I was very happy to have heard about the SC decision and was not the least bit surprised about the justices who dissented. I read the links to Slate and to the one where Alito is one angry man. Both were really good but the mere mention of Leonard Leo and I go into a tailspin. He is definitely the one pulling the strings. My daughter is doing a spreadsheet of the companies he is involved with and connecting them to others like Ginni Thomas and Harlan Crow. It really seems like a pyramid situation where they are all scratching each other’s backs at moving monies around. It stinks of rotten fish. Lithwick is right when she says Leo should be talked about much more.
I know Whitehouse has at least 13 video schemes, showing lots of 501(c)(3) and 501(c)(4) companies who are shifting all the money around, all orchestrated by Leo. Good to know we have her spreading the word about him wherever she can.
My daughter said it’s definitely easy to go down the rabbit hole regarding these companies. They’re all scratching each other’s backs all provided by Leo’s counsel.
He has been in bedded in the fabric and backbone of the Republican Party and your right we need to shine a light on him and Koch and others because we can impact them where it hurts and that is the source of their revenue.
I want to congratulate you and your daughter. I don't know how her spreadsheet relates to work being done in other circles, but as a long-time social activist, I can tell you that citizen efforts like this are often the trigger that leads to action, or which creates the verification that makes meaningful action possible. Connecting what she is doing to what other efforts might make the whole thing stronger. Either way, your daughter is demonstrating the kind of thoughtful citizen involvement and skills that are at the root of real change. Hooray for citizen investigators!
Thank you, Anne! Pretty proud of her too. She actually became an one of the online sleuths who found one of the insurrectionists in the crowd of J6ers. She reported him to the local FBI. They thanked her.
Good for your daughter! May she get major publicity for her spreadsheet. I find myself wishing Leo had been on that submersible.
I can't help thinking that Roberts is worrying that Biden will pack the Court, and trying to avert that eventuality. And I'm wondering if, and what conversations he may have had with Barrett and Kavanaugh. But this isn't the first time Kavanaugh has sided with the liberals.
Your thinking is so right on, especially about Leo! Lynell’s link to Whitehouse’s investigation is so interesting. I think public disdain with the SCOTUS justices plus their spouses, must have Roberts in a dizzy now. ProPublica dug deep for all of us to really show what money can buy and has bought. We see where Leo is a disgusting pirate of wealth dangling carrots in front of would-be jurists as long as they take his oath. And let’s not forget Mitch McConnell being his sidekick in hurriedly getting liars appointed to the highest place in the land. Corruption is their middle name. Eruption is ours!
Lol. The first moment I heard about missing submersible my brain immediately thought: It might be Harlan and Clarence. Maybe a testament to survival instincts of human psyche.
Yes, I did see Neal Katyal on that show, thanks. I always enjoy his appearances. He's a brilliant lawyer and appears to be a very nice man. He was clearly the right person for that job. I hope he feels the gratitude "of a grateful nation."
Thank you, Robert, for your encouragingly broad context for today's SCOTUS ruling against Independent State Legislature theory. Thank you also for pitching The States Project, which uses data for where to most effectively channel our precious donor dollars to progressive candidates in critically flippable state legislature races. I invite readers to check out our Tending to Democracy Giving Circle, and heartily thank all donors!
💙 that The States Project does the research for me and small, monthly contributions to Tending To Democracy gives me a sense of hope here in my non-progressive/ sunshine state.😎
Robert Hubbell writes that "the opinion in Moore v. Harper suggests that a majority of the Court is committed to ensuring that the will of the people is heard in presidential elections. That is a good result on many levels, and everyone should heave a sigh of relief today."
Podhorzer reminds us that the six of the conservative majority on SCOTUS were all vetted by The Federalist Society. He writes: “The Federalist Society justices are not political partisans; they are interest group partisans. As I wrote six months ago (see below), this outcome was the most likely one in light of how SCOTUS summarily rejected Trump’s suits after the election. In both situations, when asked to choose between corporate power and Trump/MAGA power, the Federalist Society majority chose the former. ”
Like other commentators, Podhorzer is very concerned that SCOTUS reserved the right to rule in future elections and that "we should again be lifting up the still-unacknowledged coup underway.... The Federalist Society majority is key to a revanchist plot to repeal the social and economic progress of the 20th century. If we forget that, and if we take positive rulings like Moore as a sign that the Court may not be completely irredeemable as an institution, we are allowing ourselves to be gaslit."
