NYT's SCOTUS Reporter Greenhouse Quotes Robert Frost to Shame Justices on AZ Immigration Law
Linda Greenhouse, former Supreme Court reporter for the Times, got soppy in defense of Arizona's illegal immigrants in "The Lower Floor" her latest biweekly column posted Wednesday evening. Apparently Supreme Court justices were remiss last week when they focused on arguing the law, as opposed to reciting Robert Frost and giving in to sympathetic anecdotes about "the simply humanity" of illegals (or, in Greenhouse's politically correct terminology, "undocumented residents").
(Greenhouse has famously argued that Supreme Court's Obama-care opponents have no case, even after Obama-care was annihilated in oral argument before the justices.)
I found last week’s Supreme Court argument in the Arizona immigration case utterly depressing, and I’ve spent the intervening week puzzling over my reaction. It’s not simply that the federal government seems poised to lose: unlike the appeals court, the justices appear likely to find the heart of Arizona’s mean-spirited “attrition through enforcement” statute, S.B. 1070, permissible under federal law.
Poring over the argument transcript and the briefs, what finally came through as most deeply troubling was this: the failure of any participant in the argument, justice or advocate for either side, to affirm the simple humanity of Arizona’s several hundred thousand undocumented residents.
Both facts and logic tell us that this is a varied population. Different reasons, different routes and different times brought these individuals to Arizona. Half the adults among them hold jobs. Many are parents of American-born citizens of the United States. An untold number, while not possessing the right papers, are also not now deportable under our byzantine immigration laws. But whoever they are and whatever their stories, all are now likely to become what Arizona intended them to be when it enacted the law two years ago: hunted.
To her dismay, she found the federal policy on deporting illegals almost as harsh as Arizona's, neither of whom have apparently read the poetry of Robert Frost.
....The federal government’s brief offered a startling description of what the government was doing on the Arizona-Mexico border in the spring of 2010, when the Arizona Legislature passed S.B. 1070: 4,000 Border Patrol agents stationed there, a 40 percent increase since 2005; 40 aircraft on patrol; 305.7 miles of border fence completed.
The description was aimed at showing that the Feds were on the case and that Arizona’s law was simply superfluous. Perhaps so, but I read this account as the chilling self-description of a powerful nation obsessed with imaginary enemies. “Before I built a wall I’d ask to know/ What I was walling in or walling out,” Robert Frost wrote. We have walled ourselves in, whether by Arizona’s hand or Washington’s or both. The Supreme Court will tell us if the difference matters. I had thought it did, but by the end of last week’s argument, I was no longer sure.
- Clay Waters's blog
- Login to post comments
Comments
Citizen-Ship Exchange one 99% er
Submitted by boscokraft on Thu, 05/03/2012 - 2:03pm.
for each Illegal Farmworker.
It is said that white people wont do farmwork or do it as well as an Illegal from Mexico. Yet we pay 80 million to be on food stamps. In California Medi-Cal pays for Gastric By- Pass Surgery for the Massively Obese on food stamps.
The 99 percenters want socialized everything. I suggest that we pay for a one way ticket for them to China, Cuba, Russia or the country of their choice. For every 99 percenter who leaves the US, we give full citizenship to a hardworking Mexican illegal, who understands what wonderful opportunities exist in this coiuntry. The illegals are who we want here. People who strive to get a head and arent afraid to work their ass off to get there.
After all there should be one country that is capitalistic in this world. There are enough socialist countries available for anyone who hates capitalism.
Interestingly they believe in Bioligical darwinism, but not economic darwinism. (Survival of the Fittest)
People like Greenhouse seem
Submitted by rbosque on Thu, 05/03/2012 - 2:24pm.
People like Greenhouse seem to forget that we live in a republic, that is, a nation of laws. For us to function as a prosperous and just nation those laws should be followed and enforced otherwise our form of gov't will start to crumble. Well, it's crumbling no thanks to the fools on the left.
Greenhouse and the SCOTUS
Submitted by NVRAT on Thu, 05/03/2012 - 2:49pm.
To bad, it just goes to show that the Supreme Court Justices know more about the law than Greenhouse or Frost and they do not take liberal bias into consideration which is exactly what they should do. If Greenhouse is that concerned over the decision then maybe she should move to Russia where her opinion might mean something. Then again everyone knows how the Russian`s feel about female liberal emotions or poets. This is a country of laws not poetry.
SCROTUS
Submitted by CO2Maker on Thu, 05/03/2012 - 2:57pm.
If the Supreme Court of the US is SCOTUS, would you call Greenhouse a Supreme Court reporter of the US a SCROTUS?
Greenhouse Gaseous
Submitted by Galvanic on Thu, 05/03/2012 - 3:08pm.
GREENHOUSE: " . . . but I read this account as the chilling self-description of a powerful nation obsessed with imaginary enemies. . . "
No one called the illegal immigrants "enemies." They are law-breakers.
GREENHOUSE: . . . “Before I built a wall I’d ask to know/ What I was walling in or walling out,” Robert Frost wrote.
I don't believe for an instant that there was a single person sitting in at the SCOTUS hearings who didn't understand who was being walled out and why. Greenhouse pretends not understand what SB 1070 is all about despite having heard the arguments from both sides.
