If it seems like wrong is winning, that right is being drowned out, or even that only good people are dying, you may not be too off base in your thinking.
Whether or not you believe abortion is right or wrong is hardly the issue, but when a group of 5 unelected bureaucrats decides to take away rights that people had for almost half a century, one gets to thinking, ‘who gave them that right?
I thought the court was supposed to interpret the laws.
Am I wrong in thinking that the court has no authority to give or take away the rights of citizens?
Whether you or I agree, the American Supreme court is now in the business of taking away the rights that two generations of Americans were born into. If that does not scare you, I have no idea what will.
Below, President Barack Obama chided the court for overturning precedent and opening the door for special interest money to flood the elections process. Samuel Alito had the gall to sit there and mouth the words ‘not true.” Every word the president said about that citizens united ruling was valid.
As I try to unpack this dilemma for you, it is vital to understand what the majority of Americans who do not support the anti-Democracy Republican party are up against.
It is also important that we flush out why the Republican party gave up on Democracy and have now become a full-fledged authoritarian political movement.
Five of those six Republicans on the high court voted to overturn (precedent on precedent) when they overturned Roe Versus Wade; when questioned during their confirmation hearings, at least three of those dishonest liars said they would respect stare decisis, let the decision stand, a foundational principle in jurisprudence.
But those liars, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney-Barrett, lied to get on the highest court. They knew that they had no intention of honoring what they told Senators.
All three of the aforementioned liars have one thing in common; they were all placed on the court by Donald Trump, a pathological liar, a cheat, and an enemy of American Democracy.
The other two clowns Clarence Tom-Ass, and Samuel Alito were both placed on the court by the Bush presidential dynasty of Herbert Walker Bush and his goofball son George W Bush respectively, the 41st and 43rd presidents of the United States.
The five who lied and cheated their way onto the court were nominated to the court by two of three presidents who gained office by the discriminatory electoral college despite not being elected by the majority of the American people.
Let it sink in that Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amey Coney-Barret ascended to the court by a one-term president, Donald Trump who lost the popular vote, was impeached twice in his single term, and launched an attack on congress after he lost reelection to stay in power.
Alito was appointed by Bush 43rd, a president many said was a war criminal. Clarence Tom-Ass, appointed by Bush 41, was dogged with allegations of sexual harassment during his confirmation hearings. In its wisdom of advice and consent, the United States Senate confirmed him to the highest court despite those allegations.
The same allegations of sexual impropriety dogged Brett Kavanaugh during his confirmation hearings. Still, the reactionary Republican-held Senate again confirmed a judge under a cloud of sexual impropriety allegations onto the highest court.
The world got to see Samuel Alito’s arrogance and political cleavings then, and the world is seeing the arrogance of Alito today as he is no longer constrained.
The 6 – 3 Republican majority on the court has not only given the likes of Tom-Ass, Alito, and others the power to reshape America, they are pretty unconcerned about how they flaunt their power, even overseas.
The Code of Conduct for United States Judges (the Code) is a set of ethical canons that the Judicial Conference of the United States (Judicial Conference) has adopted to promote public confidence in the integrity, independence, and impartiality of the federal judiciary. The Code governs the behavior of most federal judges; however, it does not explicitly apply to Justices of the U.S. Supreme Court. Although the Justices consult the Code, along with other sources, for guidance when performing their judicial duties, the Court is not presently subject to a defined body of general ethical rules. (https://sgp.fas.org/crs/mi)
Samuel Alito knows that there are really no rules governing how they conduct themselves; after all, he was installed by a president who did [not] win the popular vote, he lied about how he would approach precedent, and wrote the opinion overturning half a century of precedent in Roe V Wade.
He also saw Clarence Tom-Ass and his wife *‘Ginny’*(* Ginny, an appropriate name for the wife of an Ass) conduct themselves as if they are in a banana republic.
Oh, wait.….
Never mind!
The Ginny thing? It’s a Jamaican thing you wouldn’t understand.
Alito is so proud of his role in the destruction of Roe that he is not content to revel in the victory right-wing reactionaries have sought for 49 years; he went to Rome, where he chastised world leaders for daring to comment on what he and his cohorts did.
Speaking from Rome at an event hosted by Notre Dame Law School, Alito said the abortion rights case prompted “a few second thoughts” on his belief that American judges have no business critiquing other countries’ court rulings.
I had the honor this term of writing, I think, the only Supreme Court decision in the history of that institution that has been lambasted by a whole string of foreign leaders,” he said, pausing for laughter from the audience, “who felt perfectly fine commenting on American law.” “One of these was former [British] Prime Minister Boris Johnson, but he paid the price,” Alito said mockingly, prompting more laughs. He threw in a legal joke: “Post hoc ergo propter hoc, right?”
Johnson had called the decision a “backward step.” He recently stepped down over an unrelated string of scandals.
“But others are still in office,” Alito continued. “President [Emmanuel] Macron and Prime Minister Trudeau, I believe, are two.” Canada’s Justin Trudeau called the decision “horrific,” and the French leader released a statement expressing solidarity with Americans “whose freedoms have today been compromised by the U.S. Supreme Court.”
“What really wounded me, what really wounded me, was when the Duke of Sussex addressed the United Nations and seemed to compare the decision whose name may not be spoken with the Russian attack on Ukraine,” Alito said. Chuckles and groans could be heard across the audience. (As reported by HuffPost).
Samuel Alito is in his element, and so are the other Trump appointees on the court, but I hope you weren’t surprised that this is happening.
You simply cannot get clean wine from dirty bottles. The decision to overturn Roe was not about whether or not the decision was constitutional. The radical republican majority that controls the court is as unethical, unprincipled, and immoral as the people who appointed them and the Senators who voted to confirm them.
These are the products of the Federalist Society that raises the likes of Samuel Alito, Brett Kavanaugh, Amy Coney-Barrett, and others to maintain white supremacy and Christian fundamentalism in America.
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Mike Beckles is a former Police Detective, businessman, freelance writer, black achiever honoree, and creator of the blog mikebeckles.com.