April 13, 2010

Web Browser Fantasy

While preparing for a presentation last weekend, I bookmarked a number of Supreme Court cases for quick reference.  This evening, I cleaned up all the bookmarks from my browser and got this message to confirm something:

Delete Marsh v. Chambers
Are you sure?

Huh.  One of the least principled cases of Warren Burger, it rested on the idea that if you violate the plain text of the Constitution for long enough in a popular enough way, it isn't really a Constitutional violation any more.  Delete Marsh v. Chambers?  Well, how about this -- let's overrule it.  Not bloody likely, I know, and until and unless that happens, I have to take the law as I find it.  But overruling Marsh would bring some intellectual consistency back to Establishment Clause jurisprudence.

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