I've said it before, we need to expand the court. But to do that we need to win BIG in November, everything we do between now and then has to be driving us towards that goal. Oh, and I will be calling my Senator - Mr. Durbin - to voice my displeasure.
Expanding the court is not the answer, but we need to oust some of these judges and get "fair" judges in their place. We NEED, no WE HAVE to vote BLUE!!
Expanding the court is the only answer! We can't "oust" these judges without impeaching them, and then the Senate will need to convict them. I don't see republican senators voting to convict, nor do I see us getting to the 66 Democratic Senators needed to convict. We are voting Blue, but more will be needed.
I’m going to split the baby and say there are multiple reform efforts that could be undertaken, from term limits to expanding the Court. Ousting judges is very hard, I agree.
Actually removing federal judges through impeachment is so difficult it could really be called impossible particulary for the high-profile Supreme Court justices. However, "impeachment" is accomplished solely by the House by a simple majority vote. Although unlikely that they will be removed, I think the new House starting in 2025 should (assuming a Democratic majority) file and pass articles of impeachment against Thomas and Alito. There is ample evidence that both are guilty of "high crimes and misdemeanors." This can possibly be done against Kavanaugh, too, for lying to Congress during his vetting process. Having the House start an impeachment investigation may be enough to prompt their resignations. If not, at least their legacies will be eternally tarnished and, perhaps, Alito will learn that he is NOT untouchable.
I like term limits and I like expanding the court. We can do both...or can we? Either would be contested and SCOTUS would have the final say. What do you think they'd do? Cut their power?
I'm almost always optimistic, but not about this. We may need to amend the Constitution, and that's really, really difficult.
True. Do you think Congress can institute term limits? There's the phrase in Article III about judges serving on good behavior. It doesn't say that they serve for life, and term limits isn't mentioned, not explicitly, so the meaning of the phrase must rest on interpretation. And the Court does that.
We can hope that these judges say that presidents have absolute immunity. Biden could just remove them from the court. Room and board at Gitmo, telling no-one what happened. Appoint replacements as liberal justices and change that stupid decision. LOL
I have been writing Dick Durbin to investigate them for impeachment. That is Alito and Thomas. I have said it does not matter whether they do not have the votes, what matters is that they follow the protocol and it will put them both on Notice that only because of lack of votes did they not get impeached, not because no one would find them impeachable. I also think the justice department should go after them. If they are found guilty let the military remove them.
I agree with this, and think I have mentioned it on some occasions. Still, the Senate is supposed to have oversight, and one should start there and then go to the justice department. It would also be interesting to see a citizen lawsuit. I am sure there are grounds. Should be filed in a friendly court.
I wholeheartedly agree, but Biden has already ruled it out. He assigned a committee examine the issue in 2021. They basically couldn't agree and gave up without making any recommendations.
Yeah, that was before Alito started flying insurrection flags. If they house and senate get a bill to his desk, I bet he would sign it. Other wise we are stuck with this court until they die.
I'm not sure the aged Senate Dems would go for it either. They're of the same generation as Biden. They are institutionalists. Plus, there's the "when they go low, we go high" bit. Senate Dems aren't Team Progress. They're Team Normal, and normal is 9 largely unaccountable justices. Normal is expecting norms won't be violated, rather than formalizing desirable norms into a law with meaningful consequences for violating it. Normal is Susan Collins fretting over Trump "learning his lesson." In many ways Biden is also Team Normal.
Can you believe Congress used to set the agenda for SCOTUS? Vladeck's book about the Shadow Docket covers that history, as well as the times when it had different numbers of justices.
If you're right, the we're screwed. Because eventually this corrupt court will start throwing out the votes they don't like. Alito was ready to do it last time, but didn't get the chance. Time for them to stop playing for "Team Normal," and do the right thing.
That's essentially what Alito and the other conservative justices just handed to South Carolina. The right of state legislatures to make unlimited political gerrymanders means the right to ignore the will of the people and gives legislators the power to select their voters.
Heather Cox Richardson does a great job of pointing out how those ideas are what lead to the Civil War. I see it as a second great tragedy, after the failure at the Founding to deal with slavery, that the Constitution was not fully rewritten after the Civil War, in a second Constitutional Convention, to truly divorce us from the ideas of the enslavers. The Reconstruction amendments were obviously insufficient, as nearly a century of Jim/Juan Crow laws, covenant communities, and sundown towns throughout the country made abundantly clear.
