The American Expatriate: Of two minds on Souter

THE AMERICAN ^REEXPATRIATE

"America is often portrayed as an ignorant, unsophisticated sort of place, full of bible bashers and ruled to a dangerous extent by trashy television, superstition and religious bigotry, a place lacking in respect for evidence based knowledge. I know that is how it is portrayed because I have done my bit to paint that picture..." BBC's Washington correspondent Justin Webb, in a remarkably frank admission of his role in misinforming the British public about America and Americans

Wednesday, March 15, 2006

Of two minds on Souter

Supreme Court Justice David Souter has apparently been spared by his neighbors the unfortunate consequences of his own judicial folly. The residents of Weare, New Hampshire, while clearly lacking a good sense of ironic humor, have displayed a degree of constitutional understanding and, frankly, common sense that is regrettably lacking in the good Judge himself. Yesterday, by a margin of nearly 2 to 1, they voted down a proposal that would have allowed a developer to take Souter's own farm under the power of eminent domain and build a hotel in its place, a proposal made legally conceivable only as the result of Souter's own inexplicable interpretation of the fifth amendment.

This result leaves TAE torn. It's a good day for justice in principle, but it sure would have been satisfying to see Souter subject to the same injustices his own bizarre reasoning has inflicted on others.