Most Popular Choices
Share on Facebook 56 Printer Friendly Page More Sharing
OpEdNews Op Eds    H2'ed 11/11/13

SCOTUS: America's Supremely Corrupt Supreme Court

By       (Page 1 of 2 pages)   12 comments
Message Thomas Magstadt
Become a Fan
  (3 fans)

Here are five questions I'd like to ask the Supreme Court of the United States :

 

1.    How can you expect us to take the law seriously when you so clearly don't?  

This is not a frivolous question.   You claim to base your rulings on the Constitution, the highest law of the land.   Everybody knows you were chosen for your political views, not your prowess as jurists or legal scholars.   But once there, you have lifetime tenure.   The pressure is off.   So why don't you shed your prejudices and try a bit harder to approximate impartial justice?

   The senior member of the Court, Antonin Scalia, is a caricature of a judge, a disgrace to the legal profession, and a menace to society.   And yet four of you consistently vote with him on crucial questions that determine our fate!   That's positively absurd.   You should be ashamed of yourselves.    

 

   From http://www.flickr.com/photos/32601019@N02/6239587935/: 'The Law'


2.   Why do you pretend to be impartial when you so obviously let your own political predilections and prejudices get in the way of the truth at every turn?

For example, everybody knows that corporations are not people.   Four of you are honest about it.   Why do five of you insist on making fools of yourselves and pretending otherwise?

 

3.   If corporations are people by your twisted definition, why aren't people corporations with the same Constitutional rights, legal protections, bailouts, and tax breaks corporations get?    

Following the 2008 financial meltdown -- a crisis and job-destroying recession engineered by high-flying investment bankers, hedge fund managers, and venture capitalists -- the banks got bailed out while many homeowners were faced with foreclosure.   TARP shelled out $700 billion of the taxpayers' money.   But that was just a drop in the bucket, according to an investigative team at Bloomberg News:   --at one point last year the U.S. had lent, spent or guaranteed as much as $12.8 trillion to rescue the economy."

   Also, corporations get all kinds of tax breaks not available to real people.   Some of the biggest corporations in America pay no income tax at all.   Others pay at a rate middle class tax payers can only envy.   If corporations are people, why do ordinary people pay more -- a lot more -- on "earned income" than corporate plutocrats do who pay at the "capital gains" rate of 15% or less.   Who was surprised when Mitt ("Corporations are people, my friend") Romney finally admitted that he paid considerably less than 15%?

   Meanwhile, corporate income tax which produced as much one-third of total federal revenue in the 1950s now accounts for a mere 10%.   During this same time-span, however, corporate assets grew 15 times in 2007 constant dollars, nearly twice as fast as household median income.   But personal income taxes paid by the middle class now account for over 45% of total federal revenue, with the remainder coming out of payroll taxes.    So, to repeat, why don't you   rule that making some people (wage-earners) pay more than other "people" (corporations) is unconstitutional?

 

4.   If you really think corporations are people, why not dogs?

Next Page  1  |  2

(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).

Well Said 3   Supported 3   Valuable 2  
Rate It | View Ratings

Thomas Magstadt Social Media Pages: Facebook page url on login Profile not filled in       Twitter page url on login Profile not filled in       Linkedin page url on login Profile not filled in       Instagram page url on login Profile not filled in

Tom Magstadt earned his doctorate in international relations at Johns Hopkins (SAIS). He is a twice-tenured college professor and political science chair. He also served as a foreign intelligence analyst, a Visiting Professor at the Air University (more...)
 
Go To Commenting
The views expressed herein are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of this website or its editors.
Writers Guidelines

 
Contact AuthorContact Author Contact EditorContact Editor Author PageView Authors' Articles
Support OpEdNews

OpEdNews depends upon can't survive without your help.

If you value this article and the work of OpEdNews, please either Donate or Purchase a premium membership.

STAY IN THE KNOW
If you've enjoyed this, sign up for our daily or weekly newsletter to get lots of great progressive content.
Daily Weekly     OpEd News Newsletter
Name
Email
   (Opens new browser window)
 

Most Popular Articles by this Author:     (View All Most Popular Articles by this Author)

Sick in America: What Today's Reactionaries Don't Want You to Know

SCOTUS: America's Supremely Corrupt Supreme Court

Dancing Toward Doomsday: Who Cares?

Shutdown: Congress, Coup Plotters, And the Ghost of Joe McCarthy

Colorado Sheriffs, Gun Control, and the Rule of Law

What Did Marx Know And When Did He Know It? Capitalism's Dirty Little Secret...

To View Comments or Join the Conversation:

Tell A Friend