GREENHOUSE: . . . We have walled ourselves in, whether by Arizona’s hand or Washington’s or both. The Supreme Court will tell us if the difference matters. I had thought it did, but by the end of last week’s argument, I was no longer sure.
Well, then Ms. Greenhouse is unqualified to listen to a court case. Walling ourselves in would mean that we won't let the illegals go home -- the exact opposite of the intention behind Federal law and SB 1070.
Greenhouse may be just one or two columns away from insanely equating SB 1070 with the foundations of the Holocaust.
We certainly are not walling in Greenhouse
Submitted by needle on Thu, 05/03/2012 - 3:44pm.
She is free to go any time. And we all would be happier if she did.
- Looking forward to the self-annihilation of the Manipulated Stories Machine.
Oh, sweet mother of God!
Submitted by Kaleidoscopic God on Thu, 05/03/2012 - 3:26pm.
That is one FUGLY woman!
Be on the lookout.......
Submitted by Herbster on Thu, 05/03/2012 - 4:05pm.
Oh, my! I told them not to leave the barn door open. Now she's on the loose again! If found, please notify the folks at Hialeah Racetrack immediately. They'll bring a trailer to pick her up.
On a serious note: Don't these people ever just go away? we could have a full thirteen week reality show with Greenhouse, Brokaw, Rather, Koppel, Cokie, Al Hunt, etc. It could be called, "Has-beens that never should have been." Alternate title could be, "Know-nothings I have known." Could be modeled on the old Gong Show. Gilbert Gottfried would be perfect as the host.......
And---
Submitted by matthewdean on Thu, 05/03/2012 - 4:58pm.
Brian Williams, Matt Lauer, Katie Couric, Ann Curry, Diane Sawyer, Scott Pelley, David Gregory, Bob Schieffer, Howard Kurtz, and every single knuckle headed lump at any NBC derivative -MSNBC, etc, - Joe Scab, Mika Buttinski, Rachel Wannabe Richard Maddow, Larry Optimum Hate O'Donnell, Ed Schitz Schultz, and most especially - the Hatred-filled Hedgehog Harlot of the Hour- the Dumbest of the Day - the Fool Frothing from the Mouth with Racial Bullshit & Lies - the Ridiculously Titled "Reverend" Al 'Sharp Tongue but Dim Witted' Sharpton.
MD
Hey, fair is fair...
Submitted by needle on Thu, 05/03/2012 - 6:00pm.
If you are going to include Dan Rather, you gotta include Keith Olbermann.
Excluding him would be UNFAIRRRR... We certainly wouldn't want anyone victimized...
- Looking forward to the self-annihilation of the Manipulated Stories Machine.
Gasbag the Pseudo-Lawyer stinks it up again.
Submitted by drsamherman on Thu, 05/03/2012 - 4:16pm.
She's as predictably wrong as Bob Shrum or Keith Olbermann, as in perpetually.
No wonder she didn't become an attorney. She substitutes emotion for any logic on liberal positions. That isn't how law works.
As Frost himself would say...
Submitted by CobraMan on Fri, 05/04/2012 - 9:39am.
"She substitutes emotion for any logic on liberal positions."
As Frost himself would say: "Forgive me my nonsense, as I also forgive the nonsense of those that think they talk sense."
The Citizens of each State shall be entitled to all Privileges and Immunities of Citizens in the several States. The US Constitution
Unless you're a fetus. The US Supreme Court
Or Anwar al-Awlaki.
Unfortunate to use
Submitted by American.Patriot on Thu, 05/03/2012 - 5:53pm.
a poem by Robert Frost to further her agenda. Frost was a truly exceptional poet and his work is reminescent of the mid1930's struggle of farmers and familys to hold dear the values and traditions of Americans who were taught to be self-sufficient and propserous wihtout the hand-outs from big government
Undeniable Truth #24
Submitted by smokeybehr on Thu, 05/03/2012 - 5:54pm.
Not only does she have a face for radio, but a voice for print. Those are some nice Commie specs she has on, too.
Ugh - the woman looks like a
Submitted by Slyrr on Thu, 05/03/2012 - 6:34pm.
Ugh - the woman looks like a spawnling of Harry Potter and the Sloth.....
Anyhoo, this woman, who probably gets a big fat paycheck every week as a kickback from the Obama slush fund, has no business telling anyone about 'hardships'. She's probably never done a days' work in her life and spends her evenings sipping champagne from a snifter and popping caviar bon-bons with all the other liberal elitists in the press.
Just in case you're keeping score
Submitted by Dave81 on Thu, 05/03/2012 - 8:11pm.
Government running a muck: GOOD
Government upholding the law: BAD
Hey -
Submitted by mawendt on Thu, 05/03/2012 - 8:21pm.
She missed it:
"Good Fences make Good Neighbors".
To quote Robert Frost
Submitted by CobraMan on Fri, 05/04/2012 - 9:34am.
To quote Robert Frost: "Half the world is composed of people who have something to say and can't, and the other half who have nothing to say and keep on saying it." I think we all know which side of this equation Greenhouse falls under.
The Citizens of each State shall be entitled to all Privileges and Immunities of Citizens in the several States. The US Constitution
Unless you're a fetus. The US Supreme Court
Or Anwar al-Awlaki.