The SCOTUS “should have put an end to this madness months ago…”
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.
Check out prolifenebraska.com and read Benevolent Order of Nebraskans for Erection Reversal: Keep It Limp for Life. I found this at once entertaining and en pointe. Keep up the great work on this site.
1Everyone laughed when UT students wore dildos on their backpacks to protest on campus gun carry a few years ago. I think they were mor prescient than our GOP appointed SCOTUS. There’s no end to crazy ahead!
2Dems in DC need to define undue burdens” for the SPOTUS and codify it as law of the land so magats can quit denying all women who want or need abortions because of frivolous thought bubbles from activist magats who are unqualified for their jobs.
3https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=__n5Bgxx-68
4The above link is what this decision reminds me of.
5How about a law to sue anyone who sues under S. B. 8?
6What’s to stop rogue states from deciding to overturn elections because they don’t like the outcome, something many red state legislatures and governors would support. No right is sacred right unless it’s what the “right” wants.
7One of the examples Rachel gave last night was passing a law against disagreeing publicly with the the religion of whatever group wrote the law. (I paraphrased a smidge)
8Nothing UnAmerican there.
At least, apparently according to Gorsuch.
I guess we need to start referring to the first 10 amendments to Construction as The Bill of Suggestions.
You know, dependant on a weather vane.
Wow. Constitution not construction.
9And apparently the missing “the” preceding it went instead before religion.
Makes sense though. Maybe my phone’s just trying to get me acclimated to the new revolution, where religion trumps constitutions.
The one where they decide and the shotgun sings the song.
Cause there’s ferdamnsure some serious fooling going on.
Even goofy John “There is no more discrimination’ Roberts seems open to the idea of court packing to save America from magats.
10Churchill said that America could always be trusted to do the right thing, after every other option had been tried and failed.
We’re not out of options yet. So many options still remain that, by the time we run out of them, it will be too late to do the right thing.
11Without a doubt improvements could be made in both the Senate and House toward reining SCROTUS back toward the co-equal branch of government as constitutionally intended. Boofie and Barrett could be charged with lying to Congress, as could old Johnny Boi who ‘thinks’ lying to himself and believing his own bullshit does not constitute lying. While old Clarrie Thomas could suffer the same fate, why drag up old sins when he and Ginny have been criming in the open.
A balanced court should in a sane world appeal to both parties. Expanding SCROTUS is not a perfect solution, but it would generally prevent court stacking in any given 8 year period. Yeah. Yeah. The QOP will protest because the expansion would occur under a Democratic President. SCREW their whining. They stole one seat from a legitimate president, President Obama, while stacking two total misfits onto the court with pResident ***king Moron**.
Much like Congress ceded declaration of war powers to the executive branch for decades, they have ceded their legislative powers to the judiciary. 2022 – last chance to ask those lazy chumps why we should continue paying them.
12The dissolution of our democracy and it’s replacement with a fascist regime, loosely defined by the current Republican Party, and titularly headed by their Chosen One Donnei Trump, has been ongoing for years.
This latest SCROTUS issue is just a small part of the underlying process that they set in motion decades ago.
I’ve been meaning to post more info about it here for days, a particularly chilling encapsulation published in the Atlantic Monthly which came to my attention on PBS’ NewsHour program.
Anchor Judy Woodruff [who I consider somewhat biased towards the Rethugs] interviewed writer Barton Gellman of the Atlantic about his article entitled:
TRUMP’S NEXT COUP HAS ALREADY BEGUN
January 6 was practice. Donald Trump’s GOP is much better positioned to subvert the next election.
Ms. Woodruff seemed genuinely shocked during the discussion.
Following are links to both the PBS segment [transcript and video] and the Atlantic article.
**A Caution, Atlantic will only allow you to read TWO free articles per month, so go straight there; it is an extremely long article… It references the Supreme Court numerous times, but emphasizes that many other dark forces are at work!
FYI, one of the most complete, chilling, and sobering outlines of how extremely dangerous the condition of our nation in today:
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/
How a ‘mass movement’ based on election lies is threatening American democracy
Dec 9, 2021 6:45 PM EST:
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/how-a-mass-movement-based-on-election-lies-is-threatening-american-democracy
.
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/toc/2022/01/
TRUMP’S NEXT COUP HAS ALREADY BEGUN:
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2022/01/january-6-insurrection-trump-coup-2024-election/620843/
“The Atlantic magazine’s cover story, “January 6 Was Just Practice for Trump and His Allies,” argues the threat to the U.S. is coming from within. Staff writer Barton Gellman joins Judy Woodruff with more.
…
Barton Gellman: ..What they are is part of a mass movement that believes that Trump was robbed of victory and believe that violence is justified to restore him to power.
Judy Woodruff:
And how many people do you believe fit into that category?
