I say none of this lightly. I fervently hope for and work toward the restoration of pluralist constitutional democracy and rule of law without even more and worse violence than anything like what we are already seeing. But I am a realist, and I know that with the collapse of the Supreme Court as a meaningful judicial institution, the work is going to be that much harder. 11/11
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@heidilifeldman I'm sorry that circumstances and truth required you to write in these terms.
You'll know there are lessons from around the world about resisting oppression and, eventually, gaining a new political settlement. Violence is not the only answer when legal redress is denied.
I'm hoping that struggle and good trouble will come through for you.
You'll know there are lessons from around the world about resisting oppression and, eventually, gaining a new political settlement. Violence is not the only answer when legal redress is denied.
I'm hoping that struggle and good trouble will come through for you.
@heidilifeldman
Having a strongly politically biased Supreme Court really pays off...
Not democracy, not justice but dictatorial rule… they facilitated it.
@heidilifeldman I have honestly given up completely on this adminstration. I just expect the worse possible outcome now. I am so dissapointed what is going on with our legal system
@heidilifeldman this is a bit surprising thing to me, because it seems to ignore what I consider the biggest guard rail on the Supreme Court:
Time itself
SCOTUS only takes up 2% of merits cases in any given year, because they cannot afford to. That means they don't rule on the question at all
For every case I've seen get headlines from the Shadow docket, I've found another where they just denied review even though the administration lost
This is a tragedy for the U.S. federal judiciary. It is not unexpected. 2/
From the outset, we knew that certain justices were wholly and irrevocably in the tank for Trump. I put Robert’s very close to this camp but thought his desire to preserve his standing with federal district court judges and lower federal appellate judges might temper the fealty he displayed when he wrote the majority opinion in the ignominious Trump v. United States. 3/
Had Roberts more commitment to rule of law and less regard for Republican Fascism, he might have been able to peel off Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, Barrett occasionally and get them to vote with Sotomayor and Jackson and sometimes Kagan. But it is clear that he has no interest in this role and the other far right justices definitely don’t. 4/
@heidilifeldman rule of law, constitution, things they said under oath in their hearings, the oath they swore to get into office, his own Catholic confirmation vow, etc.
Never made an oath he wouldn’t break.
I wonder how his marriage vow fared.
@heidilifeldman History will not be kind to them. But of course that has no impact on people too extreme to see the law or themselves clearly. :(
I know that brave lower court judges will continue to write well-reasoned important memoranda in support of their correct and significant decisions. I will continue to commend their efforts and sometimes explain them. But for all their skill and integrity, they won’t be able to prevent the worst effect of the Supreme Court’s perfidy: plaintiffs’ lawyers will stop bringing cases they clearly will lose on appeal. 5/
The lawyers who represent the plaintiffs in the cases against the Trump regime do not have the funds or the staff to litigate every instance of the regime’s lawlessness. They also do not want to litigate cases that will only serve to give the Supreme Court the chance to hand down a lawless diktat as though it should be treated as precedent. 6/
So most plaintiffs’ lawyers will become ever more selective and careful in who they represent and the issues they put before the courts. This is natural and understandable. But it is also frightening. The actions of the U.S. Supreme Court play a direct role in sharply increasing the prospect of a hot civil war in the United States. 7/
