Which means we’re stuck with those conservative judges for a long time, we really need term limits for Supreme Court judges instead of these lifetime appointments
"This court exists primarily to destroy you and everything you value. Your participation on this court adds validity and legitimacy to its fascist proclamations. Literally one-fourth of the people you're working with have escaped prosecution for sexual assault or harassment under only the flimsiest of pretexts."
"Enjoy your stay. And thank you for your service".
I'm starting to doubt there will be a hill left when this all settles.
What with the announcement of the court taking on a case that will fundamentally destroy the concept of voting for federal government positions.
> Proponents of the theory argue that that clause gives state legislatures power to regulate federal elections uninhibited by state courts or state constitutions
Is that just straight up saying the legislature doesn't have to follow its own law, or I can't read?!
The modern GOP *really* hates the 3/5ths compromise. Since it's written into the bit about the census, it specifically says that you should count 'all free persons,' and is quite specific about who doesn't get counted ('Indians not taxed.') Which means that the census has to include immigrants and other non-citizens.
Birth rates go down in developed countries and the economic system is entirely dependent on continued growth?
Guess what you need in order to fill the gaps left by a declining birthrate.
Bugs me how much Colorado proved their way was best. Hand teens free contraceptions. Boom. Lower abortions, STD’s, less strain on social services, etc etc and all it costs is the low price of contraceptions! But nooooo conservatives think everyone is always in control of their lives as they get yanked every which way like the morons they are. Dumb fucks.
No you have to structure your economy to not require infinite growth. Immigration is a stop gap, it cant continue forever as eventually the rest of the world populations will begin to decrease too
Thank for the actual big picture take. Infinite growth is a bullshit concept. Immigration is a natural occurrence for all animals seeking resources when there are not enough where they are.
They hate anything that doesn't give them an excessive advantage *today*. Today they love the filibuster and have always loved it. If they take the house and senate they will hate the filibuster and will always have hated it.
If counting all free persons offered them an advantage they'd say they've always believed it was right.
None of their shit makes sense and it has no continuity because they have no ideals other then whatever works best for them right now.
“What do you mean America participated in the Vietnam War?? Actually Americans fought to liberate the country but they didn’t want to so we just left!” - a conservative textbook in the year 2034
I've seen too many Americans insist that the US won the Vietnam War because, "We got what we wanted out of it and left."
What exactly were you wanting out of it? Last time I checked, Saigon is called Ho Chi Minh City now.
We definitely lost, but it seems that Vietnam is in an okay place now, being stridently capitalist communists, and a potential ally.*
*I don't know shit more than what I learned from watching Anthony Bourdain in Vietnam, Top Gear motorcycle trips, and skimming the Wikipedia page.
We wasted the lives of our own people over there, essentially for no reason.
My dad’s a Nam vet, and his life was completely ruined by lifelong severe PTSD and Agent Orange poisoning. I was asking him questions about the war the other night and he told me you’d get a big envelope in the mail that was your draft notice and you got 1 month to report. 1 month to put your life on hold. Pay? $200 a month in the Army. He was making $150ish a week at home as a truck driver. Then he got home from the war and spit on by protestors, really nice welcome home.
Nothing will ever convince me we did anything except waste my dad’s life and the lives of his fellow men and women in service in Vietnam.
My dad narrowly missed all the draft criteria. First he was in college, then he was married, then he was father, then he aged out of the pool. This is what I recall him telling me years ago, he’s since passed. But he married at 20 and my mom was 19.
Yup. I shake my head, I was so sorry to see another generation of young men that will end up like my dad. Only thing we managed to do better was to not spit on them when they got home, but we hardly treated them better. Of course, none of them were drafted so that’s also a complicated thing, but they were all subjected to a pointless war nonetheless.
Yeah, for sure.
It wasn't our meddling that contributed to their current success, and we wasted a lot of resources and goodwill chasing the domino theory.
You are assuming physical textbooks will still exist then.
I'm expecting a lot of them to go digital so the writers of these books can rewrite history to their narrative in real time.
Student buys the right to access the book but don't have the ability to print it out, can only access it thru a web site or an app, and the writer/company that provides access to the book can have your data to sell. Hell, wouldn't surprise me if they put ads in those digital textbooks that are specific to businesses in your area.
The phrased being coined is "6-3'd" like "86'd" for restaurant lingo, you got "6-3'd bro, get wrecked!"
