How do you do these articles day after day? Remarkable depth and clarity.
By now it's obvious to anyone watching, the United States is corrupt and the rot is especially deep in Washington. Reform will come either by reasoned minds or the mob. Today is Bastille day.
Moscow Mitch worked closely with Charles Koch to pass that farce, “CitizensUnited.” EVERY Repug in Wash DC is frog-marched across the street to RNC headquarters to essentially sign away their vote, agreeing to vote as a block. This is a crime syndicate run by fascist billionaires organized under Charles Koch.
THE IS NO INTEGRITY AMONG REPUGS. NONE. Includin—and especially, among Repug judges!
Great analysis of logic to prick the bubble of an institution which has become corrupted of late with five too many not so lapsed Catholics. But, IMHO this veil of secrecy is not quite as hypocritical and anethe to me as that now infamous DOJ "policy" which prevents Justice from pursuing and charging a sitting President from crimes committed while in office. That one is what allowed Trump to escape unharmed because the Republicans has stacked the jury with hacks terrified he would not support them in their next election.
Our system is far from perfect. In these cases there are huge gaps in logic and justice which have evolved over the years for no good reason. In this case it would seem the justices are defining "stare decisis" in their own way. As in,"we have always kept things secret and no one has ever told us we can't so just keep quiet and let us steal your rights one at a time. Trust us on this one!?
Excellent writing and analysis. Our country is headed in a dark, dangerous direction.
Here's what Moscow Mitch said yesterday:
"So for the Supreme Court to on any issue, to reach a decision contrary to public opinion it is exactly what the Supreme Court is about," he said. "It's to protect basic rights, even when majorities are in favor of something else, that happens all the time."
He's signaling (or at least admitting) that more freedoms will be taken away from us. And with a 6-3 majority, what or who can stop them?
1. It's time to expand the court (and I know Manchin/Sinema will not vote to eliminate the filibuster)
2. It's time for mass demonstrations and a general strike.
The hypocrisy and fake outrage is rich! When journalists report on the ‘leaked’ draft it would be more balanced reporting to connect the topic of leak to some of the things you are saying in this essay. Nothing I have read even comments on the made up rule that the court operates in secrecy and that it has gone on for so long that we have forgotten that it’s just ‘their’ tradition but in no way is it in the constitution. Since these dissembling judges are so called originalists they have no good reason to demand privacy when they do not uphold it for the majority. When they attempt to balance their bullshit by outlawing masturbation and vasectomies while forcing fathers to raise children themselves then we’ll see how excited they are to remove women’s equal rights to privacy over their bodies.
You noted that nowhere in the Constitution is SCOTUS secrecy mentioned but the same is true of the lifetime appointments you also noted. Nowhere in Article 3 is the guarantee of a lifetime appointment. The closest to such is the phrase "...shall hold their Offices during good Behaviour,..." There are many ways to interpret such without concluding that it means a lifetime appointment.
Public scrutiny of the SCOTUS is long overdue. If they knew they would face accountability then would they behave differently? Likely. And our Republic would be better off for it.
Someone on another substack used this to describe the current Stench Bench: SCROTUS. I think it fits.
You wrote: "Supreme Court justices officially earn just north of $200,000 a year, but they are able to live like millionaires on weekends and during their annual breaks for Christmas and summer holidays. They own all the product of the work they do, and they can use it to write books or give paid speeches and profit from the work we pay them to do. And they don’t have to tell us a thing about it."
I'm struggling to understand why we are supposed to consider them "supreme" nor have any respect for them. I certainly do not.
as far as I can make out, this entry is a continuation of the excellent account you gave awhile back of the origins of Marbury, the decision that gave SCOTUS the extraordinary power it has to "decide" what is and is not "constitutional." I'd known about the secrecy thing, for which I can find no justification. I hadn't known about the fact that gifts, etc. are all completely kosher, which strikes me as one of those "little" gaps in the way things are run through which one could certainly drive something the size of Clarence and Ginni Thomas's 40 foot RV.
Yes Virginia there is a Santa Claus and all public employees are paid with taxpayer dollars and should be beholden to the citizenry. Why should the judiciary be any different than the other two branches of government? The Alito affair does remind us of the spoils the political class enjoys in our country.
I'm fine with the Court's deliberations being secret, for the same reason jury deliberations are secret: participants need to be free to test out theories and analyze evidence without fear of their words being taken out of context and brayed all over the public square. But as to the rest, especially everything related to funding? Full disclosure, PDQ.
How do you do these articles day after day? Remarkable depth and clarity.
By now it's obvious to anyone watching, the United States is corrupt and the rot is especially deep in Washington. Reform will come either by reasoned minds or the mob. Today is Bastille day.
