[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 1]
[House]
[Page 139]
[From the U.S. 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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