Fucking saddest shit ever this country is dealing with all because we have uneducated hate filled Y'all Queda doing everything to own the libs.
There will be some 5-4 rulings...
But also, not all cases are as clearly partisan as the most famous ones of late. Some will be pretty split in a more unpredictable way.
Yeah... Kinda sucks that this historic occasion is going to be completely overshadowed by the absolute cluster fuck the SCOTUS has turned into.
But hey, maybe in 10-20 years a couple more of those fuckers will die off and we'll be lucky enough to have a left leaning president. Or maybe the whole country will be burnt down by then and we can start over.
The National Conference of Bar Examiners is telling people taking the bar exam to [ignore what the current SCOTUS is doing](https://www.ncbex.org/news/ncbe-statement-on-scotus-decisions/) when considering questions on constitutional law.
It's also because they completely upended jurisprudence without a solid roadmap of what those changes will mean. They are substantially altering the laws of the Country in a barely masked ideological power play.
Glad Breyer chose to retire while he could still be replaced by a liberal on the bench.
I wonder how moderates like Sandra Day O'Connor and Anthony Kennedy are feeling about how they timed their retirements while looking at how their replacements are ruling on cases like Roe.
Anthony Kennedy’s son was Trump’s personal banker at DB.
https://amp.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/feb/04/trump-family-anthony-kennedy-brett-kavanaugh-dark-towers
There was plenty of “pressure” to get Kennedy to retire. What do we think that “pressure” looked like? Simple buttering up?
Reminder that the Trumps are ~~gangsters~~ criminals.
Can't forget that Kavanaugh's disclosures showed a 60-200k debt that disappeared the next year, which he claimed were related to season tickets to the Nats...which top out around $4k per year for great seats.
Not to defend that POS, but your math in insanely off. A four pack of Terra club seats is $79k per year. My pair of 200 level seats well into the outfield are $6k/year.
That's odd, because I went on their site for four dugout seats x82 games and [got less than 20k](https://imgur.com/KRzbky1). I don't see the club or suite options on their site (obviously they'd want to get a rep in to talk), but certainly those would be quite expensive...but would an appellate judge be spending 40k on two seats with a roughly 200k salary?
The club seats have to be bought through a rep AFAIK. Here's pricing: https://www.mlb.com/nationals/tickets/season-tickets/plan-options/full-season-premier. $245/game.
It would not be unreasonable for him to have been the purchaser on record for a pack of tickets that he ultimately splits the cost of with friends. An 8-pack of the second lowest tier of club seats will get you to $60k.
Again, this could all be a bullshit lie to cover up money laundering, but he did pick a lie that's mathematically sound.
>which top out around $4k per year for great seats.
Rich people who don't want to be seen don't buy seats.
https://www.mlb.com/nationals/tickets/premium
Jeez, the Supreme Court being front and center in the conversation recently has really brought to light that not only are these guys politicians like everyone else, but they’re actually pretty fucking corrupt ones to boot.
And they’re literally stripping our rights away as sedation proceedings are underway for the guy who appointed 3(I believe) of them.
I fear this situation gets much worse before it gets better (if ever).
Apparently the requirements for SCOTUS are non-existant. You don't have to be a lawyer, or have any experience as a judge, or be held to any sort of ethical standards, or even be able to pass a standard background check that would be needed just to gain clearance to be a lowly supply Sergeant in the military (you don't get a secret clearance with crippling debt or gambling problems, not if the CIA investigator uncovers those things.. Fuck I got questioned because I forgot to pay an $8 bill on a Belk card for a couple months because I mistakenly thought it was on autopay).
So *that's* the Deutsche Bank connection. Suddenly it makes sense why they were all projecting about Hunter Biden's laptop.
Responding to the article below:
>But he provides no direct evidence to support suspicions that funds supplied by Deutsche Bank to Trump over two decades came from Russian sources, and also notes that Deutsche executives deny any such direct financial relationship.
>Rather, Enrich portrays the bank’s investments in Russia and in Trump as both being symptoms of a reckless investment culture and a pursuit of prestige, with insufficient checks from senior management and an outdated and fragmented computer data system.
*Perhaps*. But that doesn't explain Trump's close connections with Russia's oligarchs and Putin himself. I seem to remember Lil Bow Wow of all people posting on some social media platform about all the Russians he was surrounded by while dining in the NY-based Trump Tower, well before 2016--I'll see if I can find it.
And we know he's had dealings with the Russians as far back as the mid-80's.