In the wake of the failure of Reconstruction, the composition of SCOTUS became essential: the Warren court reversed the overthrow of Reconstruction to what extent they could, and ever since, conservatives have been seeking hegemony to reverse the Warren court's progress. Thomas' concurrence on the South Carolina case takes aim at Brown v. Board of Education. They aren't afraid of saying out loud what they have planned.
They don't have to worry about saying it out loud, they basically have immunity and there is nothing we can do about it. I read Heather every day, great insight! Might be time for California, Washington, New York, and Oregon to repeal their laws preventing partisan gerrymandering.
Hopefully DT's court appeal decisions or Bouncing the decision around the lower courts (delays) would move the needle for Congress & the White House...
Darn it, every time I type White, supremacists pops up. I spent too much time researching groups in my red southern state of SC.
We used to have the 3rd most in the country, but that's due to infighting & dividing into smaller groups.
Everything can change. I do not assume that there is no circumstance under which Biden would not support removal. If any of them is found to have molested a child I think there would be popular support for their removal and any branch would be hard pressed to ignore it. Of course Republicans would just deny that it happened. So would the mainstream press by ignoring it. The press is determining what goes on in the USA as much as anyone in politics, because by covering or not covering something they are swaying popular opinion under the guise of being "impartial."
It's not impeachment that Biden seems to have ruled out, though his position on Team Normal definitely suggests he'd be against it, but rather expanding the size of the court. Removing 1 or even 2 conservative justices is an absolutely gargantuan prospect, given the 2/3 majority required and the Senate's anti-majoritarian structure. Expanding the court is easier, though no cakewalk, as it requires an act of Congress, meaning it must survive any filibuster attempts, and thus needs 60 votes, not 67. Still unlikely, but more likely.
An expansion to 13 justices, best spread out over a couple administrations to make the plan more appealing to moderates, paired with either lengthy term limits (20 years) or some other limitations, would provide a moderating influence on SCOTUS. Each justice would hold less power, and thus each appointment would be less fraught. The opportunities for unconventional alliances would be increased simply due to larger membership. Thirteen is also the number of federal appellate courts, so each justice would preside over a single district.
Hoping for an unforced error, or hoping anyone in politics follows norms, is not a sensible plan, as you have pointed out that Republicans have repeatedly shown they value hegemony over stability. (It seems like only a matter of time until this becomes tit for tat with Dems as Team Normal dies off and the party shifts further left.) The corporate media will breathlessly cover ANY scandal, but a significant number of people will get their news from other sources and disbelieve the scandal. (I often wonder whether and how right wing news outlets are covering, or not covering, particular news stories. I haven't found a good resource that does that without giving them clicks and thus ad revenue.)
This infuriates me! I’ve always hated double standards and the GOP are extremely proficient at it. They scream and cry over Hillary emails but ALL that tRump has done…not a peep. Thomas and now Alito need to go! We need limits and accountability in the SCOTUS!🤷🏼♀️🤬🤬🤬
We literally need a way to fire them. Not wait for an impeachment - none of that nonsense. We need to can them, like any of us would be canned if we engaged in those kinds of practices at our jobs.
I, like you, Jay, do hope that we can drive the younger voters out to vote in November, and remind them that while Israel & Palestine are problems that have been with us for a *very* long time and will not be solved by simplistic platitudes and false sympathies, our judicial system, and it’s ability to stand against the clear and present fascist threat, couldn’t be more important, and the negative effects of their and our inaction will have VERY long lasting affects.
I agree with your sentiment. Invoking "god," however, plays into the religious aspect of this whole fucking mess. It offends me (and many others) to see the "prayers" offered up, the praying hand emojis and the use of "god" to help this country. Please, stop asking your "god" to fix this because whatever you may think personally, "god" won't help. Nor do I think it has ears 🙄.
You have NO idea what I believe or think on the subject of “gods”.
First, “From your lips to God’s ears” is a classic Jewish colloquialism and was ideal for this situation. Secondly, while you repeated my use of the lower-case “god” instead of the more traditional capitalization of the Abrahamic religions, you seemed to have missed the *intent* of that: I do not ascribe to that concept of “God” and therefore will not capitalize it.
I won’t go into too much depth, but let’s just say that I studied Religion as my major at university under some of the finest Biblical scholars of their time. I’ve read the annotated New Testament in Koine Greek and became incredibly clear on the fallacies of calling the text “The Infallible Word of God”: when you read a footnote that says “xx number of papyrus fragments read ‘this’ word; xx number of codeces read ‘this’ word instead; etc.” and understand that those words have sometimes subtle but oft times *dramatically* different meanings when translated into English, it becomes *impossible* to believe that the book you read today in English is to be followed without at *least* understanding the cultural and historical context and how it would have been understood in the first century AD or later.
