Sotomayor, in dissent, wrote that "it is the Judiciary’s duty to check ... lawlessness, not expedite it." Also: In two Sunday essays, a contrasting reality of this moment.
"Some people are not choosing who to “banish” from family events. The Trump administration wants to banish them from America. "
Well said, and a wonderful summary of the Hanif Abdurra writeup in the NYer. Even the repellent Dem "centrists" are (reluctantly) getting the Mamdani wave, and perhaps Bill Ackman & co. won't get the last laugh come November.
And the Supremes — dear god, after torching the Biden Administration's repeated requests for emergency relief regarding the student loan business, here they are, yet again, rolling over for tRump and his assault upon separation of powers, and involving the Dept. of Education. Who amongst us expected ANYTHING different?
“My goal today is to convince you that this court is not comprised of a bunch of partisan hacks,”
Why does Amy Coney Barrett flip flop like a fish out of water? Does her husband whisper in her ear every night on how she should vote! This is 2025 and women should not need to follow their husbands demands because of a particular religious belief....
The administration doesn’t actually want to destroy the Dept of Education just yet. What it wants is the money allocated to it. With no employees to administer it, the way is easy to simple block grants to the states. And the states will be allowed to do anything “legal” it wants —like pay for private school vouchers if the state allows them. So my tax money from a “giving” blue state goes to some evangelical school that does need to meet any standards for education, not even the paltry ones now in effect in red states. It’s all in Project 2025.
The aim is clearly to create a underclass of undereducated serfs. But undereducated doesn’t mean dumb. Plenty of people are smart enough to resist a theocracy. That’s the one ray of hope in this mess.
Thank you for calling out the obnoxious NYT opinion piece as a marked and annoying contrast to what is happening in NYC with the hysterical attacks on Mamdani and in this country and at the SCOTUS where reasoned decisions and the rule of law are now in very short supply.
Read this earlier in Politico: The six conservatives not only decide on shadow docket (and without any justification) … BUT ALSO tip their hand by allowing what a lower court found indefensible, hints strongly at what they will no doubt later find very defensible indeed.
I’m so tired of the story that people being awful is the fault of those who make them face social consequences for being awful. In my experience, being kind and inclusive to bigoted family members doesn’t make them better people. I’ve never met someone who stopped being a bigot because their family members and friends politely tolerated their bigotry.
I rarely see bigots stop being bigots when they’re excluded either, but at least their exclusion makes family/friend events safer for marginalized family members/friends to attend. I sure as heck wouldn’t go to any events that include family members who think I don’t deserve human rights because I’m queer.
100% agree. The exception is where family members/loved ones have changed who they are after being recruited into a cult. Like the cult of Trump. If they were decent inclusive people once upon a time, they can return to their true self if they leave the cult and get deprogrammed, and in those cases, being shunned by loved ones just drives them deeper into their cult identity with no incentive to leave.
The unfortunate fact is that nobody can be deprogrammed unless they want to be, no matter how many incentives they have. Many of us marginalized people have to make the decision to remove family members from our lives for our own safety and sanity, because the reality is that being in the cult feeds them in a way reality doesn’t. (Sadly, I speak from experience.)
The corrupt bribes and back room deals between the SCOTUS conservatives and the Project 2025 gang are beginning to get paid back and paid off big time - and America is losing. Thomas’ trips’, Kavanaugh’s credit cards and only God knows what Roberts, Alito, Gorsuch and Barrett have been offered and promised. The quid pro quo is clear - destroy the Constitution, individual rights, legal precedent and the Rule of Law and purge government departments and programs that service ALL the people to benefit and enrich the moneyed elite In America - let them rule and have theoir interests and only their interest served. We are heading for Civil War in America, a working and middle class economic, individual rights and anti-authoritarian Civil War. They better saddle up.
I think that with the addition of Justice Coney-Barrett - a million dollar celebration at a maskless White House mid-Covid - the Chief Justice can dispense with the opaque (Justice is colorblind) and come out of the closet with full partisan MAGA … but still within the non-verbiage of a shadow docket decision.
I grew up in the era of the Vinson and Warren courts and as a teenager and then young man the liberal Supreme Court Justices were my heroes..
Not athletes, not movie stars, or celebrities- this young kid worshipped guys like Vinson, Warren, Black, Douglas Murphy, Marshall, Jackson, Rutledge Roberts, Brennan, Frankfurter. even Byron White mercurial as he was.