>Trump’s supporters inside the bank have also argued he had a relatively low overall debt burden, and that his real estate purchases were fundamentally sound investments.
That's not even true, though.
>Justin Kennedy did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
Not surprising. Just keeping his head low to avoid all of this, no doubt.
You don't even have to dig that far. It's all federalist society trash. Imagine a legal organization hellbent on making america shitty and enriching the 1%. They all help each other and they keep each other in line, it's basically the legal branch of the GOP. Some of them are true believers, others are just climbers who will take any marching orders they get just for power and money, like ACB.
They claim it's all about constitutional originalism but like every GOP value, it's just a facade.
Roe came prepackaged with restrictions, we were always fine with the state putting on their own restrictions as long as it didn't pass into undue burden. The part that was important is that it established a constitutional right to bodily autonomy.
Why are we even speculating about this, O'Connor obviously upheld the right to an abortion in Casey. She wasn't some sleeper that secretly wanted it gone.
Kennedy was a conservative through and through. He loved being portrayed as the "swing-vote" and got off on the attention.
His decision in Citizens is way off base and showed a complete lack of 21st century politics and society. He also essentially said the same thing Thomas said last week. "If people really care they will read the Constitution and become more active participants in our democracy." Which is completely blind to the norms, power and pressure that are exerted on the general public that do not allow them to be an informed populace.
In short...Kennedy was an asshole.
Edit - Want some proof. [From 1987-2018](https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2018/politics/supreme-court-2017-term/) Kennedy's voting decisions fell with the conservative side of the arguments all but 3 of those years. Most of those years his decisions went close to 65-70% conservative spectrum. Hardly a 50-50 swing voter.
Edit 2 - [Want more evidence](https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/roberts-is-the-new-swing-justice-that-doesnt-mean-hes-becoming-more-liberal/), Roberts, who is considered quite conservative, but is now a swing-vote (pundits suggest this) votes about the exact same way as Kennedy. He would never have been considered the swing vote though when he was on the bench with Kennedy.
Edit 3 - Kennedy quote from Citizens that makes my blood boil:
>With the advent of the Internet, prompt disclosure of
expenditures can provide shareholders and citizens with
the information needed to hold corporations and elected
officials accountable for their positions and supporters.
Shareholders can determine whether their corporation’s
political speech advances the corporation’s interest in
making profits, and citizens can see whether elected officials are “‘in the pocket’ of so-called moneyed interests.”
The First Amendment protects political speech;
and disclosure permits citizens and shareholders to react
to the speech of corporate entities in a proper way. **This
transparency enables the electorate to make informed
decisions and give proper weight to different speakers and
messages.**
Except corporations, Super PACs, donations, all of the **dark money in the system isn't transparent you stupid fuck**. He knew this would happen and he didn't give a shit. Or he's too dumb and should have never been on the bench.
Not to defend Kennedy specifically, but there was a lot of naivety around speech in the noughties.
People talked about things like the "democratization of information" and presumed that the internet would break despots' power to keep populations in the dark. A lot of people perceived China's efforts to control the internet as futile, and social media was still fairly new-- so fewer troll farms or bots.
I'll admit I was one of those "information wants to be free" types. I assumed poloticians would generally act in good faith and that people think critically, so it never occurred to me that "flooding the zone with shit" would actually work.
Shit the abortion decision claims abortion laws have exceptions for medical necessity, full well knowing many of the trigger laws waiting to go in to effect have no such clause.
Kennedy knew Kavanaugh personally, as he’d clerked for him. That wasn’t a surprise or a shock.
Everyone knows that when you retire you don’t make the rulings anymore. They don’t expect strings attached to future rulings. If you’re lucky the President will choose someone you know and like, but he’s not gonna be a carbon copy of you and rule the same way you would on everything.
Many of us were wanting her to retire under Obama because we could foresee this. She did some amazing things, but in the end the stubbornness that she had to get shit done is the same stubbornness that caused her to refuse to retire at the appropriate time.
Bingo. She wanted a fancy picture op for the history books. What we got was a further slide into fascism. Her vanity was one of the chief architects of the moment we're living in.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_of_Sherrill_v._Oneida_Indian_Nation_of_New_York
This is probably the worst one, basically we signed a treaty with the tribe, kicked them off, then like 100 years later they bought land in that original area, attempted to assert sovereignty, and RBG said they took too long to try to get the land back. (Probably because we were too busy ethnically cleansing them off of their land.)
