Comment by mtgx | Hacker News Reader

Comment by mtgx | Hacker News Reader

Parent Full thread

If the US had a Constitutional Court (like some European countries do) that verified bills for constitutionality after being signed by the President, 90%-95% of these obviously unconstitutional bills Congress passes these days would get rejected. They wouldn't take 10-40 years to reach the Supreme Court and finally be verified for constitutionality.

And before anyone says "but the US only has adversarial courts" - well, the US had a secret spy court for more than a decade that rubberstamped anything the NSA/FBI requested, and it didn't seem to be an issue until the Snowden documents leaked and there was major backlash against it.

But honestly, a Constitutional Court is what the US needs right now. Something to stop the insanity of politicians in the mid-term.

Long-term, you stop their insanity by actually preventing them from getting elected in the first place. You do that by getting rid of money in politics, the FPTP voting system that promotes party a 2-party system and extreme polarization, and gerrymandering (a proportional representation voting system would fix both of the last 2 issues).

That would be hailed as a huge waste of time and money. What US has instead is an Office of Legal Counsel full of lawyers at the Justice Department. Their role is to polish turds until shine blinds you. OLC are the ones responsible for Bush Administration legalization of torture.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/20/opinion/trump-justice-dep...

You cannot get rid of money or imbalanced voting structures in politics because people aren't going to write in laws that cut out their own financial and popular gain.

For a country that was literally founded by a revolution, y'all really seem to be tiptoeing around that concept.

We'll probably see mass secession, and reformation into a number of smaller nations, rather than an armed revolution.

The result of many decades of anti-Communist brainwashing. It's telling that stuff that's considered basic quality of living in Europe like government-provided affordable healthcare is considered "socialism" in the US.

Anti communist brainwashing? Are the schools, universities, and media in the States not liberal enough for your tastes?

Are these the same schools that not even a decade ago were humoring intelligent design and climate change denial?

Not sure what schools you're referring to but that wasn't a thing when I was in school 15 years ago..

Forcing kids to say the Pledge of Allegiance every morning isn't very liberal though.

I didn't have to say the pledge or stand for it although there was social pressure, most students would.

US liberal is far the to the right of the majority of Western Europe.

I'm European, so can't comment on your schools - but I can definitely comment on what I'm reading on every single thread no matter if here on HN, or Reddit, or Twitter, or Facebook... and that is people crying "socialism" for everything.

Liberals are center left at best, and that's people like AOC and Bernie Sanders.

The overton window in the USA has shifted so far right it's almost falling off the house.

I am trying to get people to come to that realisation themselves, that way they're more open to it.

> do that by getting rid of money in politics

You forgot how to explain to do that ;)

It's not that hard to achieve, but the people with the power to do so have no interest.

Set fixed spending caps on candidates and parties, or maybe even make their budgets government provided ( so that everyone is on an equal footing), criminalise spending over it and gifts to politicians and family members, and you're decently covered.

So, impossible?

Some of the European Constitutional Courts are restricted to check the laws only when challenged by the president of the country, a High Court or a large number of members of the Parliament (same people who voted it), ordinary people cannot do that and the check is not automatic. It solves maybe 5% of the problems with the laws that and non-constitutional because nobody can effectively challenge the rest.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com