Fred Phelps and his Westboro Baptist Church have, for some time now, been traveling the country protesting at the funerals of American soldiers killed in the line of duty. Back in 2006, they protested outside the funeral of Marine Lance Corporal Matthew Snyder, who was killed in action at the age of 20. See this article, the original complaint, and Monica’s (of Spark a Synapse) post on the same topic for the unpleasant details. English as a language lacks invec­tives of suffi­cient force and color to condemn this kind of behavior in the terms justice demands. However, has WBC done anything properly [ . . . ]

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The Almighty has filed an answer in the suit against His Holiest of Holies in the 4th Circuit Court of Nebraska. Well, the news article says “filing,” so it could be an answer or a motion to dismiss. I think the latter. Because His Omniscience avers that there is no juris­diction over His Incorruptible Personage in the Nebraska courts. According to the Clerk of the Court, the filing from the King of Kings “mirac­u­lously appeared on the counter. It just all of a sudden was here — poof!” The document lists a Corpus Christi law office telephone number. I’d love to get my hands [ . . . ]

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Today, my law school hosted a mini-​​​​panel on equality as part of the University’s ongoing “Diversity Week,” and as part of the Law School’s “Constitution Week.” Several professors spoke on their research into equality and the Constitution. All three took a Progressivist stance. By Progressivist, I mean this: It is one thing to insist that the law be applied equally to all. It is entirely another to insist that equality requires the unequal appli­cation of the law. For instance, if equal operation of the law has the effect of ‘disen­fran­chising’ some group (the poor; the uned­u­cated; the disin­ter­ested), then the law must be [ . . . ]

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It occurs to me that the last post was really long. Sorry. Here’s some more on the conse­quences of Positivism. Constitution. From constituere, to fix or establish. The U.S. Constitution was written as an estab­lishing document. It “fixed” the powers of government. If you read the main body, it presents a list of what the government, be it the Executive, Congress, or the Judiciary, may do. In those places where it prohibits the government from doing something, it is always a narrowing of an earlier grant of authority. Fundamentally, the original Constitution, without the Bill of Rights, is an empow­ering document. It [ . . . ]

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