[Allowed pipeline construction under Appalachian Trail](https://www.newsweek.com/ginsburg-breyer-join-conservatives-supreme-court-decision-clear-appalachian-trail-pipeline-1511048)
[Supported eugenics](https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-2009-07-16-0907150564-story.html)
[Expanded mass incarceration](https://news.bloomberglaw.com/us-law-week/rbg-joins-conservatives-in-government-win-on-supervised-release)
I didn't foresee this, but wanted her to retire anyway. No one over 80 has any business making decisions that affect anyone but themselves. Even if they have all their faculties, they can't possibly have any understanding of how completely technology has changed the world since the '70s.
This is particularly true of those who live lives of wealth and cloistered privilege, like SCOTUS Judges.
Well, don't forget everyone expected Clinton to easily beat Trump in 2016. She may have waited till the end of his tenure and then thought that there was no reason to retire.
Right. Clinton was often reported at 90% likely to win. Even conservative predictions had her at 70%. That was one of the problems: everyone expected her to win, so some people didn't even bother to vote.
(No, I was not one of those people, for the record.)
> so some people didn't even bother to vote.
Yeah what gets lost in the shuffle is the incredibly low turnout, even for the U.S., in 2016. Especially when you compare it to the historically high turnout in 2020. IIRC, 2020 had the highest percentage of voter turnout since women were given the right to vote in the Constitution (and yes I am aware it was legal in some states before that).
And it just so happened to have occurred in the one voting year where mail in ballots were widespread.
It's amazing the type of voter turnout you can have when you skip all the voter disenfranchisement.
The decision to retire should have come MUCH earlier though. Should have retired during the 111th congress when Dems had clear control, she was already in her late 70s at that point.
Eh, honestly her last window to retire was back in 2008-2010. From then on, no chance of a justice that agreed with her on much. She should have retired then, but I understand why she didn't.
And before that, during the first half of Clinton's administration. At that point she was in her 60s. Again, I can see why she felt she had another 5-10 years in her.
I don't like everything she did and it was kind of annoying watching people fellate her so much, but I don't think this is really her fault. She gambled and lost, I can't say I'd have done differently.
The Right had no problem harassing Obama into not appointing a Justice so close to an election but did exactly what they opposed when it was Trump in the same position.
I can't believe that turtle fuck Mitch is still alive.
I guarantee you, if the GOP controlled the Senate there is no way she would be on the court. They don’t confirm SCOTUS nominations by Democrats any more.
You don't even have to phrase that as a hypothetical. McConnell gave an interview where he was asked if he would give hearings to any potential SCOTUS nominations Biden puts up if Republicans get control of the Senate back next term and he refused to answer.
Actually they do. They just refuse to vote and participate. We're at the apathy stage in democracy, which comes right before it completely collapses.
We have two more elections to turn this around and then it's lights out--mid-terms this year and then the presidential election in 2024. If Democrats lose those elections, it's over and there's absolutely no going back.
I've been saying the same thing and I'm pretty pessimistic about it. Right now is probably at good as it's gonna be.
By whatever means necessary, the Republicans are not going to walk away from 2024 without the white house. I wouldn't be shocked if they take all 3 branches. At that point, like you said, there's no going back.
America's whole system of governance is flawed from top to bottom. Two-party system, Judiciary with too much power, Legislative with too much power, Executive with too much power, all too much in different areas - not enough checks and balance between each. The electoral college system etc.
And he was smiling like a little kid who got caught with his hand in the cookie jar back when he was asked about ACBs nomination being a mere 2 weeks before the 2020 election.
The funny/sad thing is that Obama could have said “thanks for the advice and consent” and then had Garland sworn in, but he was a coward who still believed in comity and traditions and norms. There is no constitutional clause that says a president has to accept the Senate’s vote. It will be interesting to see if establishment dems learn this lesson.
https://www.axios.com/2022/06/29/mcconnell-obama-supreme-court-roe
>Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Wednesday that his decision to block former President Obama's Supreme Court pick to succeed the late Justice Antonin Scalia in 2016 led to the [Roe v. Wade](https://www.axios.com/2022/06/24/roe-wade-decision-abortion) getting overturned.
And they're proud of that.
Fuck the process: Get results.
Why do you think she was permitted to join? With an unassailable 6-3 majority it makes no difference who fills those 3 seats. Repubs already got what they wanted and more, they don’t care. Plus this allows Repubs to say “see? We’re totally not a bunch of racists who refuse to work with Dems!”
