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Both of them were in the majority for this court deicision.
Even after this ruling, women still have the right to sue their attacker. But they must do so in state court, not federal court.
There is nothing in the U.S. Constitution that gives the federal government the power to punish rapists. In fact, if I remember correctly, the only crimes that are defined the the U.S. Constitution are treason, piracy, and counterfitting.
The 14th amendment states that the governemt is not allowed to pass laws that take away people's rights. The purpose of this law was to prevent the federal government from passing laws such as Jim Crow laws or laws that prevented black people from voting. It was never the intention for the law to make everybody equal. Instead, people were supposed to have equal rights under the eyes of the law. The purpose of the 14th amendment was to prevent the government from doing things. It was designed to limit the action of government.
In this decision, the Supreme Court was simply stating that the power of the federal government had gotten too big. This is a good ruling.
Whoever gets elected Presdient this year will probably get to nominate 2 or 3 new Supreme Court Justices. I sure hope that Gore doesn't win.
Historically, Supreme Court rulings often ruled that the U.S. government had been engaging in unconstitutional activity. These rulings limited the power of the federal government.
But after the Civil War, and especailly, since the FDR new deal, the Supreme Court has been allowing the federal government to do things that are not authorized in the Constitution.
The 10th amendment clearly states that the federal government is only allowed to do those things that are authorized in the Constitution. Today's liberals ignore this.
The original purpose of the commerce clause was to prevent individual state governments from setting trade barriers against each other. It was never intended as an excuse for today's excessive amounts of government regulation of business.
The federal government has been overstepping its authority too many times, too much, too often, and for far too long. This is a good ruling. I hope that we will be getting many more like it in the future.
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