There is an opinion article in the NYT today "The Tragedy of John Roberts." The content furthers Chris' point that support for the court will not be coming back soon.
Specifically becuase Roberts won't impose leadership of the court, shirks interactions with the Legislative branch, and refuses to impose ethical standards on SCOTUS that apply to all other federal judges.
I agree with you. Mitch McConnell started the politicization of the Supreme Court by not even giving Obama's appointee(Garland) a hearing. Donald Trump completed the politicization and hence destruction of the faith and trust people have in the court.
That brings me to this question for you Chris. Which Political Party do these Supreme cour decisions benefit in 2024. I am curious about your thoughts on this because I remember you predicted that the Dobbs decision might benefit the Democrats in 2022 and it indeed did
I agree, Chris. The legitimacy of the Supreme Court is long gone. It may have gone as far back as Thomas’ confirmation hearings but definitely when McConnell screwing Obama over the Garland hearing. I can see term limits and yet, where do you even start with that? I understand why RBG wouldn’t retire but it backfired bigly. The spectacle of the Kavanaugh hearings and believe there was some unethical doings during that time. Roberts needs to step it up but won’t.
Mitch McConnell destroyed the Senate. He destroyed the Supreme Court, and he's destroying the courts in general. Our system cannot work without a critical mass of men and women of good faith. Mitch McConnell is the epitome of a bad faith operator.
McConnell had at least 2 opportunities to remove Donald Trump so we wouldn't have had to worry about him again. The Senate would have convicted him if Mitch had pointed the way.
Chris - your depressing view of the current state of our nation is well articulated and one that I have been thinking about a lot lately. I agree with you and it leads me to think about how incredibly great the post WWII boomer generation has had it. We have experienced unmatched productivity and success, what generation has had it so good, been so "on top"? We have seen traditional roles and traditional institutions fall into partisan camps and/or melt into a dream - not to mention at the expense of our planet and environment. It seems as its "every man for himself" with no route to a mindset of "we are all in this together". I truly enjoy your writing - keep listening to good music, a positive force that gives hope.
I think the court reforms the Dems want are decent ideas, but I tend to favor shorter-term fixes like "cameras in the court" to make it harder for them to hide things like Kennedy vs Bremerton or the recent 303 ruling, both of which are based on lies (over a dozen factual lies in Kennedy iirc).
I also think subpoenas for Leonard Leo are necessary. He seems guilty as sin of tax evasion; billionaire deposits money with Leo's non-profit which then contracts with his consulting company? Sunlight is the best disinfectant, and the suggestion of the subpoena will cause R overreaction (look at Alito/WSJ and ProPublica, as well as Harlan Crow trying to plead separation of powers as a private citizen). Like the Chinese and Bidens Summit for Democracy, the authoritarian types hate being questioned and get real shrill in response.
Pretty sure that Roberts will wring his hands about the legitimacy, while the ethics cess-pools that are Alito and Thomas will continue to force their retrograde priorities on the polity, with plenty of aid from Gorsuch, Kavanaugh and Barrett.
There's not much that can be done, the polarized court will be ruling like this for probably the next 25 years.
I'd bet my last donut that Thomas will not resign until another R is in the whitehouse.
I take issue with the idea that the politicization of the Supreme Court began with the non hearing for Merrick Garland. Over my lifetime I have seen our institutions become rapidly more toxic and polarized. Many reason for it, but certainly both parties and the media like cable news have played their parts in it. The politicalization of the court began with Robert Bork in my opinion. Up until his confirmation most SC nominees were judged upon their qualifications not their ideology. RBG was confirmed 96-3 and Scalia 98-0. Sen Kennedy politicalized the Bork confirmation and it failed. Federal Court confirmations came harder after that, it just didn’t start right away.
Under Sen Reid the nuclear option was used in 2013 to confirm federal judges which were being filibustered. Both the filibuster(which had at the point been used by both parties) and the nuclear outcome fed politicization of the courts. This led to the Garland non vote. In 2017 the GOP used the precedent of Dem use of the nuclear option to eliminate the filibuster on Supreme Court Justices.