I couldn’t square those thoughts with the teachings of “The Church” and left the Religion department (and the Church) at that time, at great personal cost and loss to me in Layne Foundation scholarship money, and entered the Philosophy department, where I found the methodology to be a breath of fresh air.
Since that point in my early twenties, I have been an agnostic, as I believe “atheists” show just as much disdain for the paucity of human knowledge on the subject of “God” as do those with religious fervor and unending confidence in the “infallibility” of their chosen religious texts.
Still and all, “From your lips to god’s ears” is a phrase I will continue to use when it fits the moment! 😉
Whatever dude. And don't tell me to "lighten up," please. I stopped reading at that point. That's a classic attempt to diffuse the legitimacy of my stated position. "Oh calm down..." and then what I assume was a long list of reasons on why you're right and I'm hysterical. I made a request, that's all. I don't need anything mansplained to me.
Turn every available seat blue in November. Then impeach and expand the SCOTUS. Until then, open investigations of Thomas, Alito and any others that warrant it. Make the Public aware of these traitors to America and our democracy.
Alito gave democracy the finger long ago in promoting the preposterous "unitary executive" theory, a lame interpretation of the constitution that gives the president virtually unlimited power and would undo the revolution against crowned heads that is a founding principle of this nation. That he or any other of these authoritarian goons think they would be safe in such a society shows that they are exemplary cases of the articulate idiot.
We have so so so so so many Supreme Court rulings to correct, ugh. Voting Rights Act has been gutted, and its more modern replacements need passing. That’s so important. End partisan gerrymandering in both federal and state legislatures!
And dark, untraceable money into political advertising leading up to every election. They make so much noise and slander candidates so badly that they make campaign seasons intolerable. That needs to end.
The gutting of the VRA is a lifelong project for Chief Justice Roberts. Remember that when people try to frame him as a moderate. He has the same goals in mind as Alito and Thomas, but he believes slowing down the pace of regression will make it more tolerable.
It’s a known fact that Thomas’ wife was very involved in the J6 insurrection. Ginny was there at the scene while she called Mark Meadows begging him to not stop the insurrection. Clarence knew this and supported her when he should have recused himself. Of course it’s obvious guilt if they would have done that; but hey they are not above the law. And Alito was the one who dug up that old law about abortion that, I believe AZ was going to put in place. Chummy judges! 😕
This is one tactic that Orban used in Hungary to weaken its democracy: putting his cronies onto the Constitutional Court, the judicial body that most closely corresponds to our Supreme Court.
Very well said. I do wonder if Durbin’s hesitation has to do with the Biden administration? They haven’t been all over this, and Biden, himself, has expressed reluctance to expand or put limits on the SCOTUS.
Biden needs to come around. This isn’t his father’s SC. The religious fanatics are at the gate. If we hold all three branches come November, we must investigate and make changes to the SC.
Jay, I think the same thing. I know that Senator Sheldon Whitehouse is doing something as I watched him on MSBC during a segment. That’s on the Ethics Committee. I can’t very well contact my Senator because that “be Ron Johnson” 🤮 The other thing is I’ve always felt that Durbin is lazy, lacks the ability to get going on a things. Unlike Nancy. A lot of people don’t like her but she is go-getter and doesn’t let any grass grow under her feet. But this what we got.
On a different finger just displayed by Alito. He penned the decision in the SC redistricting case that came down today (https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/23pdf/22-807_3e04.pdf) In it he simply decides that since he doesn't like the evidence the district court relied on, it is "clear error." The case was whether moving 200k people out of the districts they had been in was partisan or racial gerrymandering. His conclusion is that we have to presume legislators act in good faith. Ya sure ya'betcha.
The idea of deference to the trier of fact, who HEARD the testimony and decided who was credible, is out the window. Alito has set HIMSELF up as the ultimate trier of fact, a role the appellate courts most decidedly do NOT have.
The case was "reversed in part and remanded in part." I didn't bother reading all the dreck so I'm not sure what was remanded to the District Court to decide. Read the dissents, who make the case clearly why this is a flying finger of contempt for how our judicial system is supposed to work. In any event, it is clear that no remand can happen even in time for 2024.
Today's piece is a timely and much needed call-to-arms. Without a Democratic trifecta after November, the "American Experiment" in elected government just might be over. If the Democrats DO get that trifecta in November, they had better hit the ground running and not waste one moment.
