Monday, July 9, 2018

9 July 2018 What About The Supreme Court?

What About The Supreme Court?

 It is sad that most Supreme Court decisions can be predicted.  We say that the court is non-political but it is not non-ideological. There are 4 strong liberal justices and 4 strong conservative ones. It pretty much came down to one man’s position and he was Anthony Kennedy.  He was 9thjudge and impacted decisions more than any other justice.  He has decided to retire.   Major judicial decisions should not be up to one man.  They impact millions of people.

Liberals are now very concerned that court will be strongly conservative.  With Ruth Bader Ginberg at 85 years old, they are even more concerned that she won’t make another 18 months.  If President Trump gets to fill her seat too, it will have an impact for decades.  

I did not support the Republican Senate’s handling of Merrick Garland.  He was appointed by President Obama in April of his final year in office.  Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said they would not deal with the issue until after the election.  This was unprecedented.   When Trump won, he nominated Neil Gorsuch.  McConnell again broke with tradition by only requiring 51 votes. This blocked the Democrats from filibustering.    

Nobody stays in power for long and the Republicans will regret doing this. It will come back to haunt them.  

I don’t know how we can get away from the politicization of the Supreme Court. If there was one institution that should be free of this, it should be it.  However, that is not reality.  The conservatives have the upper hand at this time.  It will move again at some point in the future.   

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