humanities.philosophy.objectivism

On Apr 2, 10:55 pm, Ken Gardner wrote:
> Agent Cooper wrote:
> >But are you seriously suggesting that spending
> >programs like Medicare and Social Security are *unconstitutional*? As
> >opposed to being really really bad ideas?
>
> Hold that thought for when I have more time to participate around here
> than a few minutes in the wee hours of the morning (as I'm doing now).
> But let me begin with this thought: there was once a time when we had
> a Supreme Court where massive wealth redistribution schemes like this
> went to die a well-deserved death.

Sort of, but not quite. Before FDR's courtpacking plan, the Supreme
Court was inclined to do two things: find state *regulatory* schemes
to violate the Fourteenth Amendment, and federal *regulatory* schemes
to be unsupported by the Commerce Clause. But I'm not aware of SCOTUS
resistance to *transfer* schemes, in part because there just wasn't a
taste for them very much before FDR, so the topic did not arise. I'd
be interested to find I'm wrong, but this was my impression. The Court
was *very* libertarian-ish from about 1870 to 1930 ("The Lochner Era")
but not focused on spending schemes AFAIK.