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David J. Sharp's avatar

All this talk about impeaching sclerotic Justices Thomas and Alito about accepting outlandish gifts and not reporting them … yes, indeed!

But also, what about the the six conservative justices lying before Congress about the sacredness of stare decisis and, in particular, Roe v. Wade?

Those lies has been documented … and was not Mike Flynn convicted of just that?

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Jos1463's avatar

He lied to the FBI. Not to politicians. Have to convict them of lying to Congress which is a high high bar - especially when you’re a lawyer and know how to be really tricky with words. Saying “it’s settled precedent” is not the same as saying “I promise I will never overturn that precedent no matter what the case is”

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John Adams Ingram's avatar

But, let’s not get ahead of ourselves. We will go after the rest when Old President Joe the Wiser wins reelection.

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Joe From the Bronx's avatar

A circuit court concerned with ethics investigated a judge who was involved in offensive sexual related behavior. He was pressured to resign. He resigned.

Roberts doesn't even want to show up in front of Congress. Roberts and conservatives don't even want to explain why they recuse, keyed to the new voluntary ethics code. The liberals do so.

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Commonperson's avatar

It's lovely that AOC and Sheldon are making their intentions known, and, it's all theatrical. There is zero possibility that these shiny efforts will lead to anything. It's completely performative. If the nonsense about forcing Joe to withdraw from the election continues to gather traction, we'll all be in internment camps in time for Valentine's Day. It's time to quit f-ing around and get busy mobilizing our voters. Turn off freaking cable "news" and get busy.

Seriously, if all of us cancelled our subscriptions to cable and streaming, and viewership for MSNBC and CNN dropped to nothing, maybe then they'd hear us. Short of that, I don't know how to get them to listen. They only speak $$. Like in any other area of our lives, we've taught corporations how to treat us.

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Chris Geidner's avatar

You don't make change without making the case for change. This is *precisely* what elected officials should be doing. It's theatrical insofar as they are aggressive steps that get attention.

Everything else you wrote has nothing to do with this, but, I hope you feel better having gotten it off your chest.

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Commonperson's avatar

Heard. I hadn’t considered that angle. Every now and then I catch a glimpse of how cynical I’ve become. This is one of those moments.

On your other point, I hold to my position. It’s all connected. We don't get a do over.

How do you see it?

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Joe From the Bronx's avatar

The way to "mobilize our voters" is to put things out there that excite them.

The courts motivated about 1 in 3 Republican voters in 2016. The base of the Democratic Party strongly opposes the Supreme Court. This reminds them what is at stake with control of Congress.

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John Adams Ingram's avatar

It's astounding and shocking no elected member of Congress has done anything until now. There have been plenty of opportunities to FILE Articles of Impeachment on Justice Thomas. Are our elected representatives and senators asleep at the wheel, or what? Who and what do they fear?

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Commonperson's avatar

Even if they had filed articles, we need a supermajority of 60+senators to convict and remove. Without that the only other option is to nuke the filibuster. Thanks to Manchin and Synema we can't even do a rules change with our "majority". I don't know that the rules could be changed to impeach SCOTUS justices anyway. That rule doesn't apply everywhere. I know less than enough to be dangerous, but I do know that filibusters have been filibusting our collective balls since time immemorial.

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John Adams Ingram's avatar

Filing is an opening shot in America’s War Against Fascism (WAF).

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Commonperson's avatar

(nodding)

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John Adams Ingram's avatar

(clapping)

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Zach's avatar

But...but.....'lawfare'!

We might be past the point of no return with this constitution. Expanding the court is a band-aid at best when the constitutional composition of the Senate, who must approve all nominees, for everything, is skewed so heavily to conservatives.

It's worth repeating that the supreme court made sure to give the federal judiciary a lot more work to do in the future with its decisions this term. It's almost like we'll have to create dozens and dozens of new federal judge positions. I wonder who we'll get to fill them all?

Lastly, it shows how far we've fallen in such a short period of time that, as problematic as they are, none of Trump's three justices have been nearly as bad as Thomas and 'Son of Sam' Alito. Now compare to the names being thrown around for a second term.

We are so deep in it.

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Michael's avatar

If agent orange is elected prez, none of these issues will matter at all. On day one, his official acts will be to dismiss all cases and charges against him (state or federal) and he will declare immunity for anything done by him. (Think I’m joking, go see the Lincoln Project’s new video at his second act at prez. Matt Kacsmarek will be elevated as will the loose canon handling his doc’s case. Nothing will stop him. Consider that when you vote in November for prez and all the way down the line.

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Victoria Brown's avatar

Remember this! If we can

have a BLUE trifecta in Nov.

we have a very big chance,

We, the people, of pressuring

for court changes. We also

have to look at the federal

bench. We still have a large

group of judges waiting to be

confirmed. The filibuster

must go!

Sinema and Manchin are

gone in 2025.

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David J. Sharp's avatar

Thank you for the clarification!

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Jordan Thayer's avatar

Expand the court, great idea. It could be the size of congress in no time.

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Jos1463's avatar

The more the merrier. Maybe once it is so big they can’t all fit into the court room anymore, Congress will actually pass legislation to have term limits and set the size as being the same number as the districts (13)

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