I will accept, though not love, keeping the White House and flipping the House. Perhaps we can pull in one more sympathetic more independent minded Republican from time to time on key votes.
What concerns me is that we have structural issues that require legislation to pass in order to fix. That said, I agree with you. If Biden wins in November, Trump will not be around to worry about four years later.
All of the Substacks that I read, whether I am a paid subscriber or not, all speak to the strategies to fight back against this Fascist movement by means of a rules based society. The problem with approaching it this way is that the Fascist movement is not operating by means of a rules based society. The analogy is the commonly used phrase “Bringing a knife to a gun fight”.
I have heard it spoken “that is just not who we are” too many times, it is a wrongheaded way to think about all of this. As it is exactly who we are. Our history bares this out over and over again. If our critical thinking leaders representing the people of the country who want to protect our Democracy and way of life don’t wake up and start fighting on the terms that these Fascists are bringing, we are screwed.
Desperate times, is the phrase that distills down all that is opined by these Substack newsletters, It is high time for desperate measures be deployed.
The Insurrection never stopped. Speaker Johnson should have been charged for his part - not be made Speaker and allowed to fly that flag outside his office. Biden is still President and Commander in Chief. The oath is to the Constitution-as it stands - not an alternative Constitution. Our foreign adversaries are waiting for the United States to descend into civil war. Deny them the opportunity.
Sharia Law is about fundamentalist god-thumpers of any religion imposing their will on, to borrow Jay's word, a "feckless" population. It has happened in many (not all) parts of the middle east, It is happening in India, it has happened in Israel, and it's been a growing problem here for 40 years.
None of this happened overnight. Alito, like Trump, is a symbol of a much larger problem.
I'm glad you specifically called out the feckless Durbin on this. He's another example of a guy who's been in office way too long. He's useless.
I wish I could feel more optimistic about anything being done about any of this, but I'm old enough to remember the days when the Chicago Reader and other alternative weekly papers called out Christo-Nationalists in the late 1970s.
The problem has not only gotten much worse since those days, it is threatening to make Margaret Atwood's biggest nightmares come true. In the meantime, I don't think most people realize how much the U.S. has veered into becoming a right-wing police state. Most young people have no context.
Sad to say that I feel your pessimism. I was screaming from the mountaintops trying to reach young people in 2016, reminding them that the courts and their sacred rights were at stake. Hopefully I reached a few, but obviously didn't make a difference in the outcome of that fateful election. It doesn't help that so many influential voices are only piling on to criticize Biden. I will never become complacent or apathetic but it is infuriating and frightening.
All I hear from young people is how bad inflation is. They don't care about the existential stuff. They also don't understand that the original source of today's inflation is Trump. Their general lack of knowledge is starting to get on my nerves.
Young people have consistently voted for Democrats in higher percentages than any other generation before them. I have faith that they will do the same this November.
Yes, they have, and yes, they will. But a lot of them seem inclined to stay home this time around, and many of them seem to be conflating Netanyahu's viciousness with Biden policies. I would be like to be wrong about the tea leaves I am reading, believe me. We need to do more work to help them understand what is going on out there. We need to help them understand the root causes of the inflation they're dealing with. It's a real problem when food is 25% higher than it was a few years ago and kids are paying half their earnings to rent. Most of the underlying causes for that were caused by Trump policies. Biden has received no credit at all for things like fixing the port situation, which is one of the first things he tackled.
The Clinton administration understood the problem well. At the end of the day, when it comes to elections, it's the economy. It always has been and always will be. Only we die hard political nerds are agitated over the horrors of Trump. Part of our jobs is to spread the word outside of our echo chambers. If we don't, it's going to be an ugly election night.
I've said it before, we need to expand the court. But to do that we need to win BIG in November, everything we do between now and then has to be driving us towards that goal. Oh, and I will be calling my Senator - Mr. Durbin - to voice my displeasure.
We really ought to have 13 Justices. There are now 13 districts.
Expanding the court is not the answer, but we need to oust some of these judges and get "fair" judges in their place. We NEED, no WE HAVE to vote BLUE!!
Expanding the court is the only answer! We can't "oust" these judges without impeaching them, and then the Senate will need to convict them. I don't see republican senators voting to convict, nor do I see us getting to the 66 Democratic Senators needed to convict. We are voting Blue, but more will be needed.
I’m going to split the baby and say there are multiple reform efforts that could be undertaken, from term limits to expanding the Court. Ousting judges is very hard, I agree.
