Chief Justice John Roberts is getting praise for standing up to Trump.
It is just for show. He is creating an alibi.
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| The media is falling for it. |
Roberts wants the Supreme Court to look independent while they in fact carry out a conservative partisan agenda.
They have their majority and are going to use it.
Republicans played the long game. Republicans were united. Democrats are split.
The GOP wins.
The Supreme Court is now, with Kavanaugh aboard, prepared to fulfill the fifty year effort to create a Court that will reverse precedent on abortion, on gay equality, on state sanction of Judeo-Christian practice in public spaces, on voting rights, and on the 14th Amendment. The process is already underway. The Heller decision made guns an individual right, not a militia right. Citizens United assured money in campaigns is protected free speech. The 1965 Voting Rights law was curtailed, and southern states immediately began reducing voter access.
Now that process will accelerate.
Justice Roberts is creating a cover story, to protect the reputation of the Supreme Court and allow the acceleration to proceed.
Roberts is misunderstood as a centrist, credited for being a moderate within the context of a very conservative Court. After all, he "saved" the ACA, by deeming it constitutional. In fact, he is what he has always been, very conservative and very astute partisan. He protected the GOP from its own excesses by finding the ACA constitutional. As the GOP is discovering with the mid-term elections, voters actually liked the ACA protection for pre-existing conditions and expanded access to Medicaid. By keeping the ACE in place he gave the GOP something to complain about, without having to live with the consequences of having succeeded.
John Roberts knows full well that the Supreme Court will get controversial cases in the next year, and that the Court will rule with Trump. They will side against immigrants, against abortion, against immigrants, against gay equality, against protection for minority voters, and more. Most important, if necessary they will side against the indictment of a sitting president.
Trump will praise the Supreme Court. This will lay bare the partisanship that created the new majority.
Trump will praise the Supreme Court. This will lay bare the partisanship that created the new majority.
That poses a danger to the Court. It will look like the Court is doing Trump's bidding--which they will be. But the Court needs a fig leaf to cover the partisanship, so it can claim independent people with no pre-disposition examined the law and then thoughtfully decided that Trump was right all along.
John Roberts is preparing this cover story with this very public disagreement with Trump. It is political body language, for everyone to see. Surely the Supreme Court cannot be in cahoots with Trump; after all, look at them, fighting.
Liberals are encouraged. Pundits and the media weigh in praising the independent and fair minded Roberts. Judges will post on Facebook, praising Roberts. See how fair we judges are!
Liberals are encouraged. Pundits and the media weigh in praising the independent and fair minded Roberts. Judges will post on Facebook, praising Roberts. See how fair we judges are!
In that context of public support, the sober, independent, and fair-minded Supreme Court will start voting 6-3 to unravel fifty years of precedent.
Liberals and pundits are being played.
3 comments:
I might call this a kind of paranoid reaction, Peter, setting up a conspiracy where none may exist.
However (and I have the button I got from the 1960's) --
"Even Paranoids have real enemies"...
If what you fear occurs the US will enter a period of turmoil that will make the 70s look like a church picnic.
In some ways the Court is an anachronism, and though we may have to suffer a period of it being the last bastion of a dying effort to maintain the Victorian tradition when it held the most power, we have simply come too far. The very groups you mention are now vital to the economy, to continuing prosperity and the culture. Also, the Court has been under increasing scrutiny which will cause them to hesitate overreaching and subject to a representative Congress. Impeaching justices is not an election issue they want to see.
Despite the recent questionable appointments, I think there is as much cause for hope as trepidation. In the meantime we'll likely have to settle for rulings that please no one. While we Progressives will chafe at most rulings we will have to admit that the Court is doing what it has traditionally done in moderating Socialist advancements to keep the peace. I think it will continue to do so, regardless of pressure from Regressives
“Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they’re not after you.”
Joseph Heller (& Kurt Cobain).
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