In shutting down the Independent State Legislature theory, Podhorzer sees the business wing of the Republican Party opposing the MAGA wing. He fears that Chief Justice Roberts is continuing to pursue his long game, his incrementalist approach to bring liberal justices along so that a harsh ruling later seems more acceptable. Here's a link to his eye-opening post.
Thanks for the links. On the question of the Court leaving open the possibility of reviewing state court decisions regarding state law, no iteration of the Court would ever preclude that possibility. Assume for example, a state court finds that the state constitution gives Republicans the right to vote by mail, but Democrats must show up in person. That is permitted under the "time, place, and manner" clause and does not involve an interpretation of federal law. But of course the Court would intervene. It needed to leave itself that wiggle room.
The question is whether we believe the Court has changed its stripes. As I wrote in Concluding Thoughts, we may get our first glimpse into that answer with the affirmative action and student loan opinions: "As Pilkington asks in his article in The Guardian (linked above), “Is this just a temporary pause in [Roberts’s] long game?” We may get our first clue about the answer to that question in the next few days."
When I saw the title of today’s newsletter, my early morning fog reaction was — which crisis? Russia? The states project? Extreme heat in Texas? I guess we have too many these days!
But I agree with this commenter’s point that we should be cautious about thinking that Roberts and Kavannaugh have suddenly seen the light. These recent rulings feel like bone throwing to me. On the other hand, bones are better than nothing.
With the onset of the power of the mega billionaires (think oligarchs), the corporate wing’s power in the gop has been diminished! These greed mongers prefer an autocracy which they control over a democracy!
But by what weird reasoning was Moore v. Harper not unanimous? Thomas, Alito, and Gorsuch thought the majority was wrong? Do those three think State Legislatures, once elected, should be empowered to do whatever the heck the majority votes for?
Thomas, Alito and Gorsuch dissented claiming the case was now moot because, in the 2022 election, the North Carolina supreme court flipped to Conservative control whereupon, without any cause or case before it, the Conservative flipped the former ruling which had been appealed to the Supreme Court. Their contempt for democracy knows no bounds.
Since 2015 Democracy has been tested like never before and frankly many of us had taken Democracy for granted and we just went along with two imperfect parties. That changed when Trump took office and corrupted both the Republican Party and our government. People became alarmed and got involved and pushed back and forced changes to laws and how the business of government is conducted. Trump in a certain manner of speaking helped strengthen our Democracy which was not his intent going in. Slowly and steadily we are making America stronger and we need to rejoice and appreciate the hard work of millions of people but the job is not complete. Every American has to thank Joe Biden and his team for making us stronger and more aware of the fragile nature of what a Democracy really is.
Re: RFK Jr. "it seems highly unlikely that a good-faith candidate would use a management team with ties to MAGA extremists. The whole thing stinks." you are indeed correct.
I’m married to a 76-year-old, liberal, anti-war contrarian who really likes RFK Jr. Today, as a good faith gesture toward my significant other, I did a bunch of Googling and read a lot from RFK’s side of the parking lot, as well as David Talbot’s and others' defenses of him. Looking at RFK’s website, most of the things posted there sound pretty good to me.
The problem is obviously that while his website sounds fairly rational, things he’s said in public are completely and irretrievably irrational (SSRI’s leading to school shootings, the vaccine nonsense (which he appears to be ducking from a bit), Fauci and the Holocaust, etc. The “watch out for THEM” argument that is the centerpiece of all conspiracy thinking is exactly the same in Kennedy’s fevered brain as it is for MAGAts.
Left-wing, right-wing, same bird.
Given the increasing lack of trust everywhere evident, along with the rise of AI (as Google's Eric Schmidt has mentioned too), I fear that we’re sinking into massive quicksand in which nothing can be believed and everything is up for grabs. This situation actually makes life easier for the likes of people like RFK Jr. and Alex Jones (RFK Jr went on Jones's show, which tells you everything). And that is a terrible, terrible thing to consider.
Thanks for your comment. I just looked at RFK JR. website. Here is his headline: "End the forever wars, clean up government, increase wealth for all, and tell Americans the truth."
