The Supreme Court: RIP Literally Everything

https://twitter.com/alex_sammon/status/1488169423219351553

Because of Joe Bidenā€™s awesome strategy, the entire conversation about her will be whether she is the right color and gender and if Dems are the real racists for insisting on a black person. I love America.

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If youā€™re a centrist Democrat though thatā€™s a great ideology friendly area to fight in. Like does it matter sheā€™s anti labor? No. This is about the long legacy of discrimination against African Americans and women

Oh, I wouldnā€™t say it doesnā€™t matter. Iā€™d say they probably like it a lot. Centrist Dems would see this as her being a Responsible Person that doesnā€™t believe in pie-in-the-sky nonsense like labor rights.

Iā€™d be real careful about judging a judicial candidate based upon the clients they represented as an attorney in private practice. That leads to the position that criminal defense attorneys who defend people accused of heinous acts are likewise not fit to sit on the bench.

I think itā€™s pretty easy to make the argument that criminal defendants, indigent or otherwise, are more deserving of counsel than large corporations (even though both, of course, have the right to it). If youā€™ve got the talent/credentials/connections to make high six figures/low seven figures in biglaw defending the Nestles of the world, you could have instead made low six figures working at a nonprofit or government job thatā€™s not as evil.

I donā€™t usually judge someone for where they work, and I donā€™t think sheā€™s a bad person for repping those clients (no ethical consumption under capitalism, etc etc), but if youā€™ve got your pick of literally anyone to fill a SCOTUS seat I really canā€™t justify picking the corporate stooge.

I havenā€™t read a ton about Jackson but the bit Iā€™ve read she seems ok, right?

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Counterpoint: fuck Neal Katyal

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no wai, rhiannon by a mile

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They all seem fine to me, but he should pick the youngest one. It doesnā€™t really matter, this judge is never ever ever ever going to be the swing vote on anything.

Biden should pick the feistiest one who is the most likely to stab Clarence Thomas in the face.

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Why face?

because thereā€™s more to stab?

NBZ is generally very practical about these things. Iā€™d imagine neck to better suit his purposes.

Hereā€™s Laurence Tribe previously arguing that a 50-50 tie on a SCOTUS appointment cannot be broken by a VP:

I have a feeling this is going to come up, and thereā€™s a chance the GOP tries to rally around process arguments to hold party lines.

Personally, Iā€™m not convinced they wouldnā€™t be making a mistake. The EV of keeping it 6-3 versus the EV of 6-2 with a riled up Dem base going into the midterms has to be reasonably close.

If Dems suspect this is what theyā€™re going to do, slowing down the process is actually the right political move, to get the outrage to peak heading into election season.

Given the situation, I assume Dems are clueless and will slow down the process for stupid reasons, potentially luckbox this outcome, and be so blindsided by it they donā€™t even have ads ready to go.

If stealing a seat didnā€™t get turn out to win 2016,I doubt going for some obscure ruling will get turnout.

Also both Pence and Harris have broken a tiebreak for appointments. So they ā€œcanā€™t vote to break a tie on appointmentsā€ but they have and no one stopped them.

Iā€™m in the middle of this episode and one small thing stood out: when Conan talked about her having diabetes, she corrected him to say that it was a condition she lived with, not a disease she suffered from. I donā€™t think I had ever heard anyone make that distinction before and thought it was interesting.

cool story bro.

The bright side of the current court makeup is that whether her vote is right or wrong doesnā€™t really matter.

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I guess if framing it that way helps her cope, thatā€™s fine. Obviously she can choose to view it how she likes. Diabetes is pretty clearly a disease, though (and type 1 is particularly shitty). I doubt she would dispute that in most other contexts.

murk on jake tapper, VERY CONCERNED that Biden NEEDS to pick someone who will get BIPARTISAN support, otherwise americans will think the court is political

no followup from tapper on what she thinks of trumpā€™s picks

How does he not follow up with something like ā€œMitch McConnell opened those floodgates when he used supreme court appointments as a political football and stole three of them from being appointed correctly, so who exactly is making the court political here?ā€