The Supreme Court: Playing Calvinball and going on free trips since 1789

I feel like we need a dedicated thread for this, as there are a lot of very important cases that will be decided soon. Already the court has heard arguments in a case that will decide how or if federal sex discrimination employment laws apply to LGBTQ workers.

Also expected are rulings on DACA and abortion.

With the confirmation of Rapey McDrunkface, John Roberts is widely expected to be the swing vote on many 5-4 decisions. Yay.

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I’ve seen charts that suggest Kavanaugh is the court’s middle since he’s been there. I say this not to correct but to shudder. I mean, even if somehow Kav is not as bad as anticipated- unlikely- he’s real real real bad.

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I’ve seen these too, but I’m not really going to buy it until/unless he really is the swing vote on a really important 5-4 decision.

I’m not hopeful. At least Roberts did it once.

Yeah even if those charts are accurate the correction read is oh Roberts is even worse than we thought.

If RBG croaks soon the only chance is filling the capitol with a critical mass of protesters the likes which have never been seen and dare Trump to go Bonus Army on the crowd. He might even if it happened. It won’t.

Court packing is what is keeping them from going full partisan. They’ll at least pretend to be judges first and partisans second until at least 2024. They’ll take turns being the swing vote is my prediction. I really doubt they’ll overturn Roe for instance as it’ll be a political disaster for the GOP (goodbye unifying issue for Christians to be single issue voters over). They will be keeping their powder dry for when they declare a wealth tax unconstitutional.

They also aren’t going to help Trump out here. There’s literally nothing in it for them and tons of risk. Again they know that there’s nothing stopping a Democratic president from packing the court… and they know that all the norms on the SC got upset to get them Gorsuch. There is real risk for them if they go too crazy basically.

Trump hasn’t done himself any favors by excluding all the real lawyers from his defense either. These arguments he’s putting forward are indefensible and the SC can’t do anything with them without setting broadly damaging precedents that would have massive unintended impacts. I mean the word ‘shall’ appears like 10 times in every contract any of us have ever signed lol. If that words meaning changes all hell would break loose.

The SC can’t help Trump without giving the Dems a ton of cover to pack the court to protect everyone from their villainy basically. And the popularity of such an action among the donor base of both parties would be crazy high if they actually let Trump win one of these idiotic arguments. Rich people like contracts lol. Getting people to sign them is a big part of where their power comes from. The SC is the wrong tool for Trumps problems even though he’s too stupid to realize it. The SC won’t be there for him when he needs them.

Rigging the system by stealing elections, gutting the VRA, gutting campaign finance reform, and declaring certain kinds of taxes unconstitutional is what a conservative majority on the SC is for. They are a strategic resource not a tactical one. They just gradually steer the country in the direction the GOP wants to go… they don’t overtly help you win an impeachment fight.

Every time I see that SCOTUS has started a new session I get filled with dread.

It did not used to be like this.

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Same.

Listening to SCOTUS bend themselves backwards to defend bigots because they believe in a magical cloud fairy is truly repulsive. I’d bet they end up defending the right of bigots to fire people for being gay.

It is going to be an impressive year for right wing SCOTUS when they

  1. Rule in favour of firing gay people for being gay
  2. effectively ban abortion
  3. ban legal accommodation for disabled people
  4. gives Trump unfettered rule over immigration
  5. legalizes murdering Mexicans, and for a cherry on top
  6. rule congress has no authority to impeach or even investigate trump

…all 5:4.

https://mobile.twitter.com/nycsouthpaw/status/1185268299862556674

Oh shit

https://twitter.com/JesseRodriguez/status/1194646666760077312

Sounds like it was the flu. Doesn’t sound serious, but she is 86, so anything could be life-threatening. Fuck.

Ugh. Best wishes, Justice Ginsburg.

Of the endless tsunami of shit in which we all live, the worst has to be constantly fading the end of the world by means of the health of an 86 year old woman!

Don’t know what you guys are worried about, we were assured that Supreme Court seats would not be filled within a year of a Presidential election and we officially passed that threshold 10 days ago.

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RBG could die on January 5, 2021 and Mitch would still fill it within two weeks.

Only if he’s still majority leader at that time. (New senators are seated January 3)

Looks like the tax case(s) is headed to SCOTUS

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/courts_law/trump-asks-supreme-court-to-shield-his-tax-returns-from-prosecutors-setting-up-historic-separation-of-power-showdown/2019/11/14/d7b176a0-04dd-11ea-8292-c46ee8cb3dce_story.html

If they have half a brain they will deny cert. I doubt they will deny cert.

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https://twitter.com/JoshuaPotash/status/1195176852744232963

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This is what the supreme court needs.

https://twitter.com/NPR/status/1195126527278669824?s=19

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