Which of those items is Biden not already doing? He extracted the US from Afghanistan at great cost to his reputation, he passed the greatest anti-poverty measure in the history of the US, and he runs an honest administration free of the corruption that marred Trump's administration. How is Kennedy going to magically do better? Biden succeeded because of his vast legislative experience in Congress.
So why is RFK JR running? The answer is embedded in his code words: "Tell the truth"==vaccines cause autism, COVID is a hoax, drinking water causes mental illness, etc. etc."
Also, Kennedy blames Biden for Russia's invasion of Ukraine and claims that Ukraine committed genocide against Russians in Donbas, which gave the Russian's reason to invade Ukraine. Isn't it interesting that Kennedy's candidacy is favorable to Putin? Who could possibly benefit from defeating Biden? Putin.
I don't know how long RFK JR has functioned without a rational mind, but he's way past just "anti-vax" and certainly seems to have reached the point of no return. We need some journalists to start digging into why RFK JR has gone so far "rogue" and which right-wing zealots are providing what kind of encouragement to him to pursue this course. It smells very fishy.
With all the tsuris that family was heir to--two major assassinations four years apart, a mother lacking in the maternal department, the bright light of fame constantly illuminating their doings, and early death stalking their own generation, it's surprising that some of RFK's kids did reasonably well.
But with his ambitions of greatness, and zero sense of perspective, RFK Jr. is dangerous to gullible people and to our country. I wish he would join an ashram, or otherwise disappear from the public consciousness.
If ‘they’ keep the people confused and doubtful it makes it all the easier to turn the public into automatons. AI will most likely help this along as it is RIPE for extortion, and manipulation, by those with bad, unlawful, and cruel intent.
“But even if those opinions surprise us like Allen v. Milligan (voting rights) and Moore v. Harper, the only reasonable assumption to assume that Roberts, Kavanaugh, and Barrett are temporizing, waiting for the next major item on the MAGA agenda to make its way to the Court.” —
The unspoken assumption seems to be that members of This Court are truly politicians in robes, not genuine, serious interpreters of laws. I wish I could say that such cynicism is not merited … but I can’t.
This Court has all but wrecked our respect for Law (capital L).
Your advice on caution regarding the Supreme Court is well taken. How three judges vote for the ISL theorem is beyond imagination and can only be explained through their corrupt ties to conservative wealthy backers, corruption in short. I hope that the scope of Jack Smith regarding the fake electors connects the corrupt intentions of the GOP congressional caucus to comply with delaying verification.
One thought I have about SCOTUS decisions that have relieved and surprised us.... could it be that Katanji Brown Jackson is influential in their closed-door deliberations? We may never know.
While I'd love if this were the case, I suspect it has much more to do with protecting The Federalist Societ's long game, & recognition that once in power SCOTUS rammed through too much, too fast, to their detriment.
What is the Federalist Society long game going to achieve? (I’m serious, Robert or anyone please explain).More yachts, more mega mansions. I wonder if NASA is funded by them to speed up searching for alternate planets to inhabit and they leave on spacecraft (Elon Musk) when the shit hits the fan. The rest of the population will be living in cities resembling those in ‘Blade Runner’.
“We must keep up pressure on the Court!” Please write more about this. What is this pressure and who and how can it be exerted or expressed appropriately?
Robert, I am concerned about the third party nonsense with Kennedy and a few others because I remember that Jill Stein made the difference for Hillary.
The legal architect of much chaos around the 2020 election theft attempt, John Eastman, now fired as Chapman Law School Dean, is in the midst of disciplinary proceedings against him. He faced 11 charges of lawyer misconduct, and there was a hearing to determine if he should be disbarred. An opinion will be issued by the disciplinary judges with 90 days of the hearings conclusion.
Perhaps Jack Smith will indict him criminally for his conduct on a conspiracy basis, perhaps not. But his future as a lawyer doesn’t appear good right now.
Trump has been largely held unaccountable for the unforgivable foot dragging of Merrick Garland for more than a year. I said during that year on almost a daily basis Garland was doing nothing and should be fired.
The threats to our democracy are real, and we have safeguards to hold traitors and seditionists accountable. We also have procedures to strip law licenses from lawyers that engage in misconduct. The biggest threat to our democracy, even more than the fascists who would steal our votes, are the people who sit around and do not vigorously defend our democracy by every legal means possible.