Actually removing federal judges through impeachment is so difficult it could really be called impossible particulary for the high-profile Supreme Court justices. However, "impeachment" is accomplished solely by the House by a simple majority vote. Although unlikely that they will be removed, I think the new House starting in 2025 should (assuming a Democratic majority) file and pass articles of impeachment against Thomas and Alito. There is ample evidence that both are guilty of "high crimes and misdemeanors." This can possibly be done against Kavanaugh, too, for lying to Congress during his vetting process. Having the House start an impeachment investigation may be enough to prompt their resignations. If not, at least their legacies will be eternally tarnished and, perhaps, Alito will learn that he is NOT untouchable.
I like term limits and I like expanding the court. We can do both...or can we? Either would be contested and SCOTUS would have the final say. What do you think they'd do? Cut their power?
I'm almost always optimistic, but not about this. We may need to amend the Constitution, and that's really, really difficult.
Joseph in Fairport, NY
Congress has always had the power to set the number of seats on the Supreme Court. It has been done previously in the 19th century.
True. Do you think Congress can institute term limits? There's the phrase in Article III about judges serving on good behavior. It doesn't say that they serve for life, and term limits isn't mentioned, not explicitly, so the meaning of the phrase must rest on interpretation. And the Court does that.
Joseph in Fairport, NY
This is why I think we should all be insisting that Durbin investigate them.
We can hope that these judges say that presidents have absolute immunity. Biden could just remove them from the court. Room and board at Gitmo, telling no-one what happened. Appoint replacements as liberal justices and change that stupid decision. LOL
I have been writing Dick Durbin to investigate them for impeachment. That is Alito and Thomas. I have said it does not matter whether they do not have the votes, what matters is that they follow the protocol and it will put them both on Notice that only because of lack of votes did they not get impeached, not because no one would find them impeachable. I also think the justice department should go after them. If they are found guilty let the military remove them.
"I also think the justice department should go after them."
And prosecute them where but in the courts, to which SCOTUS stands supreme.
Joseph in Fairport, NY
I agree with this, and think I have mentioned it on some occasions. Still, the Senate is supposed to have oversight, and one should start there and then go to the justice department. It would also be interesting to see a citizen lawsuit. I am sure there are grounds. Should be filed in a friendly court.
I wholeheartedly agree, but Biden has already ruled it out. He assigned a committee examine the issue in 2021. They basically couldn't agree and gave up without making any recommendations.
Yeah, that was before Alito started flying insurrection flags. If they house and senate get a bill to his desk, I bet he would sign it. Other wise we are stuck with this court until they die.
I'm not sure the aged Senate Dems would go for it either. They're of the same generation as Biden. They are institutionalists. Plus, there's the "when they go low, we go high" bit. Senate Dems aren't Team Progress. They're Team Normal, and normal is 9 largely unaccountable justices. Normal is expecting norms won't be violated, rather than formalizing desirable norms into a law with meaningful consequences for violating it. Normal is Susan Collins fretting over Trump "learning his lesson." In many ways Biden is also Team Normal.
Can you believe Congress used to set the agenda for SCOTUS? Vladeck's book about the Shadow Docket covers that history, as well as the times when it had different numbers of justices.
If you're right, the we're screwed. Because eventually this corrupt court will start throwing out the votes they don't like. Alito was ready to do it last time, but didn't get the chance. Time for them to stop playing for "Team Normal," and do the right thing.
That's essentially what Alito and the other conservative justices just handed to South Carolina. The right of state legislatures to make unlimited political gerrymanders means the right to ignore the will of the people and gives legislators the power to select their voters.
Heather Cox Richardson does a great job of pointing out how those ideas are what lead to the Civil War. I see it as a second great tragedy, after the failure at the Founding to deal with slavery, that the Constitution was not fully rewritten after the Civil War, in a second Constitutional Convention, to truly divorce us from the ideas of the enslavers. The Reconstruction amendments were obviously insufficient, as nearly a century of Jim/Juan Crow laws, covenant communities, and sundown towns throughout the country made abundantly clear.
In the wake of the failure of Reconstruction, the composition of SCOTUS became essential: the Warren court reversed the overthrow of Reconstruction to what extent they could, and ever since, conservatives have been seeking hegemony to reverse the Warren court's progress. Thomas' concurrence on the South Carolina case takes aim at Brown v. Board of Education. They aren't afraid of saying out loud what they have planned.
