"I lost what was left of my naiveté about the equal justice ideal of the Supreme Court with their decision in Bush v. Gore to select George W. Bush president by suspending Florida’s vote recount in 2000. That political overreach by the increasingly activist right-wing majority, interfering in a state’s right to count its own votes, was so radical that in the decision itself they forbid it to ever be cited in the future as a precedent.
     Harvard Law Professor, Alan Dershowitz concluded: “[T]he decision in the Florida election case may be ranked as the single most corrupt decision in Supreme Court history, because it is the only one that I know of where the majority justices decided as they did because of the personal identity and political affiliation of the litigants. This was cheating, and a violation of the judicial oath.” (Supreme Injustice: How the High Court Hijacked Election 2000)
     I should have known. I’d read Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States where he traces the essentially conservative and pro-business history of the Court. Even in the 19th century, Zinn documents: “the Supreme Court, despite its look of somber, black-robed fairness, was doing its bit for the ruling elite…. How could it be neutral between rich and poor when its members were often former wealthy lawyers, and almost always came from the upper class?"..."

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Join the Discussion of Dr. Minor's column
"Marriage Amendments Threaten Religious Freedom"
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Dr. Minor on May 6, 2012, again responds to a
Lawrence Journal World "Faith Forum" question:
"What Advice Do You Have for This Year's College Graduates?"

Read Past "Faith Forum" Answers Here.

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Reflections on Religion of a Re(Tired) Religion Professor

How might a retired Professor of Religious Studies ("Professor Emeritus") think of religion and the world's religions after 35 years of full-time teaching? Dr Minor presented a two-part series on that to Broadway Church in Kansas City, Missouri where he spoke of giving up dealing with religion and the religions in order to understand and interact with religious people.
You can hear it here.

 

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If I Had Time to Read Only One Article This Week,
The Most Helpful One for My Work Would Be —

Hanne Blank: "10 Surprising Facts About Heterosexuality"
(Febuary 11, 2012)
"The history of heterosexuality is actually a motherlode of remarkable and sometimes deeply strange stuff, from the broad-brush conceptual to the kinds of tidbits you add to your cocktail-party repertoire. Not only does the history of heterosexuality offer up surprises that make you rethink what "heterosexual" is and means, it also makes you realize how little we really know about this thing
about which most of us assume we already know everything we need to..."

Read Hanne Blank: "10 Surprising Facts About Heterosexuality"

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