RandyMelchert.com

June 18, 2009

If politicians don’t get enough of your $ already, then give them (and the media) more!

Filed under: Campaign Finance, Judiciary — randallmelchert @ 1:43 pm

The Sconz is advocating “AB 65, which would create public funding for Supreme Court elections, by a 4-3 party line vote.”

AB65, according to LFB “establishes a means of providing public funds for candidates for Supreme Court Justice in primary and general election campaigns through the democracy trust fund .. a segregated fund established by the legislation. “ Segregated funds, wonder where I’ve heard that before :-) .

But the Sconz wants government funding not just for the campaigns, but even the media: “Ironically, the solution to both issues I believe to be one and the same: more public financing. Just as campaigns should be publicly financed, so should an increasing number of media outlets.”

Government funding for blogwriters… interesting idea… Although the bigger issue – instead of having the government solve all of our problems, if I want to share over $20 worth of my views on the SupCt race, why do I have to fill out 6 forms and have them notarized?

May 21, 2009

CYP, Federalists, and a Conservative Judiciary

Filed under: Judiciary — randallmelchert @ 9:30 pm

Was at the CYP/Federalist reception with former Judge Mike Brennan. Judge Brennan was discussing the role of empathy in a judge’s decisions. He points out that empathy in decision making can lead to a violation of the 14th Amendment and “equal protection under the law”.

Which leads to a parallel in “hate crimes” legislation – if a criminal can get a different sentence because of the protected class of victim – does not that violate equal protection under the law?

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