They don't have to worry about saying it out loud, they basically have immunity and there is nothing we can do about it. I read Heather every day, great insight! Might be time for California, Washington, New York, and Oregon to repeal their laws preventing partisan gerrymandering.
Hopefully DT's court appeal decisions or Bouncing the decision around the lower courts (delays) would move the needle for Congress & the White House...
Darn it, every time I type White, supremacists pops up. I spent too much time researching groups in my red southern state of SC.
We used to have the 3rd most in the country, but that's due to infighting & dividing into smaller groups.
Not the best or brightest.
Everything can change. I do not assume that there is no circumstance under which Biden would not support removal. If any of them is found to have molested a child I think there would be popular support for their removal and any branch would be hard pressed to ignore it. Of course Republicans would just deny that it happened. So would the mainstream press by ignoring it. The press is determining what goes on in the USA as much as anyone in politics, because by covering or not covering something they are swaying popular opinion under the guise of being "impartial."
It's not impeachment that Biden seems to have ruled out, though his position on Team Normal definitely suggests he'd be against it, but rather expanding the size of the court. Removing 1 or even 2 conservative justices is an absolutely gargantuan prospect, given the 2/3 majority required and the Senate's anti-majoritarian structure. Expanding the court is easier, though no cakewalk, as it requires an act of Congress, meaning it must survive any filibuster attempts, and thus needs 60 votes, not 67. Still unlikely, but more likely.
An expansion to 13 justices, best spread out over a couple administrations to make the plan more appealing to moderates, paired with either lengthy term limits (20 years) or some other limitations, would provide a moderating influence on SCOTUS. Each justice would hold less power, and thus each appointment would be less fraught. The opportunities for unconventional alliances would be increased simply due to larger membership. Thirteen is also the number of federal appellate courts, so each justice would preside over a single district.
Hoping for an unforced error, or hoping anyone in politics follows norms, is not a sensible plan, as you have pointed out that Republicans have repeatedly shown they value hegemony over stability. (It seems like only a matter of time until this becomes tit for tat with Dems as Team Normal dies off and the party shifts further left.) The corporate media will breathlessly cover ANY scandal, but a significant number of people will get their news from other sources and disbelieve the scandal. (I often wonder whether and how right wing news outlets are covering, or not covering, particular news stories. I haven't found a good resource that does that without giving them clicks and thus ad revenue.)
😢
This infuriates me! I’ve always hated double standards and the GOP are extremely proficient at it. They scream and cry over Hillary emails but ALL that tRump has done…not a peep. Thomas and now Alito need to go! We need limits and accountability in the SCOTUS!🤷🏼♀️🤬🤬🤬
We literally need a way to fire them. Not wait for an impeachment - none of that nonsense. We need to can them, like any of us would be canned if we engaged in those kinds of practices at our jobs.
I, like you, Jay, do hope that we can drive the younger voters out to vote in November, and remind them that while Israel & Palestine are problems that have been with us for a *very* long time and will not be solved by simplistic platitudes and false sympathies, our judicial system, and it’s ability to stand against the clear and present fascist threat, couldn’t be more important, and the negative effects of their and our inaction will have VERY long lasting affects.
There are many democratic organizations that are on college campuses getting students registered and speaking about the importance of this election.
From your lips to god’s ears!
I agree with your sentiment. Invoking "god," however, plays into the religious aspect of this whole fucking mess. It offends me (and many others) to see the "prayers" offered up, the praying hand emojis and the use of "god" to help this country. Please, stop asking your "god" to fix this because whatever you may think personally, "god" won't help. Nor do I think it has ears 🙄.
Jesus, lighten up a little, OK?
You have NO idea what I believe or think on the subject of “gods”.
First, “From your lips to God’s ears” is a classic Jewish colloquialism and was ideal for this situation. Secondly, while you repeated my use of the lower-case “god” instead of the more traditional capitalization of the Abrahamic religions, you seemed to have missed the *intent* of that: I do not ascribe to that concept of “God” and therefore will not capitalize it.
I won’t go into too much depth, but let’s just say that I studied Religion as my major at university under some of the finest Biblical scholars of their time. I’ve read the annotated New Testament in Koine Greek and became incredibly clear on the fallacies of calling the text “The Infallible Word of God”: when you read a footnote that says “xx number of papyrus fragments read ‘this’ word; xx number of codeces read ‘this’ word instead; etc.” and understand that those words have sometimes subtle but oft times *dramatically* different meanings when translated into English, it becomes *impossible* to believe that the book you read today in English is to be followed without at *least* understanding the cultural and historical context and how it would have been understood in the first century AD or later.
