The Supreme Court. Photo by Adam Szuscik
The Supreme Court. Photo by Adam Szuscik
The current Supreme Court line-up is the result of a long-running campaign by groups who are trying to pervert the Constitution for their own ends. And right now they are being successful.
You might be wondering about the construction of the headline of this piece. What the hell does voting have to do with the Supreme Court? Well, everything.
As a quick primer, the various Supreme Court Justices are appointed for life by whichever president is in office when a slot in the court opens up and are confirmed by the Senate. Through manipulations that would have made Machiavelli proud, Republicans managed to get three appointments done by the former guy. There’s no need to recount the sleaziness of getting these appointments—especially Kavanaugh and Coney Barrett—through the Senate. That’s been documented and recounted to hell and gone.
What we have to confront now is more difficult: the effects of these appointments. We saw how blatantly these people lied to get their offices with their destructive decision reversing Roe v. Wade. So the cards are on the table and “settled law” has no meaning anymore for this court.
Again, you ask, voting? It comes down to this. The current Supreme Court line-up is the result of a long-running campaign by groups who are trying to pervert the Constitution for their own ends. Key amongst them is the Federalist Society, the group that put forth the nominations of the most egregious justices sitting on the court. The bottom line unfortunately is that the political make-up of the Senate and the White House rule the roost when it comes to the composition and direction of SCOTUS.
But this year the House is also important. Here’s why. Many of the horrid decisions made by the Court—going back even to the travesty of the Citizens United debacle of 2010—can be undone by legislation.
Citizens United opened the flood gates of dark money political funding by equating dollars to speech. This gave corporations—especially those opposed to government oversight and regulation—a powerful tool to get people elected or appointed that would toe their line. The decision could be overcome with legislation on campaign finance reform. But that will never happen without a Democratic majority in both houses of Congress.
Codifying Roe v. Wade as law could be done through legislation, thus overcoming the Dodd decision. Again, a Democratic majority is required.
It was noted recently that the fact that number of justices on the Court has been at nine since the time there were nine appellate districts in the country. Now there are thirteen. The obvious parallel would be to expand the membership of the Court to thirteen. Last year, Bloomberg News floated the idea that the number needed to be fifteen.
Expanding the Court with non-corrupt (Thomas) and non-biased (Alito, Comey Barrett, Kavanaugh) justices would overcome the threat we are currently facing. But that’s not going to happen without—you’re catching on—a Democratic majority in both houses of Congress.
We are facing a well-financed effort that brought about the current stacked court. The architect of this court stacking, Leonard Leo of the Federalist Society, recently received a donation of $1.6 billion—so well financed is an understatement.
Democracy is literally at stake in this year’s Midterms. And they happen in about five weeks. Factkeepers is going to be posting a LOT about voting over the coming weeks. If it gives one the feeling of over-repetition, apologies in advance. But there is too much at stake and silence is acquiescence. Don’t be silent. And, Nil desperandum carburundum illegitami. Translation: “don’t let the bastards grind you down.”
The most important four-letter word on November 8th is VOTE!
Marty Kassowitz is co-founder of Factkeepers. As founder of Interest Factory and View360, he brings more than 30 years experience in effective online communications, social media management, and platform development to the site. He is a writer, designer, editor and long time observer of the ill-logic demonstrated by too many members of the species known as Mankind. After a long history of somewhat private commentary on a subject he totally hates: politics, Marty was encouraged to build this site and put up his own analyses as well as curate relevant content from other sources.
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