Patterico's Pontifications

3/24/2005

Does This Sound Like Blackmail to You?

Filed under: Dog Trainer,Schiavo — Patterico @ 9:29 pm



The L.A. Times uses the carrot and the stick in an editorial today titled Rehnquist’s Test. Speaking of the Schiavo case, which was in the Supreme Court this morning when the editorial ran (the Court later turned down the appeal), the editors say:

Also on [Rehnquist’s] mind, we assume and we hope, is his judicial legacy. This includes both the specific doctrines he advanced and his general reputation for probity, wisdom and intellect.

Laying it on thick.

On Sunday, Congress did something outrageous in our opinion and extraordinary by anyone’s standards. It passed, and the president signed, a law intended explicitly to reverse the results of state law in a particular case.

No. It was intended to provide federal review of the case.

Here comes the stick — a threat to attack Rehnquist in his obituary if he doesn’t toe the line:

Five years ago, Rehnquist allowed politics to trump principle in the disgraceful decision of Bush vs. Gore. Fate has given him a chance for (frankly) a different lead on his eventual obituary. We hope he seizes it.

That sounds a lot like extortion — if not in the legal sense, at least in the sense that people generally think of it. Do what we say, or we slam you in your obituary.

Yeah, I’m sure this will now be the lead sentence of Rehnquist’s obituary, now that the Supreme Court declined to hear the case. I won’t forget to check this, when the paper does finally run Rehnquist’s obituary. And I’ll link to this post.

7 Responses to “Does This Sound Like Blackmail to You?”

  1. What a great tactic. It worked! We will hound you after you die. But this is not political?

    J. Peden (ffccb8)

  2. If you want to see some blackmail, look into the pressure Judge Greer got from his pastor.

    Richard Bennett (c5751d)

  3. “No. It was intended to provide federal review of the case.”

    I don’t think they’d be happy if the federal courts reached the same decision.

    actus (e8ffe9)

  4. If you want to see some blackmail, look into the pressure Judge Greer got from his pastor.

    Do you mean to tell us that there’s actually a church out there that is as ideologically biased as the editorial staff of a major newspaper? I’m shocked, I tell you. Shocked.

    Xrlq (c51d0d)

  5. Aren’t churches defined as such by the IRS? Aren’t churches subsidized by the taxpayer? I demand regulation and, of course, also that everyone earning a payroll pay into S.S.. Or else, let me become a church.

    J. Peden (ffccb8)

  6. I would suggest that this would have the opposite effect.
    I know that I wouldn’t be happy unless the LA Times bad-mouthed me in my obituary.
    You shall know them by their enemies, after all.

    Veeshir (342e86)


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