This is off topic for today, but I just listened to an interview with senior WH advisor Anita Dunn. She talks about the Biden presidency, why he is so effective, and why media coverage and polling are so negative. It’s really an inspirational listen.
I was very happy to have heard about the SC decision and was not the least bit surprised about the justices who dissented. I read the links to Slate and to the one where Alito is one angry man. Both were really good but the mere mention of Leonard Leo and I go into a tailspin. He is definitely the one pulling the strings. My daughter is doing a spreadsheet of the companies he is involved with and connecting them to others like Ginni Thomas and Harlan Crow. It really seems like a pyramid situation where they are all scratching each other’s backs at moving monies around. It stinks of rotten fish. Lithwick is right when she says Leo should be talked about much more.
Morning, Marlene! Does your daughter know about Senator Whitehouse's Scheme series? I believe this is his first one:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mAplGu1RxPg
Also, Greg Olear has done several pieces involving Leonard Leo. Here's his latest from yesterday:
https://gregolear.substack.com/p/leonard-leo-man-in-the-middle-part?utm_source=profile&utm_medium=reader2
Morning, Lynell! I haven’t read Greg’s piece yet but I will and I don’t think she has mentioned Whitehouse. I will tell her though...thanks!
I know Whitehouse has at least 13 video schemes, showing lots of 501(c)(3) and 501(c)(4) companies who are shifting all the money around, all orchestrated by Leo. Good to know we have her spreading the word about him wherever she can.
My daughter said it’s definitely easy to go down the rabbit hole regarding these companies. They’re all scratching each other’s backs all provided by Leo’s counsel.
He has been in bedded in the fabric and backbone of the Republican Party and your right we need to shine a light on him and Koch and others because we can impact them where it hurts and that is the source of their revenue.
I want to congratulate you and your daughter. I don't know how her spreadsheet relates to work being done in other circles, but as a long-time social activist, I can tell you that citizen efforts like this are often the trigger that leads to action, or which creates the verification that makes meaningful action possible. Connecting what she is doing to what other efforts might make the whole thing stronger. Either way, your daughter is demonstrating the kind of thoughtful citizen involvement and skills that are at the root of real change. Hooray for citizen investigators!
Thank you, Anne! Pretty proud of her too. She actually became an one of the online sleuths who found one of the insurrectionists in the crowd of J6ers. She reported him to the local FBI. They thanked her.
Good for your daughter! May she get major publicity for her spreadsheet. I find myself wishing Leo had been on that submersible.
I can't help thinking that Roberts is worrying that Biden will pack the Court, and trying to avert that eventuality. And I'm wondering if, and what conversations he may have had with Barrett and Kavanaugh. But this isn't the first time Kavanaugh has sided with the liberals.
Your thinking is so right on, especially about Leo! Lynell’s link to Whitehouse’s investigation is so interesting. I think public disdain with the SCOTUS justices plus their spouses, must have Roberts in a dizzy now. ProPublica dug deep for all of us to really show what money can buy and has bought. We see where Leo is a disgusting pirate of wealth dangling carrots in front of would-be jurists as long as they take his oath. And let’s not forget Mitch McConnell being his sidekick in hurriedly getting liars appointed to the highest place in the land. Corruption is their middle name. Eruption is ours!
Lol. The first moment I heard about missing submersible my brain immediately thought: It might be Harlan and Clarence. Maybe a testament to survival instincts of human psyche.
Props to Neal Katyal who argured the Moore v Harper case. Judge Luttig said it was the most persuasive agrument he had ever heard.
I can't find where he said that, Lisa. Can you maybe provide a link?
I found it for you Mim: https://twitter.com/judgeluttig/status/1601017784963543040?lang=en
Thanks very much, C C.
Did you see him last night on Lawrence O'Donnell's show?
Watch it to see how grateful the host is to the attorney whose masterful arguments helped save our democracy and how humble Neal Katyal is.
https://www.msnbc.com/the-last-word/watch/neal-katyal-s-unforgettable-argument-prevails-in-scotus-case-crucial-to-democracy-185383493789?fbclid=IwAR2AokBebQRTJipld2wQafaWPRhpQl0vquWe4k8CmmWVY6uBGKRP6BSlsUE
Yes, I did see Neal Katyal on that show, thanks. I always enjoy his appearances. He's a brilliant lawyer and appears to be a very nice man. He was clearly the right person for that job. I hope he feels the gratitude "of a grateful nation."
