Comments on: More on NAHB v. Def. of Wildlife http://www.scotusblog.com/2007/06/more-on-nahb-v-def-of-wildlife/ The Supreme Court of the United States blog Mon, 23 Jan 2012 22:38:26 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: Roger Friedman http://www.scotusblog.com/2007/06/more-on-nahb-v-def-of-wildlife/#comment-11422 Roger Friedman Tue, 26 Jun 2007 22:24:38 +0000 http://www.scotusblog.com/wp/uncategorized/more-on-nahb-v-def-of-wildlife/#comment-11422 <p>This note fails to do justice to the extent to which <i>Defenders of Wildlife</i> undermines <i>TVA v. Hill</i> and guts the Endangered Species Act. This is another example of "faux judicial restraint" embodying the reactionary project of Alito, Roberts, Thomas and Scalia to undo the 60s and 70s (although in Scalia's case you often need all 4 digits).</p> <p>This bloodless form of interpretation, which focuses on literal language and formalistic rules of construction, rather than on legislative intent, is used when the reactionaries are trying to cover their tracks. The dissent clearly shows how the ESA was supposed to act across all government programs.</p> <p>Virtually every program has a list of criteria by which it operates, and a battle of shalls can be constructed out of each. So now we know that in Alito's youth he not only pulled the wings off flies, but put beetles in bottles to set up battles of his own making.</p> This note fails to do justice to the extent to which Defenders of Wildlife undermines TVA v. Hill and guts the Endangered Species Act. This is another example of “faux judicial restraint” embodying the reactionary project of Alito, Roberts, Thomas and Scalia to undo the 60s and 70s (although in Scalia’s case you often need all 4 digits).

This bloodless form of interpretation, which focuses on literal language and formalistic rules of construction, rather than on legislative intent, is used when the reactionaries are trying to cover their tracks. The dissent clearly shows how the ESA was supposed to act across all government programs.

Virtually every program has a list of criteria by which it operates, and a battle of shalls can be constructed out of each. So now we know that in Alito’s youth he not only pulled the wings off flies, but put beetles in bottles to set up battles of his own making.

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