This court is far and away the most partisan, political, dishonest, and intellectually dishonest SCOTUS in 249 years of US history.
At the moment, John Roberts is thinking about one thing only: how to "protect" -- or completely rewrite -- his legacy of lies in his confirmation hearings, rulings that are 180 degrees opposed to the clear wording and documented meaning of the Constitution's writers, and willingness to kneel down to a strongman Republican president no matter the cost to the nation and the destruction of its polity.
But that worry -- akin to Susan Collins's "concern" about everything that terrifies actual patriotic Americans -- will not stop him from subordinating the Court to the wishes of Trump and the billionaires who have funded them both, in particular Leonard Leo, and suborning anti-constitutional treason at every opportunity.
So don't look for this SCOTUS to hold back, despite the returns from election night 2025. Two or three members of the far-right six might balk at some overreach once or twice in each session in the coming three years -- Kavanaugh the beer-guzzling sexual predator; Gorsuch the son and philosophical heir of the anti-environementalist Anne Burford Gorsuch; Coney-Barrett the liar and no-recusal hypocrite -- but the majority will always hold. Alito and Thomas, plus two of the above and Mr. Roberts, will invariably find a way to kowtow to the regime, each of them taking a turn to disagree, but never more than two of them, lest Trump lose.
The perfect parallel to this court's hypocrisy and corruption is Mitch McConnell "allowing" a senator or two to "vote their consciences" -- i.e., agree to the demands of their constituents -- in order to show independence . . . as long as it doesn't threaten the 50-percent-plus-one he needed.
In what world would this SCOTUS not make one ruling for a GOP president and a completely opposite and contradictory one for a Democratic president? There is no such world.
As you know better than I, our justice system is inextricably embedded in politics, probably a good thing all told. (Imagine celestial justice with no organic connection to human--ie, political--affairs.) In the current case, I can't help but identify one source of our wicked political problem as a justice system, particularly at the Supreme Court level, out of alignment with the country's prevailing political forces (polarization being a separate but related issue). When Senator Mitch McConnell blocked the Senate's consideration of Merrick Garland during the final year of Obama's second term, and then rammed through Amy Coney Barrett in the final weeks of Trump 1.0, he didn't just abuse his power. He threw the Supreme Court deeply out of alignment with the country's political forces. Instead of 6-3, it would have been 5-4, and possibly 4-5. (Counterfactual history is fun.) We are now seeing the consequences of that abuse of Senatorial prerogative, and the structural misalignment that has resulted, play out in our politics before our eyes. Has there been a similar abuse of Senate prerogatives that has produced a similar result in the past? If not, we're in virgin terrain on this.
Let’s hope the spectre of President AOC or President Newsom scares some sense into SCOTUS and prevents the six conservatives from granting further power to the presidency.
This court is far and away the most partisan, political, dishonest, and intellectually dishonest SCOTUS in 249 years of US history.
At the moment, John Roberts is thinking about one thing only: how to "protect" -- or completely rewrite -- his legacy of lies in his confirmation hearings, rulings that are 180 degrees opposed to the clear wording and documented meaning of the Constitution's writers, and willingness to kneel down to a strongman Republican president no matter the cost to the nation and the destruction of its polity.
But that worry -- akin to Susan Collins's "concern" about everything that terrifies actual patriotic Americans -- will not stop him from subordinating the Court to the wishes of Trump and the billionaires who have funded them both, in particular Leonard Leo, and suborning anti-constitutional treason at every opportunity.
So don't look for this SCOTUS to hold back, despite the returns from election night 2025. Two or three members of the far-right six might balk at some overreach once or twice in each session in the coming three years -- Kavanaugh the beer-guzzling sexual predator; Gorsuch the son and philosophical heir of the anti-environementalist Anne Burford Gorsuch; Coney-Barrett the liar and no-recusal hypocrite -- but the majority will always hold. Alito and Thomas, plus two of the above and Mr. Roberts, will invariably find a way to kowtow to the regime, each of them taking a turn to disagree, but never more than two of them, lest Trump lose.
The perfect parallel to this court's hypocrisy and corruption is Mitch McConnell "allowing" a senator or two to "vote their consciences" -- i.e., agree to the demands of their constituents -- in order to show independence . . . as long as it doesn't threaten the 50-percent-plus-one he needed.
In what world would this SCOTUS not make one ruling for a GOP president and a completely opposite and contradictory one for a Democratic president? There is no such world.
As you know better than I, our justice system is inextricably embedded in politics, probably a good thing all told. (Imagine celestial justice with no organic connection to human--ie, political--affairs.) In the current case, I can't help but identify one source of our wicked political problem as a justice system, particularly at the Supreme Court level, out of alignment with the country's prevailing political forces (polarization being a separate but related issue). When Senator Mitch McConnell blocked the Senate's consideration of Merrick Garland during the final year of Obama's second term, and then rammed through Amy Coney Barrett in the final weeks of Trump 1.0, he didn't just abuse his power. He threw the Supreme Court deeply out of alignment with the country's political forces. Instead of 6-3, it would have been 5-4, and possibly 4-5. (Counterfactual history is fun.) We are now seeing the consequences of that abuse of Senatorial prerogative, and the structural misalignment that has resulted, play out in our politics before our eyes. Has there been a similar abuse of Senate prerogatives that has produced a similar result in the past? If not, we're in virgin terrain on this.
Let’s hope the spectre of President AOC or President Newsom scares some sense into SCOTUS and prevents the six conservatives from granting further power to the presidency.