Thank you, Robert, for your encouragingly broad context for today's SCOTUS ruling against Independent State Legislature theory. Thank you also for pitching The States Project, which uses data for where to most effectively channel our precious donor dollars to progressive candidates in critically flippable state legislature races. I invite readers to check out our Tending to Democracy Giving Circle, and heartily thank all donors!
https://www.grapevine.org/giving-circle/1XQhnyD/Tending-to-Democracy
💙 that The States Project does the research for me and small, monthly contributions to Tending To Democracy gives me a sense of hope here in my non-progressive/ sunshine state.😎
I don't get emails from Tending to Democracy, even though I have donated to them. So, thanks for the link, Ellie. Makes it easy!
Robert Hubbell writes that "the opinion in Moore v. Harper suggests that a majority of the Court is committed to ensuring that the will of the people is heard in presidential elections. That is a good result on many levels, and everyone should heave a sigh of relief today."
I am relieved for the moment but wary because of today's SubStack post by Michael Podhorzer. Thank you, Robert, for recommending his recent piece on the emerging anti-MAGA majority. Here's that link: https://michaelpodhorzer.substack.com/p/the-emerging-anti-maga-majority
Podhorzer reminds us that the six of the conservative majority on SCOTUS were all vetted by The Federalist Society. He writes: “The Federalist Society justices are not political partisans; they are interest group partisans. As I wrote six months ago (see below), this outcome was the most likely one in light of how SCOTUS summarily rejected Trump’s suits after the election. In both situations, when asked to choose between corporate power and Trump/MAGA power, the Federalist Society majority chose the former. ”
Like other commentators, Podhorzer is very concerned that SCOTUS reserved the right to rule in future elections and that "we should again be lifting up the still-unacknowledged coup underway.... The Federalist Society majority is key to a revanchist plot to repeal the social and economic progress of the 20th century. If we forget that, and if we take positive rulings like Moore as a sign that the Court may not be completely irredeemable as an institution, we are allowing ourselves to be gaslit."
In shutting down the Independent State Legislature theory, Podhorzer sees the business wing of the Republican Party opposing the MAGA wing. He fears that Chief Justice Roberts is continuing to pursue his long game, his incrementalist approach to bring liberal justices along so that a harsh ruling later seems more acceptable. Here's a link to his eye-opening post.
https://substack.com/inbox/post/131511773
Thanks for the links. On the question of the Court leaving open the possibility of reviewing state court decisions regarding state law, no iteration of the Court would ever preclude that possibility. Assume for example, a state court finds that the state constitution gives Republicans the right to vote by mail, but Democrats must show up in person. That is permitted under the "time, place, and manner" clause and does not involve an interpretation of federal law. But of course the Court would intervene. It needed to leave itself that wiggle room.
The question is whether we believe the Court has changed its stripes. As I wrote in Concluding Thoughts, we may get our first glimpse into that answer with the affirmative action and student loan opinions: "As Pilkington asks in his article in The Guardian (linked above), “Is this just a temporary pause in [Roberts’s] long game?” We may get our first clue about the answer to that question in the next few days."
Thank you for relieving one worry at least -- that as a matter of course, the Court will reserve the right to intervene.
Sorry I no longer trust the Supreme Court to do the right things only when it’s convenient
When I saw the title of today’s newsletter, my early morning fog reaction was — which crisis? Russia? The states project? Extreme heat in Texas? I guess we have too many these days!
But I agree with this commenter’s point that we should be cautious about thinking that Roberts and Kavannaugh have suddenly seen the light. These recent rulings feel like bone throwing to me. On the other hand, bones are better than nothing.
We live in a time of “polycrisis” according to SubStack author Adam Tooze. The antidote is to our humble part and not get too distracted.
With the onset of the power of the mega billionaires (think oligarchs), the corporate wing’s power in the gop has been diminished! These greed mongers prefer an autocracy which they control over a democracy!
Thanks for the link. YIKES!