I was dismayed when Burger became chief but his court turned out okay for the most part due to the valiant and masterful rearguard actions of William Brennan. The succeeding Courts have been a dismal slide to the right as one by one my heroes died or retired with their ranks steadily thinning. Now with the Roberts Court we have hit rock bottom and with this most recent ruling, I am convinced Roberts is the worst Chief Justice ever and Barrett has betrayed her early promise
I really am very sad about this plummet, not less so because I know I won't live to see another Court as fine as those two courts of my youth.
Sam, it was all in my mind, not reality. I was wishfully thinking she would apply a more consistent rigorous standard of analysis to cases that might have the effect of moderating the Court's more intemperate voices like Alito and Thomas. I hoped that although she is very conservative she might take on a role like that of Reagan's appointee, SD O'Connor. I basically echo Professor Feldman's view when he talked about her at Harvard Law:
It's pretty obvious that SCOTUS is way deep into the far rightwing beliefs of the Heritage Foundation and have no plan to back down on their obnoxioous agenda to gut American democracy. For those of us who still believe in the Constitution and the rights given us by that document we need to make sure to elect a congress that will inact laws that uphold and protect the principles laid down by our forefathers (and mothers). That will pretty much boil down to electing Democrats and Independents who still believe in the freedoms of our country. Resist...Oppose...Deny those who would choose to take our freedoms away.............
If the liberal justices get fed up enough, is it possible for them just to not refer a case to the full court? I know that would be breaking norms, but is there any real requirement that justices refer every single case?
My original comment was honestly a query. I just don’t know if referring the case involves any type of personal/professional judgement or if every single case gets referred to the full court
I understand, but too often, we drop responsibility on the side that literally has no power. It's like condemning Democrats for not "doing enough" to stop Republicans in Congress. I getting prickly about it ;-)
Yes, let's keep watching the right come up with new, incredibly effective ways to cause the harm they want to cause, and then coddle the people who refuse to come up with their own ways of working around the long-dead norms.
This is what happens when the majority of the country votes for a man like Trump. And this is what happens when he appoints three justices to SCOTUS.
This. Is. What. Happens.
None of us likes it, but we also still believe in the rule of law. If you want to do something effective than get people who aren't voting to vote. Campaign for people who will make a difference. Help kick all Republicans out of office. Vote in Democrats who have to the courage to take on fixing the court.
Don't sit here in comments, slamming the liberal justices because they're doing what they are supposed to do _by law_.
I'm curious about the idea floating around that if T dismantles the department of education that he'd be unwittingly forgiving student loans that had terms specifically naming the DoE. Any chance it could hold water in contract law?
It's sad that the epically corrupt GQP 6 on the Roberts' Kangaroo Court have lost all sense of self-respect and are now openly proving to everyone watching that they are utterly corrupt, bought & paid for and have ZERO respect for the rule of law. They should be deeply ashamed and need to be openly, publicly, and loudly mocked at EVERY opportunity.
The Extreme Court (kudos to Jon Margolis for the clever renaming) is following the Project 2025 script to the letter. From p. 285:
"[T]he Department of Education (the depart-ment, or ED), discussed by Lindsey Burke in Chapter 11, is a creation of the JimmyCarter Administration. The department is a convenient one-stop shop for the woke education cartel, which—as the COVID era showed—is not particularly concerned with children’s education. Schools should be responsive to parents, rather than to leftist advocates intent on indoctrination—and the more the federal government is involved in education, the less responsive to parents the public schools will be.This department is an example of federal intrusion into a traditionally state andl ocal realm. For the sake of American children, Congress should shutter it and return control of education to the states."
Keep in mind the ultimate goal of Project 2025 and the Extreme Court: Turn the USA into a Christian-based autocratic democracy.
Thank you as always, but especially today, for your moral clarity.
"Some people are not choosing who to “banish” from family events. The Trump administration wants to banish them from America. "
Well said, and a wonderful summary of the Hanif Abdurra writeup in the NYer. Even the repellent Dem "centrists" are (reluctantly) getting the Mamdani wave, and perhaps Bill Ackman & co. won't get the last laugh come November.
And the Supremes — dear god, after torching the Biden Administration's repeated requests for emergency relief regarding the student loan business, here they are, yet again, rolling over for tRump and his assault upon separation of powers, and involving the Dept. of Education. Who amongst us expected ANYTHING different?
