Gentlemen, the correct method to erect a flag pole for our camp is to go to the Gunnery Sergeant and say, ‘Gunny put up a flag pole.’” The Supreme Court, it seems to me, is a lot like the group of Lieutenants. They seem to go out of their way looking for the most complicated reading of a simple document in an effort to show everyone each is the smartest person in the room. None wants to be the one to say, “You know, I cannot put my finger on the part of the Constitution that guarantees a right to same sex marriage.”