U.S. Supreme Court: Post-Ginsburg Edition

I’m betting this going to come down to one vote and Collins will switch over to vote to confirm ACB because the Democrats are being too divisive

In the face of Amy Barrett's nomination to fill Ruth Ginsberg's seat, one has only to recall that the seat vacated by Thurgood Marshall was filled by Clarence Thomas to realize that the Federalist Society are expert trolls.

I’m betting this going to come down to one vote and Collins will switch over to vote to confirm ACB because the Democrats are being too divisive

Yep -- quite possible she changes her vote as needed.

who’s Joy pic.twitter.com/uSpap5qX3O

— Alexandra Petri (@petridishes) October 5, 2020

these people are so intensely creepy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8BaN2xlk00

I'd wish death on Clarence Thomas, but it would mean another Federalist society replacement:

Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito said Monday that Obergefell v. Hodges, the Supreme Court case that mandated all states recognize same-sex marriages, is "found nowhere in the text" of the Constitution and threatens "the religious liberty of the many Americans who believe that marriage is a sacred institution between one man and one woman."

The statement was written by Thomas and joined by Alito about the case of Kim Davis, a former Kentucky county clerk who said she would not give same-sex couples marriage licenses. The two justices said they agreed with the consensus of the court that it should not take Davis' case, but only because it did not "cleanly present" the "important questions about the scope of our decision in Obergefell."

*****

Thomas said Obergefell forced Davis to choose "between her religious beliefs and her job. When she chose to follow her faith, and without any statutory protection of her religious beliefs, she was sued almost immediately for violating the constitutional rights of same-sex couples."

“follow her faith” doing all the heavy lifting in that graf

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95gP3m-uBHA

https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/amy-coney-barrett-people-of-praise/2020/10/06/5f497d8c-0781-11eb-859b-f9c27abe638d_story.html

More details on Coney Barrett--

In 2010, Barrett was one of three handmaids in the South Bend branch’s northwest area, according to the directory obtained by The Post. She and 10 other area handmaids were overseen by the branch’s principal handmaid.

Barrett’s position was in keeping with her family’s prior service in the community. Her mother, Linda Coney, served in the New Orleans branch as a handmaid, the Associated Press previously reported, and her father, Michael Coney, led that branch as principal coordinator and sat on the national group’s all-male board of governors.

...

the group replaced the title of handmaids with “women leaders” in 2017.

Connolly said in a 2018 statement that the title was dropped out of a recognition that its meaning had “shifted dramatically in our culture in recent years.” The phrase took on a particular meaning in popular culture after Margaret Atwood’s dystopian 1985 novel “The Handmaid’s Tale” was adapted for television in 2017. Atwood said in a tweet last month that she was inspired by “a different but similar” group.

the thing no one is supposed to say is, barrett's beliefs and background aren't different from mainstream christian beliefs. the man is the head of the head of the household; women are to defer to men. she's a good pick because if you criticize her on these grounds, you're also against pence and any one of millions of fucked up christians, many of which are your boss or friends. we're all supposed to ignore the bible verses that explicitly advise this kind of thinking

i dreamed that i woke up and before checking my phone somehow was aware that trump, hepped up on goofballs and in a fit of pique, had tweeted out a withdrawal of her nomination. not true sadly :(

karl otm

is anyone else watching the hearings?

kennedy apologizes to barrett on behalf of the people who called her a racist (? i didn't know about this yet), and says that being called a racist is "one of the worst things you can call someone", says it must have been really hard for barrett.

also says that the kavanaugh hearings were a FREAK SHOW!!!!! (emphasis very much kennedy's) that looked like the cantina scene from star wars.

Kennedy is every Looney Tunes cartoon about the Solid South in one gibbering Crisco-fried package.

Sheldon Whitehouse is killing it, laying out how the John Roberts and the Furious Five has dismantled democracy.

but republicans don't care about democracy as an ideal or as a goal. on the whole they seem to despise it.

well yeah

"we're a republic, not a demo-CRAZY amirite" - republicans

even amy klobuchar made an aside today about how she wishes she were a queen, sometimes, because she would be "benevolent" and it would be "easier to get things done"

but she has no problems hurling pencil sharpeners at her slaves staff.

Senator Susan Collins says she will vote against Judge Amy Coney-Barrett being elected to the Supreme Court.

“It’s not a comment on her,” Collins said. “It is a comment on the process of rushing through a nomination in such a short time before a presidential election.”

Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski also said she will be a no vote for the same reason.

Mindy Moderate must have looked at terrifying internal polls.

does that knock this to 50 votes or is this all just pointless posturing?

Romney must be on his prayer mat in the cloakroom.

Two more Republicans would have to vote no beyond Collins and Murkowski, until that happens their votes are pure theater

(and that's assuming that fuckwit Manchin isn't a yes vote)

Doubt it. ACA's too important in West Virginia.

nothing new in this statement but even more than the upcoming election (though that may well change shortly), the apparently unstoppable push to install coney barrett as an agent of retroactivity has been so tremendously depressing that I've worked to tune out daily political conversation.

I read that as agent of radioactivity, and ... that, too.

My favourite video so far.

Under questioning by Sen. Ben Sasse (R-NE), Amy Coney Barrett is unable to name the five freedoms protected by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. pic.twitter.com/U3KFm5FA97

— The American Independent (@AmerIndependent) October 14, 2020

He's flirting with her.

Big 👍

the majority of US Senators are in active opposition to democracy. why should a supreme court justice be a pro at the 1st amendment? being incompetent is not enough these days. it's enough to idly stand by as the republic falls apart. one must take hold of it and bring it down with greater speed. i believe in you amy barrett

otm

the majority of US Senators are in active opposition to democracy

Except for a brief spell in the mid 1950s to the late '60s, so has SCOTUS.

I mentally filled in the missing "not" in KM's antepenultimate sentence.

Showing my hand as a you-know-what even being familiar with the, um, penultimate word in my sentence.

lol

yeah, i missed the "not" in there, whoops! but thank you for putting it back in there

I swear to god I wish people would stop with the "let the people decide" argument. it fucking sucked when it was used on merrick garland and it still sucks. the reason barrett shouldn't be appointed is that she's an unqualified fundamentalist who has indicated destructive court decisions that will last for decades or centuries, not because of "reasoning" pulled out of the collective republican ass because they didn't want barack obama to get his way.

she's an unqualified fundamentalist who has indicated destructive court decisions that will last for decades or centuries

and that makes her smart "brilliant", according to her publicity team

The conservative definition of "brilliant" means "brown nosing intensely enough Fed Society satraps to get Leonard Leo to write your recommendation letters." It also means "not reading the Constitution" and "citing original intent enough to cover your deep contempt for your own profession and learning generally.

Have you guys seen the usage OfMitch yet?

of course, but it's still immensely frustrating, given the dozens of actually real points against, to watch people willingly have zero case (because "the people should decide" is not a case, it's Mitch-issue bullshit)

Prior to the nomination of Justice Felix Frankfurter in 1939, there was a long and solemn tradition of parking legal mediocrities on the SCOTUS. The Federalist Society is reviving this tradition with a vengeance. A very literal vengeance.

What would a figurative vengeance look like?

scowling a lot

Frankfurter's an interesting Earth-2 one-man proto-Federalist Society, though, recommending dozens of his clerks for New Deal positions.

SEN. FEINSTEIN after Judge Barrett explains severability: “I’m really impressed” pic.twitter.com/Qf11molwHF

— Senate Republican Communications Center (@SRCC) October 14, 2020