Moscow Mitch worked closely with Charles Koch to pass that farce, “CitizensUnited.” EVERY Repug in Wash DC is frog-marched across the street to RNC headquarters to essentially sign away their vote, agreeing to vote as a block. This is a crime syndicate run by fascist billionaires organized under Charles Koch.
THE IS NO INTEGRITY AMONG REPUGS. NONE. Includin—and especially, among Repug judges!
Great analysis of logic to prick the bubble of an institution which has become corrupted of late with five too many not so lapsed Catholics. But, IMHO this veil of secrecy is not quite as hypocritical and anethe to me as that now infamous DOJ "policy" which prevents Justice from pursuing and charging a sitting President from crimes committed while in office. That one is what allowed Trump to escape unharmed because the Republicans has stacked the jury with hacks terrified he would not support them in their next election.
Our system is far from perfect. In these cases there are huge gaps in logic and justice which have evolved over the years for no good reason. In this case it would seem the justices are defining "stare decisis" in their own way. As in,"we have always kept things secret and no one has ever told us we can't so just keep quiet and let us steal your rights one at a time. Trust us on this one!?
Excellent writing and analysis. Our country is headed in a dark, dangerous direction.
Here's what Moscow Mitch said yesterday:
"So for the Supreme Court to on any issue, to reach a decision contrary to public opinion it is exactly what the Supreme Court is about," he said. "It's to protect basic rights, even when majorities are in favor of something else, that happens all the time."
He's signaling (or at least admitting) that more freedoms will be taken away from us. And with a 6-3 majority, what or who can stop them?
1. It's time to expand the court (and I know Manchin/Sinema will not vote to eliminate the filibuster)
2. It's time for mass demonstrations and a general strike.
Bingo!! As usual.
Superb as always.
(You should correct Heritage Society to Federalist Society.)
The hypocrisy and fake outrage is rich! When journalists report on the ‘leaked’ draft it would be more balanced reporting to connect the topic of leak to some of the things you are saying in this essay. Nothing I have read even comments on the made up rule that the court operates in secrecy and that it has gone on for so long that we have forgotten that it’s just ‘their’ tradition but in no way is it in the constitution. Since these dissembling judges are so called originalists they have no good reason to demand privacy when they do not uphold it for the majority. When they attempt to balance their bullshit by outlawing masturbation and vasectomies while forcing fathers to raise children themselves then we’ll see how excited they are to remove women’s equal rights to privacy over their bodies.
This is a really important and revealing article about the Supreme Court and explains a lot about the conduct of Justice Thomas.
You noted that nowhere in the Constitution is SCOTUS secrecy mentioned but the same is true of the lifetime appointments you also noted. Nowhere in Article 3 is the guarantee of a lifetime appointment. The closest to such is the phrase "...shall hold their Offices during good Behaviour,..." There are many ways to interpret such without concluding that it means a lifetime appointment.
Public scrutiny of the SCOTUS is long overdue. If they knew they would face accountability then would they behave differently? Likely. And our Republic would be better off for it.
Someone on another substack used this to describe the current Stench Bench: SCROTUS. I think it fits.
You wrote: "Supreme Court justices officially earn just north of $200,000 a year, but they are able to live like millionaires on weekends and during their annual breaks for Christmas and summer holidays. They own all the product of the work they do, and they can use it to write books or give paid speeches and profit from the work we pay them to do. And they don’t have to tell us a thing about it."
I'm struggling to understand why we are supposed to consider them "supreme" nor have any respect for them. I certainly do not.
The SCOTUS, just like our government, has Trump Stink all over it.
as far as I can make out, this entry is a continuation of the excellent account you gave awhile back of the origins of Marbury, the decision that gave SCOTUS the extraordinary power it has to "decide" what is and is not "constitutional." I'd known about the secrecy thing, for which I can find no justification. I hadn't known about the fact that gifts, etc. are all completely kosher, which strikes me as one of those "little" gaps in the way things are run through which one could certainly drive something the size of Clarence and Ginni Thomas's 40 foot RV.
On fire this morning Lucian.
Yes Virginia there is a Santa Claus and all public employees are paid with taxpayer dollars and should be beholden to the citizenry. Why should the judiciary be any different than the other two branches of government? The Alito affair does remind us of the spoils the political class enjoys in our country.
I'm fine with the Court's deliberations being secret, for the same reason jury deliberations are secret: participants need to be free to test out theories and analyze evidence without fear of their words being taken out of context and brayed all over the public square. But as to the rest, especially everything related to funding? Full disclosure, PDQ.