“My goal today is to convince you that this court is not comprised of a bunch of partisan hacks,”
Amy Coney Barrett, 12 Sept. 2021
Noted.
Why does Amy Coney Barrett flip flop like a fish out of water? Does her husband whisper in her ear every night on how she should vote! This is 2025 and women should not need to follow their husbands demands because of a particular religious belief....
Lauran, I suspect that they're just genuinely bad people, ACB doesn't need to be told what to do
The administration doesn’t actually want to destroy the Dept of Education just yet. What it wants is the money allocated to it. With no employees to administer it, the way is easy to simple block grants to the states. And the states will be allowed to do anything “legal” it wants —like pay for private school vouchers if the state allows them. So my tax money from a “giving” blue state goes to some evangelical school that does need to meet any standards for education, not even the paltry ones now in effect in red states. It’s all in Project 2025.
The aim is clearly to create a underclass of undereducated serfs. But undereducated doesn’t mean dumb. Plenty of people are smart enough to resist a theocracy. That’s the one ray of hope in this mess.
Thank you for calling out the obnoxious NYT opinion piece as a marked and annoying contrast to what is happening in NYC with the hysterical attacks on Mamdani and in this country and at the SCOTUS where reasoned decisions and the rule of law are now in very short supply.
Read this earlier in Politico: The six conservatives not only decide on shadow docket (and without any justification) … BUT ALSO tip their hand by allowing what a lower court found indefensible, hints strongly at what they will no doubt later find very defensible indeed.
I’m so tired of the story that people being awful is the fault of those who make them face social consequences for being awful. In my experience, being kind and inclusive to bigoted family members doesn’t make them better people. I’ve never met someone who stopped being a bigot because their family members and friends politely tolerated their bigotry.
I rarely see bigots stop being bigots when they’re excluded either, but at least their exclusion makes family/friend events safer for marginalized family members/friends to attend. I sure as heck wouldn’t go to any events that include family members who think I don’t deserve human rights because I’m queer.
100% agree. The exception is where family members/loved ones have changed who they are after being recruited into a cult. Like the cult of Trump. If they were decent inclusive people once upon a time, they can return to their true self if they leave the cult and get deprogrammed, and in those cases, being shunned by loved ones just drives them deeper into their cult identity with no incentive to leave.
The unfortunate fact is that nobody can be deprogrammed unless they want to be, no matter how many incentives they have. Many of us marginalized people have to make the decision to remove family members from our lives for our own safety and sanity, because the reality is that being in the cult feeds them in a way reality doesn’t. (Sadly, I speak from experience.)
All true and I’m sorry to hear your family members are so awful to you
The corrupt bribes and back room deals between the SCOTUS conservatives and the Project 2025 gang are beginning to get paid back and paid off big time - and America is losing. Thomas’ trips’, Kavanaugh’s credit cards and only God knows what Roberts, Alito, Gorsuch and Barrett have been offered and promised. The quid pro quo is clear - destroy the Constitution, individual rights, legal precedent and the Rule of Law and purge government departments and programs that service ALL the people to benefit and enrich the moneyed elite In America - let them rule and have theoir interests and only their interest served. We are heading for Civil War in America, a working and middle class economic, individual rights and anti-authoritarian Civil War. They better saddle up.
I think that with the addition of Justice Coney-Barrett - a million dollar celebration at a maskless White House mid-Covid - the Chief Justice can dispense with the opaque (Justice is colorblind) and come out of the closet with full partisan MAGA … but still within the non-verbiage of a shadow docket decision.
Even under that shadow, he smells like 100% bona fide chicken shit.
This ruling frankly saddens and demoralizes me.
I grew up in the era of the Vinson and Warren courts and as a teenager and then young man the liberal Supreme Court Justices were my heroes..
Not athletes, not movie stars, or celebrities- this young kid worshipped guys like Vinson, Warren, Black, Douglas Murphy, Marshall, Jackson, Rutledge Roberts, Brennan, Frankfurter. even Byron White mercurial as he was.
I was dismayed when Burger became chief but his court turned out okay for the most part due to the valiant and masterful rearguard actions of William Brennan. The succeeding Courts have been a dismal slide to the right as one by one my heroes died or retired with their ranks steadily thinning. Now with the Roberts Court we have hit rock bottom and with this most recent ruling, I am convinced Roberts is the worst Chief Justice ever and Barrett has betrayed her early promise
I really am very sad about this plummet, not less so because I know I won't live to see another Court as fine as those two courts of my youth.
