[lbo-talk] 2d Amendment/Rule of Law (Was: The curse of literacy)

[Nathan Newman]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "andie nachgeborenen" <andie_nachgeborenen at yahoo.com>
>As for legislative history, to take as analogy, we
>know as well pretty much beyond a any doubt that the
>framers of the equal protection clause did not
>support, and i=did not intent the 14A to support,
>integration in schools or public accomomdations.

This is flat wrong.

The very people who enacted the 14th Amendment also enacted the 1875 Civil
Rights Act, which required the integration of public accomodations.

They would have included schools as well, since they had a majority of
House and Senate members in support, but filibusters by the opposition
blocked including integration of the schools in that 1875 Bill.

But the Radical Republicans who passed the 14th Amendment were quite
radical.

Unfortunately, the quite conservative Supreme Court gutted the
Reconstruction laws and licensed lynchings and Jim Crow across the South.

We'd be far better off if the Supreme Court actually did pay attention to
legislative intent in passing the 14th Amendment.

Corporations wouldn't be people under the law and Reconstruction wouldn't
have been ended by judicial fiat.

Nathan Newman