The Big One- Supremes decimate federal regulation

Nathan Newman nathan at newman.org
Wed May 29 03:45:43 PDT 2002


----- Original Message ----- From: "C. G. Estabrook" <galliher at alexia.lis.uiuc.edu>


>That seems to be the alternative: the "liberal"/Breyer wing will
>deregulate corporations (e.g., airlines) to do what they want, and the
>conservative/Scalia wing will deregulate the states to do what they want,
>both frustrating any effective popular action through the federal
>government. If that's the choice, I'll take Nader... --CGE

Breyer has defended lawsuits againsts rapists under the Violence Against Women Act (struck down by this Court), defended regulations to force coal companies to pay for the health care of miners of old mine companies they acquired (struck down by this Court), defended environmental racism lawsuits against states (struck down by this Court), defended age and disability lawsuits against states (struck down by this Court), defended workers against being forced into employer-run arbitration against their will (enforced by this Court), and this list goes on and on.

Name one decision where Breyer has overruled a federal law protecting workers, voters or citizens. He's done a few interpretations of the law that I disagree with, but, frankly, some were probably what Congress wanted, however much I disagreed with both them and Breyer. And none of his decisions couldn't have been overturned by a new law passed by Congress.

What folks don't get is that these new decisions frustrate any legislative action, period.

-- Nathan Newman



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