There is an opinion article in the NYT today "The Tragedy of John Roberts." The content furthers Chris' point that support for the court will not be coming back soon.
Specifically becuase Roberts won't impose leadership of the court, shirks interactions with the Legislative branch, and refuses to impose ethical standards on SCOTUS that apply to all other federal judges.
I agree with you. Mitch McConnell started the politicization of the Supreme Court by not even giving Obama's appointee(Garland) a hearing. Donald Trump completed the politicization and hence destruction of the faith and trust people have in the court.
That brings me to this question for you Chris. Which Political Party do these Supreme cour decisions benefit in 2024. I am curious about your thoughts on this because I remember you predicted that the Dobbs decision might benefit the Democrats in 2022 and it indeed did
I agree, Chris. The legitimacy of the Supreme Court is long gone. It may have gone as far back as Thomas’ confirmation hearings but definitely when McConnell screwing Obama over the Garland hearing. I can see term limits and yet, where do you even start with that? I understand why RBG wouldn’t retire but it backfired bigly. The spectacle of the Kavanaugh hearings and believe there was some unethical doings during that time. Roberts needs to step it up but won’t.
Mitch McConnell destroyed the Senate. He destroyed the Supreme Court, and he's destroying the courts in general. Our system cannot work without a critical mass of men and women of good faith. Mitch McConnell is the epitome of a bad faith operator.
McConnell had at least 2 opportunities to remove Donald Trump so we wouldn't have had to worry about him again. The Senate would have convicted him if Mitch had pointed the way.
Chris - your depressing view of the current state of our nation is well articulated and one that I have been thinking about a lot lately. I agree with you and it leads me to think about how incredibly great the post WWII boomer generation has had it. We have experienced unmatched productivity and success, what generation has had it so good, been so "on top"? We have seen traditional roles and traditional institutions fall into partisan camps and/or melt into a dream - not to mention at the expense of our planet and environment. It seems as its "every man for himself" with no route to a mindset of "we are all in this together". I truly enjoy your writing - keep listening to good music, a positive force that gives hope.
I think the court reforms the Dems want are decent ideas, but I tend to favor shorter-term fixes like "cameras in the court" to make it harder for them to hide things like Kennedy vs Bremerton or the recent 303 ruling, both of which are based on lies (over a dozen factual lies in Kennedy iirc).
I also think subpoenas for Leonard Leo are necessary. He seems guilty as sin of tax evasion; billionaire deposits money with Leo's non-profit which then contracts with his consulting company? Sunlight is the best disinfectant, and the suggestion of the subpoena will cause R overreaction (look at Alito/WSJ and ProPublica, as well as Harlan Crow trying to plead separation of powers as a private citizen). Like the Chinese and Bidens Summit for Democracy, the authoritarian types hate being questioned and get real shrill in response.
Pretty sure that Roberts will wring his hands about the legitimacy, while the ethics cess-pools that are Alito and Thomas will continue to force their retrograde priorities on the polity, with plenty of aid from Gorsuch, Kavanaugh and Barrett.
There's not much that can be done, the polarized court will be ruling like this for probably the next 25 years.
I'd bet my last donut that Thomas will not resign until another R is in the whitehouse.
I take issue with the idea that the politicization of the Supreme Court began with the non hearing for Merrick Garland. Over my lifetime I have seen our institutions become rapidly more toxic and polarized. Many reason for it, but certainly both parties and the media like cable news have played their parts in it. The politicalization of the court began with Robert Bork in my opinion. Up until his confirmation most SC nominees were judged upon their qualifications not their ideology. RBG was confirmed 96-3 and Scalia 98-0. Sen Kennedy politicalized the Bork confirmation and it failed. Federal Court confirmations came harder after that, it just didn’t start right away.
Under Sen Reid the nuclear option was used in 2013 to confirm federal judges which were being filibustered. Both the filibuster(which had at the point been used by both parties) and the nuclear outcome fed politicization of the courts. This led to the Garland non vote. In 2017 the GOP used the precedent of Dem use of the nuclear option to eliminate the filibuster on Supreme Court Justices.
Well.........THAT is depressing.