I report (well, actually, I link to someone else's report), you decide.

Yes

"They can't stop the Supreme Court. It's on a mission from God."

I'm not sure I see the problem. First, I think the original Supreme Court decision has been blown out of proportion. Second, Congress doesn't have the power to reverse Supreme Court decisions. They can start the process of a constitutional admendment, they can remove members of the Supreme Court, they have control over the Supreme Court's budget and enforcement of Supreme Court directives, and they have approval power over new members. That's it. Her statements seem in line with that reality.

Finally, she keeps refering to withholding funds from the Supreme Court or enforcement of its directives, more accurately she emphasizes the wrongness of performing such an action. I suspect that certain republican members of Congress have proposed these as solutions to this problem, but it is a bizarre way to answer the questions since the questioner didn't mention it.

Congress has plenty of options for overturning specific Supreme Court rulings. No, Congress can't simply decide to ignore a constitutional ruling like Roe (at least without invoking a Constitutional crisis), but they certainly can pass laws to overrule any statutory ruling. In the case of Kelo, legislation could be passed that outlaws use of eminent domain for economic development. This wouldn't affect states and local governments directly, but could be extended to them by the simple expedient of revoking fedeal funding for any state that doesn't comply (I hate this power but it's constitutional). The House has already passed an amendment to an appropriations bill to do this.

This wouldn't affect states and local governments directly, but could be extended to them by the simple expedient of revoking fedeal funding for any state that doesn't comply (I hate this power but it's constitutional).

Why do you hate it? Why do you think that the federal government should just hand out money with no strings attached? Of course, that begs the question of why you think that the federal government should hand out money at all...

States would still be perfectly free to steal peoples' property--they just couldn't do it with federal taxpayers' funds.

Yes she is. I suspect she has someone on staff to remind her to breathe.

Why do you ask? ;-p

Pelosi's position on the ruling is rather bizarre. The SC decision essentially means that rich companies can take property away from poor landowners by lobbying local governments to use the power of eminent domain.

Why is someone like Pelosi supporting rich companies over poor homeowners? It is not a traditionally Democratic position.

I suspect that she really doesn't understand the implications of this at all. Either that, or the National League of Cities (which naturally supported the decision) has lobbied her.

I think that the reason Pelosi is standing foursquare behind this decision is that any weakening of Congressional support for Supreme Court decisions jeopardizes Roe v. Wade.

If SCOTUS can make decisions that are then circumvented by Congress through funding limitations or other moves, then how long before someone chooses to apply those same methods to other unpopular SCOTUS decisions.

So, no matter how bad the decision, Pelosi has to support it (especially given her position as House Minority Leader).

Of course, the way to put her on the spot would be to inquire whether she also felt that, for example, Bush v. Gore was a similarly sacrosanct decision?

Hmmm, good points. I also think that as a representative from California, her pro-development backers would get rather unpleasant if she didn't back eminent domain.

They're painted into a corner. They have to support almost anything the court does since they've been using the court to legislate for decades. It's actually quite fun watching them squirm.

Now what about Renquist? Assuming O'Conner is replaced with a conservative, will Renquist hold out until his last breath waiting for a liberal President to hold office? Will the elephant's get a backbone and win the coming confirmation battle's? Will... ah, shucks... now I'm depressed again. Anything more from Pelosi to cheer me up?

Of course she's a moron. I would expect nothing less from anyone on the Hill. Pay somebody enough money and they can get real stupid real fast.