In a oped piece in the Washington Post this morning, Joe Biden proposed common sense reforms to the SCOTUS.  It would have been really nice had he proposed those 3 1/2 years ago rather than as a lame duck president, but it’s a badly needed proposal.  In those years of dawdling, an obviously corrupted court has taken a hatchet to the Constitution and almost 250 years of settled law.  The radical majority has been rapidly disassembling longstanding administrative law, voting rights, women’s rights to choose their own reproductive healthcare, gun safety laws, bribery laws, and longstanding understanding of Constitutional principles such as immunity.  They’ve also actually invited parties to bring lawsuits to the court to speed up their destruction (see US v. Trump).

The problem with the court, though, is not just the last few years.  The current crisis has been building since  Reagan nominated Robert Bork and Antonin Scalia and GHWB nominated Clarence Thomas.  Bork was the original originalist, believing the Constitution should only be interpreted through the Founders’ eyes, ignoring what happened between 1789 and current day.  It’s idiotic. The concept is radical and has brought us some of the worst SCOTUS decisions since the disastrous Dred Scott decision in 1857 that ruled that the Constitution did not protect enslaved Americans.

Chief Justice John Roberts has presided over this abortion (pun intended) and has inexplicably defended not only the court’s decisions, but has steadfastly resisted oversite from the Legislative branch and reforming itself.  He has allowed Thomas to flout both the law and common sense, ignoring the fact that he (as well as Alito) have been bought and paid for by partisan and corporate interests.

Even while acknowledging the crisis at the SCOTUS, Biden has been reluctant to step in.  He started a commission to study the court and make recommendations, but three years later, he’s done nothing.  Only now, after he became a lame duck, is he proposing long needed change.  Beyond waiting WAY too long to propose changes to the court, there’s no chance that they’ll get a fair hearing in the legislature.  The Insurrectionist Party, which clings to a tiny majority in the House, has no interest in doing anything beyond putting its collective nose up TFG’s diapered ass, so reform bills will no nowhere for now.  They LOVE the Court as it is, and only a change in November will make reform of the Court possible.

What can we do?  Vote.  Every single incumbent and candidate who supports TFG or this court must be defeated.  That, of course, is not going to happen in one election, but it’s a start.  And that’s the only chance we have of pulling us back from the brink.

There’s a lot of reporting that Biden is being shielded by his wife, Jill, and his close staff from the reality of polling numbers which, besides personal pride, is one of the reasons he is stubbornly hanging on.  To counter the effort to get him to step down, it’s now coming out that he’s going to propose an overhaul of the Supreme Court including an actual ethics policy and term limits.  It’s also being reported that he’s going to propose a Constitutional amendment to restate that the President is not immune from prosecution for criminal acts.

There’s not a chance in hell of any of these proposals seeing the light of day, especially with Fascist control of the House and many of the states.  BUT, it’s the right subject.  Biden is way too late, but THIS is a key issue, and a Hail Mary is about all he’s got left.  The SCOTUS is now bought and paid for by billionaires lead by Leonard Leo and it’s got to be fixed.  However, with today’s politics there is no quick fix, especially with the juggernaut created by Leo and his Federalist Society.  To make real change here, the People will have to overcome the do-nothing inertia that paralyzes the Congress.  I’m not hopeful, at least at this point.

Maybe this effort by Biden will save his candidacy.  I don’t think it’s enough to overcome his negatives, but it’s something, especially if this proposal gains real traction that gives people some hope.

In other news, the DNC gave up on its attempt to ram through Biden’s nomination during July even before the convention rules committee meets.  Postponing this vote tells me that there are serious discussion going on behind closed about what to do about Biden.  This has got to be decided sooner rather than later.

SCOTUS outrageous rewriting of the US Constitution yesterday sent a loud message to all of the January 6 insurrectionists who sacked the Capitol and attacked police to stop the certification of the 2020 presidential election: “Please run for office! We won’t stand in your way!”  The 14th Amendment was enacted after the Civil War to be assure that those who participated in the Confederacy against the US government could not then return as elected officials in that government.  The Trump Thomas SCOTUS shattered that yesterday when they rewrote it by throwing up a roadblock making it impossible to enforces unless Congress passed a law stopping it.  While going out of their way to protect TFG, they opened the door to insanity in our elections.  Expect the nuts, mouthbreathers, and Nazis who stormed the Captitol now try to take over the government at the ballot box.

It’s unimaginable.

As expected, the SCOTUS ruled that individual states cannot keep an insurrectionist off their own state ballot.  The opinion was unanimous.  But what isn’t talked about as much in the media is what the majority did next, which was writing in a new constitutional provision specifically designed to protect none other than the subject of the ruling, TFG.  Even though the opinion was unanimous, it was unanimous only in saying the states can’t ban insurrectionists from the ballot.  The four women justices disagreed when the Trump Wing of SCOTUS went far beyond the question before the Court, adding a new requirement that a candidate can only be blocked under the 14th Amendment by FEDERAL LEGISLATION, which, in the current environment, is impossible.  It doesn’t impose that same rule on other provisions of the 14th Amendment such as the two term limit, just the insurrectionist provision.  So the Trump Wing of SCOTUS actually wrote in a new Constitutional requirement to disqualify an insurrectionist.  This is called legislating from the bench. And again, done so in the service of TFG to help him take over the US government in January 2025.

