Late this afternoon, SCOTUS surprisingly ruled that the National Archives can release TFG’s  January 6th records to Congress.  TFG lawyers have been throwing everything, including the kitchen sink, in an effort to stop the disclosure.  Characteristically, Clarence Thomas dissented.  Jesus.

TFG at Mara Lago is probably a real shitshow right now.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor couldn’t have said it better.  Trump’s and McConnell’s packing of the SCOTUS has now successfully destroyed all hope of the judicial branch protecting our Constitution and the rights it enshrines for all Americans.  Yesterday, the court inexplicably allowed Texas’ game playing with legislation to, as Sotomayor accurately described it,

“…the Court’s dangerous departure from its precedents, which establish that federal courts can and should issue relief when a State enacts a law that chills the exercise of a constitutional right and aims to evade judicial review.” and “…the Court effectively invites other States to refine S.B. 8’s model for nullifying federal rights.”

The court left the law in effect, denying a Constitutionally protected personal right for all women in Texas to control what happens to their own bodies.  Gorsuch’s ruling was so badly constructed by his concocted rationalizations that states have now been provided a roadmap for nullifying any Constitutional right they don’t like.

With the court’s ruling, it’s time to now to test this rewriting of US law by turning the tables by legislating private enforcement against other constitutional rights.  How about a law against individual gun ownership?  Example: anyone caught carrying a firearm, whether licensed or not, can be sued by any individual with a minimum $10,000 award to the plaintiff.  How about a law that bans wearing of MAGA hats?  How about personal enforcement by lawsuits against those who discriminate against minorities like LGBTQ individuals, African Americans, and other racial minorities?  The list is endless where states can simply nullify any federally protected individual right by delegating enforcement of laws against those rights to individuals.  Vigilantism can now displace our entire constitutional judicial system and over 200 years of case law that protects it.

The US is inexorably sliding into a post-democracy era where governments are ineffective at protecting personal rights, allowing one class of Americans to force their belief system onto everyone else.  With compromise no longer possible in our political system, aided by the complete disassembly of our court system, the exclusive right to make policy will fall to the party in control.  Texas is the perfect example of this warping of our political system where the governor, aided by the courts and a single party controlled legislature, is now simply a dictator, nullifying local government’s efforts to protect its own citizens through his arbitrary orders while hiding in the governor’s mansion.  He’s now protected not only by non-existence of corruption laws, but by the SCOTUS itself.

Our only hope of blunting this nullification of individual rights is for states like California, New York, Delaware, and others to take advantage of this activist court’s new legislation from the bench by hitting the very people trying to take away our rights by taking away theirs.  How about a law that allows individuals to sue Fox News every time Tucker Carlson tells a lie?  Yeah, that’s the ticket.  Let’s hit ’em where it hurts.

Last week during a speech at Harvard Law School Justice Stephen Breyer warned that “packing the court” by expanding it could erode confidence of the American people in the judgements of the courts.  When I read this my first reaction was that my confidence in the judgements couldn’t be any more eroded, especially after the Heller decision which overturned more than a century of precedent regarding gun safety laws, Citizens United which stupidly claimed that money doesn’t corrupt, Shelby which struck down key protections of the Voting Rights Act, and lately Knight which dismissed the case against Trump for banning critics on his Twitter account even though he used that account for public policy making.

Yesterday EJ Dionne called out Breyer for his position, correctly criticizing him for blaming the wrong side for politicization of the court.  Dionne pointed out the above cases and McConnell successfully stealing a seat when he refused to give Obama’s nomination of Merrick Garland to fill Scalia’s seat in 2016 and rushing Amy Coney Barrett’s nomination just a few days before the 2020 election that Trump lost.

Breyer is fantasizing about what the court should be rather than what it’s become, a tool for cementing in extreme rightwing ideology.  Biden is correct to open a commission about the court, and I believe it’s long past time to increase the size of the court to balance its judgments.  A better solution would be to establish term limits for SCOTUS seats, but that is more difficult due to the Constitutional arguments for not have limits.

All that said, it’s long past time to fix the Supreme Court, because what we have now is clowns in charge of the circus, and that damn sure doesn’t give any confidence in its judgements.

SCOTUS just tossed two lawsuits against Trump for using his presidential office to enrich himself.  He had lost in the lower courts, so appealed to the SCOTUS.  The cases essentially asserted (correctly) that companies and foreign governments who wanted something from the US government would patronize the Trump Hotel or one of his resorts to get favorable treatment.  Trump was well known for doing favors for people who filled his pockets with money.  Having lost in lower courts, Trump appealed to the SCOTUS last summer.  Roberts ran out the clock and tossed the lawsuits today.  The reason?  Trump is no longer president, so the case is moot.  That’s like saying, “Yes, Mr. Smith did, in fact, murder Mr. Jones over a business dispute.  But since Mr. Smith is now retired, and the business is closed, the case no longer applies.”  Sorry Ms. Jones.

Years ago, retired Dallas Cowboys Quarterback turned Monday Night Football announcer, Don Meredith, would often sing “The Party’s Over” when a big NFL team had no hope of winning.  To wit:

Welp, I believe I can hear him singing even now.  The Supreme Court just denied to hear Paxton’s idiotic lawsuit to throw out millions of votes in 4 states, subvert democracy and install Trump as dictator.  Paxton, Abbott, Patrick, Cruz, and 17 US representatives from Texas sided with sedition rather than honoring their oaths of office.  SCOTUS said no. Alito, along with Thomas, dissented, of course.  Here’s the order:

Yesterday, over 100 members of Congress signed on to Paxton’s lawsuit seeking to disregard the elections apply for a pardon in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Georgia and hand the WH back to Trump who was soundly defeated in the popular and electoral vote.  In addition to Ted Cruz’s offer to argue the case in the unlikely event that the SCOTUS took up the case, here are the pols from Texas who betrayed their oaths to protect and defend the Constitution, deciding to pledge fealty to Trump instead.  These clowns are safely gerrymandered in, so are not the slightest bit interested in upholding the Constitution or serving their constituents; they are only interested in staying in office.  History will not be kind to these guys.

Rep. Kevin Brady

Rep. Michael C. Burgess

Rep. Michael Cloud

Rep. Mike Conaway

Rep. Dan Crenshaw

Rep. Bill Flores

Rep. Louie Gohmert

Rep. Lance Gooden

Rep. Kenny Marchant

Rep. Randy Weber

Rep. Roger Williams

Rep. Ron Wright