[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 2 (Thursday, January 6, 2011)]
[House]
[Page H52]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
THE SUPREME COURT NEEDS A LESSON
(Mr. COHEN asked and was given permission to address the House for 1
minute.)
Mr. COHEN. Mr. Speaker, in a few minutes, we are going to have the
reading of the United States Constitution--a show for the American
public--for anybody who knows anything about constitutional law knows
that it is up to nine men and women as to what the Constitution says.
When the Constitution was originally drafted--and I love it and I
defend it--it didn't give women the right to vote, and it said slavery
was permissible. Until the vilified Warren Court, in its correct
decision in Brown v. Board of Education, it said separate was equal,
and we knew it wasn't. African Americans were held back with Jim Crow
laws.
Five people on the Supreme Court, not the whole nine, can make
decisions that change the way the Constitution is interpreted.
Bush v. Gore, an abomination of a case that determined the Presidency
for 8 years and took away States' rights. The Citizens United case
funded the opposition that turned in the majority that the Republicans
now have.
Making corporations the equal of people and putting money into
politics poisoned the political system. The Supreme Court should read
the Constitution. They need a lesson.
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