EMAIL SIGN UP!
Most Popular This Week
- 'Beyond Orwellian': Outrage Follows Revelations of Vast Domestic Spying Program
- The Bill of Rights Exists: An Open Letter to Dianne Feinstein
- Major Loss to Organic Farmers as Court Rules in Favor of Monsanto
- Naomi Klein: 'Anti-Shock Doctrines' Show the Way to Resist
- NSA Whistleblower Revealed: Q&A with Edward Snowden
Popular content
Today's Top News
Speechless in New Hampshire: On Socage and Chattels and Knights
All (18) GOP eyes are now on New Hampshire, where lawmakers are about to consider a bill by three GOP freshmen requiring all new legislation to find its direct origin in an 800-year-old, feudal barons' 63 declaration of rights from King John of England, aka the Magna Carta. Sponsor Lucien Vita admitted he needs to "bone up" on the charter, crafted in Latin in 1215, which doesn't consider certain modern issues like marriage equality or Internet freedom, but "it's a document that still functions," which is evidently more than you can say about the New Hampshire state legislature.
"We shall straightway return the son of Llewelin and all the Welsh hostages....We shall act towards Alexander King of the Scots regarding the restoration of his sisters."
"No constable or his bailiff is to take corn or other chattels from anyone who not themselves of a vill where a castle is built, unless the constable or his bailiff immediately offers money in payment of obtains a respite by the wish of the seller."
"No sheriff or bailiff of ours or of anyone else is to take anyone’s horses or carts to make carriage, unless he renders the payment customarily due, namely for a two-horse cart ten pence per day. No demesne cart belonging to any churchman or knight or any other lady (sic) is to be taken by our bailiffs, nor will we or our bailiffs or anyone else take someone else’s timber for a castle or any other of our business save by the will of he to whom the timber belongs."
Comments
Note: Disqus 2012 is best viewed on an up to date browser. Click here for information. Instructions for how to sign up to comment can be viewed here. Our Comment Policy can be viewed here. Please follow the guidelines. Note to Readers: Spam Filter May Capture Legitimate Comments...
16 Comments so far
Show AllYou might be laughing at the wording, but all the listed quotes are the basis of due process in Article IV of the Constitution, the 14th Amendment section 1 and the 5th Amendment, "...nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation."
It is stupid to create a law that forces you to trace the intent back to Magna Carta, but it is equally stupid to deny that Magna Carta is the basis of much if not most of our laws in the US.
yes, and laws are not our problem...
enforcement is...
among many other problems, of course...
It would be more precise to say that if you cherry-pick the statements carefully, the Magna Carta's content presaged the U.S. Constitution, not our laws.
Such an esteemed English bedrock for all New Hampshire Law! Ya hear that, ya American Indians? We told ya we'd bring English civility to your savage lands. (/sarcasm)
Harking back to Magna Carta is worlds better than insisting on the Ten Commandments! ;)
Amen?
*sniff* I can smell their dirty socage...
At least we got our prisoners back.
Habeas Corpus is embedded in the Magna Carta. It means No Confinement Without Charge.
The Patriot Act and the NDAA have eliminated Habeas Corpus. Hence, Bradley Manning's confinement and torture.
That's right NDAA 2012 nullified Posse Comitatus, Habeas Corpus. Habeas Corpus was, from what I recall from history, one of the main reasons the barons forced King John to sign Magna Carta in 1215. 800 years of legal traditions gone. They are getting medieval on us.
Habeas Corpus means "produce the body". It specifically means that the victim of the state has a right to hear the charges against them, and be present for the interlocution of the state exercising it's power.
Abby sez: "Sponsor Lucien Vita admitted he needs to 'bone up' on the charter ..."
***
Once he does, he'll drop this bill like a hot potato.
Or risk forever being known as the Republican who tried to drag the USA back into the FDR era.
I take it they'll be closing Guantanamo Bay then, which is in direct disregard for Magna Carta and a situation your average 13th century Englishman would find outrageous!
Inadvertent repeat delete!
Magna Carta 1215, yes! Do fast forward to 1689 and a certain King Charles I on the trusty old throne in London with his now infamous Star Chamber which might well bring to mind the current torture chamber in Cuba maintained by the US Government, and a fellow might easliy rather illegally under international if that person were a lawyer or other legal expert on international law. Thus Englishmen and I'd guess women didn't actually have such unfettered rights as some might assume. Nor did this really change with Oliver Cromwell, who would like his adversary Charles I dissolve both house of the parliament when he chose to do so to show that it was really a case of "Meet the new boss/same as the old boss." But they were "fighting in the street. . ." The power elites decided and the crossbow sang the song.
If Qwest can bundle services, why can't progressives bundle the OWS movement in with a coaltionization to retake in this country? A thought onlly! How about it? I do believe Jesse Jackson Sr would approve having been and still being a card carrying member of the RPC so help me the black God in Heaven or the Main Brother Man in the Sky. Uh oh! Somebody's is surely going to bring out the old trusty charge of sexism. Hep me!