Texas Supreme Court cites Mr. Spock!

[Nightingale 0]

No...not the child psychologist. That's Dr. Spock. Mr. Spock. The Vulcan. From Star Trek.


http://www.supreme.courts.state.tx.us/historical/2010/oct/060714c2.htm


Appropriately weighty principles guide our course. First, we recognize that police power draws from the credo that “the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.” Second, while this maxim rings utilitarian and Dickensian (not to mention Vulcan 21), it is cabined by something contrarian and Texan: distrust of intrusive government and a belief that police power is justified only by urgency, not expediency. That is, there must exist a societal peril that makes collective action imperative: “The police power is founded in public necessity, and only public necessity can justify its exercise.”22 Third, whether the surrender of constitutional guarantees is necessary is a legislative call in terms of desirability but a judicial one in terms of constitutionality. The political branches decide if laws pass; courts decide if laws pass muster. The Capitol is the center of policymaking gravity, but the Constitution exerts the strongest pull, and police power must bow to constitutional commands: “as broad as [police power] may be, and as comprehensive as some legislation has sought to make it, still it is subsidiary and subordinate to the Constitution.”23 Fourth, because the Constitution claims our highest allegiance, a police-power action that burdens a guarantee like the Retroactivity Clause must make a convincing case.24 Finally, while police power naturally operates to abridge private rights, our Constitution, being inclined to freedom, requires that such encroachments be as slight as possible: “Private rights are never to be sacrificed to a greater extent than necessary.”25


21 See Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (Paramount Pictures 1982). The film references several works of classic literature, none more prominently than A Tale of Two Cities. Spock gives Admiral Kirk an antique copy as a birthday present, and the film itself is bookended with the book’s opening and closing passages. Most memorable, of course, is Spock’s famous line from his moment of sacrifice: “Don’t grieve, Admiral. It is logical. The needs of the many outweigh . . .” to which Kirk replies, “the needs of the few.”

[airdvr 197]

Or the one.

Best Trek movie ever.

Please don't dent the planet.

Destinations by Roxanne

[Andy9o8 0]

See? Who says Texas law ain't grounded in reality?

[kelpdiver 2]

at least it's not based on Star Wars.

Needful be the one shall not.

[popsjumper 2]

I thought it was, "Go ahead. Make my day".

Oh wait, that's Cali.

My reality and yours are quite different.
I think we're all Bozos on this bus.
Falcon5232, SCS8170, SCSA353, POPS9398, DS239

[councilman24 36]

Yeah, but you might as well stick with the revolver.... no hi cap allowed.

I'm old for my age.
Terry Urban
D-8631
FAA DPRE