I couldn’t square those thoughts with the teachings of “The Church” and left the Religion department (and the Church) at that time, at great personal cost and loss to me in Layne Foundation scholarship money, and entered the Philosophy department, where I found the methodology to be a breath of fresh air.
Since that point in my early twenties, I have been an agnostic, as I believe “atheists” show just as much disdain for the paucity of human knowledge on the subject of “God” as do those with religious fervor and unending confidence in the “infallibility” of their chosen religious texts.
Still and all, “From your lips to god’s ears” is a phrase I will continue to use when it fits the moment! 😉
Whatever dude. And don't tell me to "lighten up," please. I stopped reading at that point. That's a classic attempt to diffuse the legitimacy of my stated position. "Oh calm down..." and then what I assume was a long list of reasons on why you're right and I'm hysterical. I made a request, that's all. I don't need anything mansplained to me.
Turn every available seat blue in November. Then impeach and expand the SCOTUS. Until then, open investigations of Thomas, Alito and any others that warrant it. Make the Public aware of these traitors to America and our democracy.
Alito gave democracy the finger long ago in promoting the preposterous "unitary executive" theory, a lame interpretation of the constitution that gives the president virtually unlimited power and would undo the revolution against crowned heads that is a founding principle of this nation. That he or any other of these authoritarian goons think they would be safe in such a society shows that they are exemplary cases of the articulate idiot.
We have so so so so so many Supreme Court rulings to correct, ugh. Voting Rights Act has been gutted, and its more modern replacements need passing. That’s so important. End partisan gerrymandering in both federal and state legislatures!
There are, I agree, so many things that need to be undone or redone. It would take a long time, but we must start by stopping the bleeding.
Put an end to Citizens United and the money that flows unhindered into corrupt pockets.
And dark, untraceable money into political advertising leading up to every election. They make so much noise and slander candidates so badly that they make campaign seasons intolerable. That needs to end.
The gutting of the VRA is a lifelong project for Chief Justice Roberts. Remember that when people try to frame him as a moderate. He has the same goals in mind as Alito and Thomas, but he believes slowing down the pace of regression will make it more tolerable.
Thomas and Alito should not be sitting in that position. They have both shown to be biased and traitors to our constitution!
Please add the Trump Three and Robert’s to that list. Biased and corrupt-all.
They are not the worst. Yet!
DONT LET OTHER PEOPLE RUN YOUR LIFE.
VOTE BLUE.
It’s a known fact that Thomas’ wife was very involved in the J6 insurrection. Ginny was there at the scene while she called Mark Meadows begging him to not stop the insurrection. Clarence knew this and supported her when he should have recused himself. Of course it’s obvious guilt if they would have done that; but hey they are not above the law. And Alito was the one who dug up that old law about abortion that, I believe AZ was going to put in place. Chummy judges! 😕
This is one tactic that Orban used in Hungary to weaken its democracy: putting his cronies onto the Constitutional Court, the judicial body that most closely corresponds to our Supreme Court.
Very well said. I do wonder if Durbin’s hesitation has to do with the Biden administration? They haven’t been all over this, and Biden, himself, has expressed reluctance to expand or put limits on the SCOTUS.
Biden needs to come around. This isn’t his father’s SC. The religious fanatics are at the gate. If we hold all three branches come November, we must investigate and make changes to the SC.
I hope some of what we citizen journalists are saying is reaching the ears of his advisers.
Jay, I think the same thing. I know that Senator Sheldon Whitehouse is doing something as I watched him on MSBC during a segment. That’s on the Ethics Committee. I can’t very well contact my Senator because that “be Ron Johnson” 🤮 The other thing is I’ve always felt that Durbin is lazy, lacks the ability to get going on a things. Unlike Nancy. A lot of people don’t like her but she is go-getter and doesn’t let any grass grow under her feet. But this what we got.
Very good article
On a different finger just displayed by Alito. He penned the decision in the SC redistricting case that came down today (https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/23pdf/22-807_3e04.pdf) In it he simply decides that since he doesn't like the evidence the district court relied on, it is "clear error." The case was whether moving 200k people out of the districts they had been in was partisan or racial gerrymandering. His conclusion is that we have to presume legislators act in good faith. Ya sure ya'betcha.
The idea of deference to the trier of fact, who HEARD the testimony and decided who was credible, is out the window. Alito has set HIMSELF up as the ultimate trier of fact, a role the appellate courts most decidedly do NOT have.