Barton Gellman:
Well, the best research on this I know of is done out of the University of Chicago.
And they have found that there are about 21 million Americans who agree with two propositions. One is that Biden is an illegitimate president, and the other is that violence is justified to put Trump back in power. That’s 21 million adult Americans, and that is a very sad number for our political enterprise.
Judy Woodruff:
It is.
.
“Technically, the next attempt to overthrow a national election may not qualify as a coup. It will rely on subversion more than violence, although each will have its place. If the plot succeeds, the ballots cast by American voters will not decide the presidency in 2024. Thousands of votes will be thrown away, or millions, to produce the required effect. The winner will be declared the loser. The loser will be certified president-elect.
The prospect of this democratic collapse is not remote. People with the motive to make it happen are manufacturing the means. Given the opportunity, they will act. They are acting already.
13…”..Donald trump came closer than anyone thought he could to toppling a free election a year ago. He is preparing in plain view to do it again, and his position is growing stronger. Republican acolytes have identified the weak points in our electoral apparatus and are methodically exploiting them. They have set loose and now are driven by the animus of tens of millions of aggrieved Trump supporters who are prone to conspiracy thinking, embrace violence, and reject democratic defeat. Those supporters, Robert Pape’s “committed insurrectionists,” are armed and single-minded and will know what to do the next time Trump calls upon them to act.
Democracy will be on trial in 2024. A strong and clear-eyed president, faced with such a test, would devote his presidency to meeting it. Biden knows better than I do what it looks like when a president fully marshals his power and resources to face a challenge. It doesn’t look like this.”
And if questions of trumpf and his conspirators trying to commandeer the 2024 election while losing the popular vote were to come before the SCrOTUS, where would they land? The r stands for the rethugs on the court. I’m skeptical it would be what 60% of voters would expect.
14Same as their rulings on abortion I’m afraid.
Newsom to use Texas abortion law tactics to go after assault rifle, ghost gun makers
In a new approach to gun control inspired by Texas’s controversial approach to banning most abortions, California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Saturday announced that his administration will make it easier for private citizens to sue people who sell assault rifles and parts for untraceable ghost guns.
State officials will aim to craft a measure to “create a right of action” that would allow residents to seek damages of at least $10,000, plus legal fees, against anyone who manufactures, distributes or sells an assault weapon or ghost gun kit in California.
15Hey y’all, sorta OT, but it might get ya fired up [if you’re a braindead MAGAot]. Any of the Houston Salonees going to go, just for grins [oh wait, ya gotta pay]? Maybe it’ll be broadcast locally?:
Guess who’s going to be putting on an ‘oh so special’ show in Houston this coming Saturday?
Of course, The Impeccable Perv Pair, Donnei Trump and Bill O’Reilly! WooHoo
Fork over $100+ and grab a pussy… errm.. a seat:
“THE HISTORY TOUR
President Donald J. Trump To Discuss The History Of His Administration With Bill O’Reilly”:
https://www.toyotacenter.com/events/detail/the-history-tour
DATE Dec 18, 2021
EVENT STARTS 3:00PM
DOORS OPEN 2:00PM
TICKET PRICES $100-$300
=–Bonus COVID gift package, free!!:
“COVID-19 Protocols For This Show:
The tour promoter is not requiring ticket holders to provide proof of vaccine for COVID-19 or a negative COVID-19 test to attend this event.”
https://www.ticketcity.com/houston-tickets/toyota-center-tickets/donald-trump-and-bill-oreilly-dec-18-2021-3635504.html
16Yikes, looking at the map for the T Center [above], I used to “live” a few blocks away from there, long before it existed. Long TDYs [cumulative 1-2yrs on per diem] in a nice corporate apartment [$2K+/mo 30yrs ago] at 1617 Fannin between Leeland and Pease, working on Clay, et al, around Houston.
17If civil suits offering rewards and banning slapback damages work for the anti-abortion folks in Texas, seems to me there are other possibilities.
Gov. Newsom already announced he will cooperate with introduction of a bill with the same approach for all those supplying illegal guns [a possibility mentioned in the Texas attorney’s initial article on the approach]. I started thinking of other possibilities:
* a new approach to enforcing campaign donation and spending laws. If a Nigerian billionaire circumvents American election laws and donates money to politicians, seems like there ought to be civil enforcement against all those who enabled the illegal activity. It might limit some political speech … but US Courts apparently don’t care about Bill of Rights infringement.
* how about civil suits to go after all those government officials who enable civil forfeiture laws…
I’m hoping aspiring law scholars are, even now, strategizing about the other areas where vigilante suits could overcome all those pesky Constitutional rights.
18The “conservatives” on the court are all weak tea. If they think they have done a bang up job this time around, well, they ain’t seen nothing yet! And they had a direct and obvious hand in engendering further “pestilence”.
19