“The public welfare demands that constitutional cases must be decided according to the terms of the Constitution itself, and not according to judges’ views of fairness, reasonableness, or justice.”

aahhhhh, that he would have walked the walk also instead of promoting the social experiment.

aahhhhh, that the current set of (anti-)social activist judges would walk this walk instead of promoting their own (anti-)social agendas.

Activist judges promote social agendas for the "greater good" and public welfare.

Bravo Reston. Otherwise why have a Constitution - America is as from a social experiment as China is with the Child reform act. If you call social security, and programs that help the disadvantaged a social experiment I'm all for it.

What, no living, breathing Constitution? When a judge can rule the people by whim, then he is a tyrant no less than the leader of some banana republic junta. Why does the left find it necessary to shop activists judges? Because the majority of people are not with them, and there only path to power is through a tryrant. The ballot box just doesn't work for them anymore, no matter how many of the dearly departed they dig up. As far as social security goes, it was a bad idea 70 years ago that we are stuck with now. It is a pyramid scheme that is doomed to fail because of the demographic realities of a low birth rate. GWB is trying to solve the demographic problem with immigration. It won't work. When it gets to the brink, look for the idea of euthanasia for the disabled, weak, and old to rear its ugly head as a solution, just like in present day Europe. Those who tout the virtues of social security and "programs" will someday have to face this reality, maybe when they're being carted off for their "final treatment".

You should write stories, Ken, or screenplays. Social Security is not designed the way pyramid schemes are designed. The Social Security system was made unsustainable when the Democratic Congress removed the protected status of the Social Security fund and joined it with the General Fund. The same party that introduced it is responsible for its demise, until somebody finds a reasonable way to revamp it. If the fund were never joined with the General Fund, and if a slightly higher initial tax rate had been set 70 years ago, the fund could now still be in surplus.

I'll have to agree with you David. If Social Security operated like a pension fund, things would be much different and secure. The goal of Social Security is not security, however, but dependency on government.

There is nothing in the Constitution that authorizes instituting a mandatory federal insurance fund. If judges actually acted under Constitutional law, we would still have a lawful money system in place. Insurance is private enterprise and those that wish its protections should purchase it at competitive rates in the private sector -- or better yet into a private savings fund. The Social Security system is an arm of the Federal Reserve System using negotiable instruments (fiat currency) for the benefit of the clients. We have become a debtor nation and cannot function if we are not constantly borrowing more.

Well, we can just invent a time machine and go back to the day when the president signed the Federal Reserve System into existence, show him the long-term consequences, and allow him to change his mind. Or what do you suggest? We pay more taxes by far than what brought the colonists to wage war for years to abolish. We put up with more corruption than a prudent people would. And Congress receives huge automatic yearly pay raises as its reward for nothing desirable. What do you suggest?

Bravo for this quote; however, he voted among the most liberal of the justices.

Neither congress nor any recent presidents have paid any attention to the Constitution and this bunch doesn't even pay lip service.

5 stars for the quote and zero for Black.

Would that we had a court that indeed held up the Constitution as what it was intended to be to spite the liberal feel good, good "intention" idiocy.

Social Security has never had an escrow fund. It was doomed from the beginning, e.g. the collected funds were spent by the Gov't. as collected

Too bad that Hugo Black, who was a horrible Activist, Constitution Shredding Judge, did not live up to his statement.