Interesting use of passive voice. "The 14th Amendment was undermined"-- no, the SUPREME COURT overturned democratically passed legislation to protect the rights of the freedmen, struck down the convictions of Klansmen, and prevented federal officials from arresting KKK terrorists throughout the South.
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CB: Yes, you are right. I certainly didn't mean to imply that the piece of
paper with the 14th Amendment on it spontaneosuly erased itself or anything.
:>) There was _Plessy vs. Ferguson_ too.
By the way, I found out that Jesse James was a really bad guy. He was robbing banks, but it was like a fake Robin Hood of the post-war Confederate terrorists.
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It was the Constitution that was used to destroy the democratic street heat coming out of the Civil War. Those standing up for civil rights had the votes in Congress to defend their rights; it was nine men in black robes who frustrated that democratic power and handed it over to the white hoods down south.
^^^ CB; Yes, I agree with you that it may be necessary to stay in the street a long time, continuously. But I wouldn't say don't try to put it in the Constitution. You aren't saying pass Congressional legislation , but don't pass Constitutional Amendments, are you ?
Like in Venezuela. They rewrote the whole Constitution based on their street heat, electoral work.
So, not only change the Constitution, but run candidates for office too.
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Why should judges act better than elected branches? What alchemy happens that makes them cherish rights more than democratically accountable leaders? "Locking in" the past into a constitution is far more likely to be a reactionary force restraining progressive change.
^^^^^^ CB: What in what I said makes you think I think that judges act better than elected branches ? For one thing , it takes votes of the elected branches to pass a Constitutional Amendment, which would mean that the elected branches would have to act better than the judges. I said go over the judges' heads, and I said it was necessary to go back into the streets, because of the acts of justices in Plessy.
Did you notice I said:
"The Supreme Court decision is too vulnerable to change by bad justices. Constitutional amendment is going over the heads of the judiciary."
"Hard to stay out "in the street" forever. Of course, it does become necessary to go back out in the street. The 14th Amendment was undermined in the interim since the Civil War, and the Civil Rights movement had to go back out "in the streets" , to revive it"
Everything I said puts judges ( and lawyers) at the bottom of the heap; although the Civil Rights movement aimed at the Supreme Court to abolish Jim Crow, no ?