But by what weird reasoning was Moore v. Harper not unanimous? Thomas, Alito, and Gorsuch thought the majority was wrong? Do those three think State Legislatures, once elected, should be empowered to do whatever the heck the majority votes for?
I think Gorsuch, Alito, and Thomas are true believes in the ISL. Alito dissented on procedural grounds, though.
Thomas, Alito and Gorsuch dissented claiming the case was now moot because, in the 2022 election, the North Carolina supreme court flipped to Conservative control whereupon, without any cause or case before it, the Conservative flipped the former ruling which had been appealed to the Supreme Court. Their contempt for democracy knows no bounds.
Now! That is really judicial thinking on the part of the dissenters. Good grief. Should legal decisions be written based on who someone flipping?
Since 2015 Democracy has been tested like never before and frankly many of us had taken Democracy for granted and we just went along with two imperfect parties. That changed when Trump took office and corrupted both the Republican Party and our government. People became alarmed and got involved and pushed back and forced changes to laws and how the business of government is conducted. Trump in a certain manner of speaking helped strengthen our Democracy which was not his intent going in. Slowly and steadily we are making America stronger and we need to rejoice and appreciate the hard work of millions of people but the job is not complete. Every American has to thank Joe Biden and his team for making us stronger and more aware of the fragile nature of what a Democracy really is.
Wow, Robert, thanks for this great summary!
Re: RFK Jr. "it seems highly unlikely that a good-faith candidate would use a management team with ties to MAGA extremists. The whole thing stinks." you are indeed correct.
I’m married to a 76-year-old, liberal, anti-war contrarian who really likes RFK Jr. Today, as a good faith gesture toward my significant other, I did a bunch of Googling and read a lot from RFK’s side of the parking lot, as well as David Talbot’s and others' defenses of him. Looking at RFK’s website, most of the things posted there sound pretty good to me.
The problem is obviously that while his website sounds fairly rational, things he’s said in public are completely and irretrievably irrational (SSRI’s leading to school shootings, the vaccine nonsense (which he appears to be ducking from a bit), Fauci and the Holocaust, etc. The “watch out for THEM” argument that is the centerpiece of all conspiracy thinking is exactly the same in Kennedy’s fevered brain as it is for MAGAts.
Left-wing, right-wing, same bird.
Given the increasing lack of trust everywhere evident, along with the rise of AI (as Google's Eric Schmidt has mentioned too), I fear that we’re sinking into massive quicksand in which nothing can be believed and everything is up for grabs. This situation actually makes life easier for the likes of people like RFK Jr. and Alex Jones (RFK Jr went on Jones's show, which tells you everything). And that is a terrible, terrible thing to consider.
Thanks for your comment. I just looked at RFK JR. website. Here is his headline: "End the forever wars, clean up government, increase wealth for all, and tell Americans the truth."
Which of those items is Biden not already doing? He extracted the US from Afghanistan at great cost to his reputation, he passed the greatest anti-poverty measure in the history of the US, and he runs an honest administration free of the corruption that marred Trump's administration. How is Kennedy going to magically do better? Biden succeeded because of his vast legislative experience in Congress.
So why is RFK JR running? The answer is embedded in his code words: "Tell the truth"==vaccines cause autism, COVID is a hoax, drinking water causes mental illness, etc. etc."
Also, Kennedy blames Biden for Russia's invasion of Ukraine and claims that Ukraine committed genocide against Russians in Donbas, which gave the Russian's reason to invade Ukraine. Isn't it interesting that Kennedy's candidacy is favorable to Putin? Who could possibly benefit from defeating Biden? Putin.
I don't know how long RFK JR has functioned without a rational mind, but he's way past just "anti-vax" and certainly seems to have reached the point of no return. We need some journalists to start digging into why RFK JR has gone so far "rogue" and which right-wing zealots are providing what kind of encouragement to him to pursue this course. It smells very fishy.
Liberals liking the blather of RFKJr makes me crazy. That MAGAts like him too should be a clue. He’s just a shrill for the right cult nuts.
With all the tsuris that family was heir to--two major assassinations four years apart, a mother lacking in the maternal department, the bright light of fame constantly illuminating their doings, and early death stalking their own generation, it's surprising that some of RFK's kids did reasonably well.
