Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Retired Supreme Court Justice Stevens

The people that make up corporations have always been involved in politics in the USA.

It would be impossible to separate the two.
Because if it is done to one it gets done to all.

I agree with Justice Stevens. I think the entire constitution should be changed about every lifetime or generation. I don't see why today's generation should have to live under a pact that took place hundreds of years ago by people who for the most part weren't even voted into office, and when the country was much different than it is today. Each generation should make its own supreme law of the land.

what is with these elite, rich, power hungry... sob's???? time to turn off the oxygen.....

Nice touch on your keyboard,BobNH.

I'll simply add voting matters.

In my opinion, death can't come quick enough for the old boy. May the senile old man RIP.

"The Founding Father's were very smart men;better educated and worldly-wise than most of our "leaders" today."

I would agree that the founders were intelligent, but not that they were better educated and worldly that most leaders today.

I think many of them would be shocked that their document remains even somewhat intact today. Those founders did not want to be ruled by laws of a different place and time, and I don't see where America should be ruled by laws of a different time. Just as they exercised a constitutional convention, so should the people of today. It may be that many of the same ideas in the previous constitution would be adopted in the next constitution, but at least it would be by people living today, and not 250 years ago.

I don't know that I would eliminate as much as I might expand.

Tell me exactly what you would change to bring the document up to contemporary standards.

Here's some to consider:

-Let's get rid of the 1st Amendment. We're a secular society today. Freedom of religion is not necessary anymore.

Freedom of the press is passe...we can let the government control all forms of media and communications and let it set the standards of what can, and cannot, be discussed.

-Eliminate the 2nd Amendment, too. The government can confiscate all the guns. The right to keep and bear arms would be gone. We'd all be safer.

-While we are at it, let's eliminate the 4th Amendment. Very inconvenient for law enforcement. They should be able to enter your house,or search your car on a whim, and arrest you without a warrant and without probable cause. It will make the cops more efficient.

-Let's eliminate term limits for the president. 8 years is not enough time for Obama to accomplish what he wants to.And we can eliminate the electoral college. This will place all the voting power in the hands of the metropolitan regions...who cares about the people in the sparsely populated states anyway? Right?

These are good ideas because they were thought up by people who have not been dead for 250 years.

What do you think?

And what, exactly, is that "supreme law of the land" today? Would you leave our governance to the whims of imperfect nit whits that change from one philosophical stance to another,bending and shaping the document every 30-40 years? Utter chaos.

The Founding Father's were very smart men;better educated and worldly-wise than most of our "leaders" today. They understood that, while times may change,human beings do not; nor do the institutions they create to govern themselves,which will inevitably seek to gather greater power,and grow corrupt in the process at the expense of their citizens.This is just as true today as it was in the 1700's...and before that as well. They had a lot of empirical data in 1776 to prove them correct.

And judging by the course of human events since then,we can conclude that they were spot on in their assessments.

Unless of course government is somehow limited in the acquisition and use of its power.Which is what the Constitution seeks to do. For a free people, it is the greatest governing document in the history of mankind.Changing it in any material way is for fools intent on their own demise.

Corporations are comprised of people...without people they do not exist.They are a mechanism for people to organize together for business and other purposes,since it would be awkward and inconvenient to deal with all those people on an individual basis. (Imagine if every stockholder in GM had to sign every contract entered into?)

Because they are comprised of "people", whether two or 200,000, they have a collective voice and are entitled to 1st Amendment Freedoms of expression the same as any individual.If this means spending millions on media coverage, so be it.

Justice Stevens is an idiot.But he has a 1st Amendment right to be an idiot.Rant over.