A Day Late….A Message from Ms. Skokan

MoonHowler

I have the following communication from Kim Skokan, owner of KK Temptations, regarding Saturday’s protest. She had send me the information about the protest over a week ago. Because of all the other articles, I felt publishing that part was overkill. However, her gracious response should be published. I was remiss in not doing it on Friday:

We are saddened to hear that a protest will occur on what has generally been known to be one of the most successful community events of the year.

Old Town Manassas has many devoted merchants who are struggling in this tough economy; this jubilee could have been a profitable event for them; however this protest will detract from all of their efforts and hard work. For this specific reason we delayed our October 1 Grand Opening. I would urge the groups who are participating in this Peaceful protest to consider rescheduling to another day in order to not hurt the local merchants who count on this revenue for their business. I have to wonder, what the real intention is that they picked this date? If you ask me it doesn’t show their support for the community or its economic growth.

Kimberly Skokan

An Interview with Newly Retired Justice John Paul Stevens

MoonHowler

There is a fascinating interview with newly retired Justice Stevens on the  NPR site.  Stevens is an active 90 year old who plays tennis several times a week and who spent 35 years on the Supreme Court.  Today was the official first day of retirement since the current Supreme Court recess was over.  Stevens was appointed by President Gerald Ford. 

The interview includes the scope of Steven’s life experiences, where he sits watching Babe Ruth hit a homer during the 1932 World Series against the Cubs  to his throwing out the first pitch of a Cubs game when he was 85 years old. 

From the NPR interview:

 

A Fundamental Dispute

Stevens and Scalia have gone at each other on many subjects, but their core disagreement is over Scalia’s espousal of originalism — the idea that the Founding Fathers intended the Constitution to mean only what it meant at the time of enactment, no more and no less. Or, as Scalia puts it, “the Constitution that I interpret and apply is not living, but dead.”

Stevens disagrees. “To suggest that the law is static is quite wrong,” he says. Stevens argues that “the whole purpose was to form a more perfect union, not something that’s perfect when we started. We designed a system of government that would contemplate a change and progress.”

This clash of views is exemplified in a 1990 opinion Stevens wrote, which invalidated the Illinois patronage system as a violation of employees’ First Amendment rights to freedom of association.

Stevens notes that when he first encountered the question, he thought the claim had no merit. After all, as Justice Scalia would subsequently observe, patronage existed at the time the republic was founded. But Stevens, upon examining the question, reached a conclusion exactly opposite of what he originally thought.