President signs Criminal Justice and Blasphemy bills into law

[cashinhand]

Do you know what the consequences of a law being declared constitutional by the SC, following an Article 26 reference, are?

Is it that it couldn't be revisited? Please make your point.

The Council of State hasn't published its reasoning. The Supreme Court, as I understand it, would have had to. The reasoning would have been interesting in both cases.

[drkpower]

Is it that it couldn't be revisited? Please make your point.

The Council of State hasn't published its reasoning. The Supreme Court, as I understand it, would have had to. The reasoning would have been interesting in both cases.

Yes; if they were to be declared constitutional, these laws could never ever ever be declared unconstitutional no matter what factual scenarios emerged. That is why this presedential power is a nuclear button and it is why she was well advised to not refer these Bills. The adverse consequences of so doing were great. If they genuinely are unconstitutional, that willl emerge in time without the risk of making them bullet-proof in the process.

So please dont talk nonsense about the office of the President being 'debased' when she actually took a very prudent and measured decision. If she had referred them and they were declared constitutional (which they probably would have been), then she would have done irreperable harm.

FYI, the Council of State doesnt publish anything; it is the Presidents decision alone; they merely advise.
Only one judgment is given by the SC; no dissent is published even if it exists.

[orbit]

Yesterday, a Dublin jury convicted a man accused of murder in a gangland assassination trial.

The one meagre concession to the sensitivity of the case was

The jury had requested that their daily roll call be conducted in private each morning rather than in open court because of the nature of the case

which makes Dermot Ahern's abolition of juries from these cases look all the more draconian and unnecessary.

The jury took only an hour for their deliberations. Imagine if the judges in the SCC only took an hour. There would be considerable disquiet about it. It is obvious on the other hand, that the people trust jury verdicts, whichever way they go.