The Trump Wing of the SCOTUS often hides behind federal legislation in its opinions to help their own political party.  One glaring example of this is when they declined to stop clearly unconstitutional state gerrymandering  that has permanently disenfranchise millions of voters like those of us in Texas where Dems have to win 58% of votes in districts statewide to have a chance of taking a majority of Congressional seats.  SCOTUS says it’s not its job to protect from that, so disenfranchised voters have no recourse for justice.

So the SCOTUS continues to run interference for TFG, helping him run out the clock to the election in November.  Oh, and by the by, Clarence Thomas once again didn’t recuse in a case where he is clearly conflicted.

Your welcome.

Let’s just say it right up front – the current majority of the Supreme Court doesn’t give a flying fuck about the Constitution, the Rule of Law or you.  Given opportunity after opportunity to be the last line defense of The People against a continuous onslaught on the rule of law and common decency the Court has failed miserably time after time.  John Roberts has presided over the biggest abortion (no pun intended) of jurisprudence in US history, and appears to have lost what little control he had over what can now only be termed the Trump-Thomas Court of Law by and for the Highest Bidder, bought and paid for by Leonard Leo and the billionaire class.

Over the last two decades the Court has unraveled decades (sometimes centuries) of well established constitutional precedent, ruling that money equals speech (for billionaires and corporations), money doesn’t corrupt, gun safety laws are inconvenient to criminals and gun manufacturers, the EPA is a waste of time, political gerrymandering that destroyed state and federal legislatures is OK, unions that protect workers’ rights are tiring for corporations, separation of church and state is a quaint concept, state funding of religious schools is fine, public health policy to protect the health of the nation is unconstitutional, law enforcement can’t be held accountable for abusing the rights of the accused or wrongly convicted, access to reasonable healthcare is not a right, and state funding of campaign to counter billionaires’ money is illegal.  Added to this long list of disasters are the most damaging rulings, which were the gutting of the Voting Rights act and the reversal of Roe v. Wade, which is the first time in United States History that a personal right was taken away.  As I write this, the Trump-Thomas Court is now actually considering reversing the long established principal that US agencies can implement US law (Chevron Rule) and if a bump stock, which turns a rifle into a machine gun actually turns a rifle into a machine gun.  During oral argument Alito remarkably mused that bump stocks should be allowed so people with arthritis can easily fire off 400 rounds a minute.  Finally, Alito and Thomas have already sent the signal that marriage equality and contraception are on the chopping block as abhorrent as that idea is.

On top of all that, the Court is now actively helping TFG avoid prosecution by slow walking his ridiculous claim that a US president has absolute immunity from any criminal prosecution, even for murder.  So get this – in December, US Attorney Jack Smith, so he can get the election interference trial before the People before the next election, begged the Court to hear TFG’s claim that he has absolute immunity .  Oh, NO, says the Court, being all law and order, let it go through the appeals process first.  OK, so Smith does that and the DC Circuit quickly handed down a unanimous ruling that Trump’s claim is nonsense with an opinionthat legal experts say was “masterful”.  Of course, TFG then appeals to the Court, and then, after sitting on it for 16 days, decides that oh, we want to hear the case anyway, even thought there are no legal issues left undecided, pushing their hearing off to late April.  In other words, the Trump-Thomas Court is actively running cover for TFG to get him through the election for the highest office in the land without going to trial for trying to overthrow the US government.  If TFG is elected, it’s then game over for all the federal cases including the one for election interference and the stolen classified documents case.  It’s not just likely, but damn certain that the Court will then step in again and stay the state court cases against him until they carry him feet first out of the White House (whenever that happens) since he’ll never voluntarily leave office if ever handed it again.

And there you have it.  The United States Supreme Court, which is supposed to be the last line of defense against corruption, criminals, bad law, insurrection, and the stripping of constitutional rights is doing just the opposite, throwing The People to TFG and his goons.  And they’re doing it while failing to police themselves against blatant corruption.  As Steven Colbert put it last night, for the election case hearing, Thomas will put his tip jar out for that one. And Sam will be whining about how unfair Americans are toward him.  I mean, he’s just doing his job taking away rights and pandering to religious zealots and gun nuts, right?

The SCOTUS just announced that, after slow walking a decision for weeks, that they will take on TFG’s claim of absolute immunity even though the Court of Appeals decision denying that claim was unanimous and has been called “masterful” by many legal experts.  They also continued the stay on his election interference trial, almost guaranteeing that he won’t go to trial before the election.  Trump wins again with his handpicked court.

Fuck me.