What "early promise" did ACB show? Why would anyone believe that she would be any different?
Sam, it was all in my mind, not reality. I was wishfully thinking she would apply a more consistent rigorous standard of analysis to cases that might have the effect of moderating the Court's more intemperate voices like Alito and Thomas. I hoped that although she is very conservative she might take on a role like that of Reagan's appointee, SD O'Connor. I basically echo Professor Feldman's view when he talked about her at Harvard Law:
https://hls.harvard.edu/today/during-the-annual-why-i-changed-my-mind-event-faculty-share-how-and-why-their-thoughts-evolved/
It's pretty obvious that SCOTUS is way deep into the far rightwing beliefs of the Heritage Foundation and have no plan to back down on their obnoxioous agenda to gut American democracy. For those of us who still believe in the Constitution and the rights given us by that document we need to make sure to elect a congress that will inact laws that uphold and protect the principles laid down by our forefathers (and mothers). That will pretty much boil down to electing Democrats and Independents who still believe in the freedoms of our country. Resist...Oppose...Deny those who would choose to take our freedoms away.............
The marginal amount of law in last week's order was enough for Sotomayor and Kagan.
I was annoyed at them not joining Jackson there.
If the liberal justices get fed up enough, is it possible for them just to not refer a case to the full court? I know that would be breaking norms, but is there any real requirement that justices refer every single case?
They don't have this kind of power, and let's not make them the bad guys in this, shall we?
My original comment was honestly a query. I just don’t know if referring the case involves any type of personal/professional judgement or if every single case gets referred to the full court
I understand, but too often, we drop responsibility on the side that literally has no power. It's like condemning Democrats for not "doing enough" to stop Republicans in Congress. I getting prickly about it ;-)
That would require them to actually take a risk
They don't have this ability, and as I noted above, let's not somehow make this a condemnation of the _liberals_. OK?
Yes, let's keep watching the right come up with new, incredibly effective ways to cause the harm they want to cause, and then coddle the people who refuse to come up with their own ways of working around the long-dead norms.
This is what happens when the majority of the country votes for a man like Trump. And this is what happens when he appoints three justices to SCOTUS.
This. Is. What. Happens.
None of us likes it, but we also still believe in the rule of law. If you want to do something effective than get people who aren't voting to vote. Campaign for people who will make a difference. Help kick all Republicans out of office. Vote in Democrats who have to the courage to take on fixing the court.
Don't sit here in comments, slamming the liberal justices because they're doing what they are supposed to do _by law_.
It requires work, not bitching.
Good question.
I'm curious about the idea floating around that if T dismantles the department of education that he'd be unwittingly forgiving student loans that had terms specifically naming the DoE. Any chance it could hold water in contract law?
Thank you Chris.
It's sad that the epically corrupt GQP 6 on the Roberts' Kangaroo Court have lost all sense of self-respect and are now openly proving to everyone watching that they are utterly corrupt, bought & paid for and have ZERO respect for the rule of law. They should be deeply ashamed and need to be openly, publicly, and loudly mocked at EVERY opportunity.
The Extreme Court (kudos to Jon Margolis for the clever renaming) is following the Project 2025 script to the letter. From p. 285:
"[T]he Department of Education (the depart-ment, or ED), discussed by Lindsey Burke in Chapter 11, is a creation of the JimmyCarter Administration. The department is a convenient one-stop shop for the woke education cartel, which—as the COVID era showed—is not particularly concerned with children’s education. Schools should be responsive to parents, rather than to leftist advocates intent on indoctrination—and the more the federal government is involved in education, the less responsive to parents the public schools will be.This department is an example of federal intrusion into a traditionally state andl ocal realm. For the sake of American children, Congress should shutter it and return control of education to the states."
Keep in mind the ultimate goal of Project 2025 and the Extreme Court: Turn the USA into a Christian-based autocratic democracy.
An oxymoron...
Exactly!
Thank you Chris for all
of this. Here in Arkansas
there's been a
concerted effort by
Huckabee Sanders to
hurt public schools as
much as possible. Her
LEARNS bill has been
deplorable and now
SCOTUS has given her
a weapon to finish it off.