But with his ambitions of greatness, and zero sense of perspective, RFK Jr. is dangerous to gullible people and to our country. I wish he would join an ashram, or otherwise disappear from the public consciousness.
Mental illness, addiction etc., ran/runs rampant in their family. He's just like Walker and being enabled by the loons.
If ‘they’ keep the people confused and doubtful it makes it all the easier to turn the public into automatons. AI will most likely help this along as it is RIPE for extortion, and manipulation, by those with bad, unlawful, and cruel intent.
“But even if those opinions surprise us like Allen v. Milligan (voting rights) and Moore v. Harper, the only reasonable assumption to assume that Roberts, Kavanaugh, and Barrett are temporizing, waiting for the next major item on the MAGA agenda to make its way to the Court.” —
The unspoken assumption seems to be that members of This Court are truly politicians in robes, not genuine, serious interpreters of laws. I wish I could say that such cynicism is not merited … but I can’t.
This Court has all but wrecked our respect for Law (capital L).
Robert thanks,
Your advice on caution regarding the Supreme Court is well taken. How three judges vote for the ISL theorem is beyond imagination and can only be explained through their corrupt ties to conservative wealthy backers, corruption in short. I hope that the scope of Jack Smith regarding the fake electors connects the corrupt intentions of the GOP congressional caucus to comply with delaying verification.
One thought I have about SCOTUS decisions that have relieved and surprised us.... could it be that Katanji Brown Jackson is influential in their closed-door deliberations? We may never know.
While I'd love if this were the case, I suspect it has much more to do with protecting The Federalist Societ's long game, & recognition that once in power SCOTUS rammed through too much, too fast, to their detriment.
What is the Federalist Society long game going to achieve? (I’m serious, Robert or anyone please explain).More yachts, more mega mansions. I wonder if NASA is funded by them to speed up searching for alternate planets to inhabit and they leave on spacecraft (Elon Musk) when the shit hits the fan. The rest of the population will be living in cities resembling those in ‘Blade Runner’.
We can only hope,,
Perhaps Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson is having a positive effect on SCOTUS? To say nothing of good lawyering - lookin' at you Neal Katyal.
Your concluding sentence
“We must keep up pressure on the Court!” Please write more about this. What is this pressure and who and how can it be exerted or expressed appropriately?
Robert, I am concerned about the third party nonsense with Kennedy and a few others because I remember that Jill Stein made the difference for Hillary.
We should all be concerned.
The legal architect of much chaos around the 2020 election theft attempt, John Eastman, now fired as Chapman Law School Dean, is in the midst of disciplinary proceedings against him. He faced 11 charges of lawyer misconduct, and there was a hearing to determine if he should be disbarred. An opinion will be issued by the disciplinary judges with 90 days of the hearings conclusion.
Perhaps Jack Smith will indict him criminally for his conduct on a conspiracy basis, perhaps not. But his future as a lawyer doesn’t appear good right now.
This week the USCAP for the 6th circuit affirmed sanctions against Lin Wood and Sidney Powell for their misconduct in Michigan related to their attempt to overturn the 2020 election. https://www.democracydocket.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/062323-6th-Cir-King-et-al-v-Whitmer-et-al-decision.pdf
Trump has been largely held unaccountable for the unforgivable foot dragging of Merrick Garland for more than a year. I said during that year on almost a daily basis Garland was doing nothing and should be fired.
The threats to our democracy are real, and we have safeguards to hold traitors and seditionists accountable. We also have procedures to strip law licenses from lawyers that engage in misconduct. The biggest threat to our democracy, even more than the fascists who would steal our votes, are the people who sit around and do not vigorously defend our democracy by every legal means possible.
Off topic, but nonetheless important (I think) is amplification of Biden’s policies. To this end, please see and share Dan Pfeiffer’s post. https://www.messageboxnews.com/p/the-biden-economy-what-you-need-to
Thanks. I will promote this evening.
Thank you.
This is off topic for today, but I just listened to an interview with senior WH advisor Anita Dunn. She talks about the Biden presidency, why he is so effective, and why media coverage and polling are so negative. It’s really an inspirational listen.
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/in-the-bubble-with-andy-slavitt/id1504128553
This link is to Apple Podcasts. If you use another pod cast service search for In the Bubble with Andy Slavitt.