PPC Homepage

French Supreme Court overturns proposed carbon tax

by Rossputin | 3:31 am, January 6, 2010 | 1 Comment

Last week, as something between a Christmas present and New Year’s resolution for the French people, France’s Supreme Court ruled that a carbon tax which was scheduled to take effect on January 1st was unconstitutional.

The court’s ruling was based on two aspects of the law:  One was that the tax would not be equitably applied across sectors of the economy, with the damage being greatest to petroleum products, particularly gasoline and heating oil.  Essentially, the process of the law (much like our own current health care bill) became so politicized that the exemptions given to favored (or feared) groups caused the final result to be against France’s equivalent of “equal protection”.

Second, the court ruled that all the exemptions – it was estimated the 93% of industrial emissions outside of using fuel as fuel would have been exempted from the tax – caused the measure to violate its stated intent, i.e. to lessen man-made global warming.

Again, it’s somewhat like our health care bill, with all of its provisions having impact directly opposite the politicians’ stated intent to “bend down the cost curve” of health care inflation.

It’s remarkable to see the French lead the way with a court upholding their own constitution.  Let’s just hope that our Supreme Court does the same thing when the inevitable challenge to Obamacare gets to them.

Link to Original post at Rossputin.com.

  • Share/Bookmark
Category: Syndicated
Tags: >

Comments

  1.   CTBC Director
      January 6th, 2010 @ 1:32 pm

    It’s a sad day indeed when America must look to France for an example of the courts upholding the rule of law.

    However, this does highlight the critical importance of the role of the judiciary – and the Supreme Court in particular, either state or Federal – in limiting the abuses of government power.

    Our Constitution was written and adopted SPECIFICALLY to limit the scope and power of government – substituting the rule of law for the unchallenged power of the monarchies and tyranny it replaced.

    However, the Constitution alone is powerless – mere words on paper – to defend our rights, and limit government powers, without the vigilance and action of CITIZENS – We The People.

    It is OUR Constitution, our law – NOT that of lawyers, or of the legal profession in general. Our judges – most importantly, our Supreme Court justices – are empowered by us with the specific mandate to defend OUR Constitution. In a sense, we are their clients; if they fail to discharge their duty, it is incumbent upon us to do OUR duty and remove them from office.

    In Colorado, we have that opportunity this year – to Clear The Bench of FOUR Colorado Supreme Court justices who have NOT upheld their oath to support the Constitution in Colorado.

    Learn more about the unjust justices of the Colorado Supreme Court – who they are, and why they do not deserve to remain in office – at http://www.clearthebenchcolorado.org

Featured Posts

National Debt Clock

  • Advertise Here!

    info-at-peoplespresscollective-dot-org

  • Categories

  • Archives

  • Meta




  • Buy a Tea Party Poster!