The case was "reversed in part and remanded in part." I didn't bother reading all the dreck so I'm not sure what was remanded to the District Court to decide. Read the dissents, who make the case clearly why this is a flying finger of contempt for how our judicial system is supposed to work. In any event, it is clear that no remand can happen even in time for 2024.
Did you read Thomas’s concurrence? Ugh.
you mean Mr. "Let Legislatures Be Racist as Hell, Not My Job and I've Got My RV already?"
Today's piece is a timely and much needed call-to-arms. Without a Democratic trifecta after November, the "American Experiment" in elected government just might be over. If the Democrats DO get that trifecta in November, they had better hit the ground running and not waste one moment.
I will accept, though not love, keeping the White House and flipping the House. Perhaps we can pull in one more sympathetic more independent minded Republican from time to time on key votes.
What concerns me is that we have structural issues that require legislation to pass in order to fix. That said, I agree with you. If Biden wins in November, Trump will not be around to worry about four years later.
Hopefully he'll be in court for the rest of his life. Transported by Federal authorities from prison instead of limousine.
All of the Substacks that I read, whether I am a paid subscriber or not, all speak to the strategies to fight back against this Fascist movement by means of a rules based society. The problem with approaching it this way is that the Fascist movement is not operating by means of a rules based society. The analogy is the commonly used phrase “Bringing a knife to a gun fight”.
I have heard it spoken “that is just not who we are” too many times, it is a wrongheaded way to think about all of this. As it is exactly who we are. Our history bares this out over and over again. If our critical thinking leaders representing the people of the country who want to protect our Democracy and way of life don’t wake up and start fighting on the terms that these Fascists are bringing, we are screwed.
Desperate times, is the phrase that distills down all that is opined by these Substack newsletters, It is high time for desperate measures be deployed.
The Insurrection never stopped. Speaker Johnson should have been charged for his part - not be made Speaker and allowed to fly that flag outside his office. Biden is still President and Commander in Chief. The oath is to the Constitution-as it stands - not an alternative Constitution. Our foreign adversaries are waiting for the United States to descend into civil war. Deny them the opportunity.
Hence, deploy desperate measures.
Do you mean dirty tricks?
Sharia Law is about fundamentalist god-thumpers of any religion imposing their will on, to borrow Jay's word, a "feckless" population. It has happened in many (not all) parts of the middle east, It is happening in India, it has happened in Israel, and it's been a growing problem here for 40 years.
None of this happened overnight. Alito, like Trump, is a symbol of a much larger problem.
I'm glad you specifically called out the feckless Durbin on this. He's another example of a guy who's been in office way too long. He's useless.
I wish I could feel more optimistic about anything being done about any of this, but I'm old enough to remember the days when the Chicago Reader and other alternative weekly papers called out Christo-Nationalists in the late 1970s.
The problem has not only gotten much worse since those days, it is threatening to make Margaret Atwood's biggest nightmares come true. In the meantime, I don't think most people realize how much the U.S. has veered into becoming a right-wing police state. Most young people have no context.
For once, I'm glad I'm getting old.
Sad to say that I feel your pessimism. I was screaming from the mountaintops trying to reach young people in 2016, reminding them that the courts and their sacred rights were at stake. Hopefully I reached a few, but obviously didn't make a difference in the outcome of that fateful election. It doesn't help that so many influential voices are only piling on to criticize Biden. I will never become complacent or apathetic but it is infuriating and frightening.
All I hear from young people is how bad inflation is. They don't care about the existential stuff. They also don't understand that the original source of today's inflation is Trump. Their general lack of knowledge is starting to get on my nerves.
Young people have consistently voted for Democrats in higher percentages than any other generation before them. I have faith that they will do the same this November.
Yes, they have, and yes, they will. But a lot of them seem inclined to stay home this time around, and many of them seem to be conflating Netanyahu's viciousness with Biden policies. I would be like to be wrong about the tea leaves I am reading, believe me. We need to do more work to help them understand what is going on out there. We need to help them understand the root causes of the inflation they're dealing with. It's a real problem when food is 25% higher than it was a few years ago and kids are paying half their earnings to rent. Most of the underlying causes for that were caused by Trump policies. Biden has received no credit at all for things like fixing the port situation, which is one of the first things he tackled.
The Clinton administration understood the problem well. At the end of the day, when it comes to elections, it's the economy. It always has been and always will be. Only we die hard political nerds are agitated over the horrors of Trump. Part of our jobs is to spread the word outside of our echo chambers. If we don't, it's going to be an ugly election night.