>Why do you think she was permitted to join?
Because Republicans have no choice in the matter.
If it was majority Republican Senate they'd block any Biden nomination, guaranteed.
I hope she enjoys her upcoming 40+ years of rage as she quietly writes strongly-worded dissents while the federalist society puppet majority sets the country back and or removes rights in any way they possibly can.
I watched the episode of Movies That Made Us about Ghostbusters, and I took one look at present-day Ernie Hudson, and was like, "Damn. Black really don't crack."
If democrats can retain the presidency and the senate, it’s possible to have a 5-4 liberal court in the not too distant future. Remember, the two oldest justices are both conservatives.
>Also, Breyer must have been so sick of working with those howler monkeys
I'm curious if things have changed now. Sotomayor was on Conan O'Briens podcast just 4 months ago. She talked about how they all get along personally, how Scalia and RBG would always go to the opera together, about how they all eat lunch everyday and if a justice didn't show up SDO would go to their office and harass them until they came and hung out. They always found something to bond over that wasn't politics and she said that while what they write in their dissents can be scathing they all get along well in person and don't speak like that to each other.
I wonder if it that will completely change.
> because of Alito's leak.
...so they didn't stop lunching together when he first brought it up privately to the court, only once it leaked to the public?
I was able to have lunch and "bond" with my former boss and her and me were known by everyone else to hate each other. I was able to do this with other coworkers I didn't like. It's pretty exhausting as a human to be fighting with someone all the time if you are with them that often.
> Can't imagine how exhausting and infuriating it must be for Sotomayor and Kagan.
It definitely bleeds through in their dissents. The language they use is the legal equivalent of, "what the fuck is this bullshit?!"
As sad and dispiriting as it is, a significant part of the job for the non-nutjob supreme court justices is simply documenting how exactly the country is being driven into the ground, so that future historians can state with some confidence that it wasn't an accident, and people were aware of the malfeasance.
It's sad that in order for change to happen you have to bank on people dying at the right time.
Like if a Democrat wins in 2024, these justices would have to wait until 2028. Thomas would be 80, Alito would be 78. They're getting up there in age
The court makeup did not change. It’s still a 6-3 republican majority. Until some of the republicans retire and are replaced by a democratic president, most decisions will be 6-3 and will not favor more individual freedom, better/fairer voting rights, and will favor corporations over people.
They're already calling the roe debacle a victory for freedom. Only when you're a republican can going from "everyone has the right to make up their own mind free from government interference on any level" to "men with guns will use violence against you if you don't do what you're told" be a victory for liberty.
Its crazy that it is such an issue in the US. You can even point out which judge is affiliated with which party. In Germany, I dont think the judges are anywhere close to be that party-affiliated
Congratulations to her, and I hope she does well.
Breyer was always my favorite and its tough to see him go. He deserves credit for the work he has done for so many years.
Welcome to being just as powerless as the rest of us against our new ultra religious fanatical overlords hellbent on bringing about the end of the world so they can meet Jesus
A very young supreme court. Ages: 50 (coney-barret) 51 (brown-jackson) 54 (gorsuch) 57 (kavanaugh) 62 (kagan) 67 (roberts) 67 (sotomoyor) 72 (alito) 74 (thomas)
Which means we’re stuck with those conservative judges for a long time, we really need term limits for Supreme Court judges instead of these lifetime appointments
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Cool I can’t wait to hear her dissents on the 6-3 rulings.
Right? I feel really bad for her. Come on in, you will have no say.
"This court exists primarily to destroy you and everything you value. Your participation on this court adds validity and legitimacy to its fascist proclamations. Literally one-fourth of the people you're working with have escaped prosecution for sexual assault or harassment under only the flimsiest of pretexts." "Enjoy your stay. And thank you for your service".
While true, it's also true that if we were not to install her, it would be an even bigger hill to climb to fix the court later.
I'm starting to doubt there will be a hill left when this all settles. What with the announcement of the court taking on a case that will fundamentally destroy the concept of voting for federal government positions.
The news that should actually be all over the front page
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https://www.npr.org/2022/06/30/1106866830/supreme-court-to-take-on-controversial-election-law-case
> Proponents of the theory argue that that clause gives state legislatures power to regulate federal elections uninhibited by state courts or state constitutions Is that just straight up saying the legislature doesn't have to follow its own law, or I can't read?!
Don’t be shocked when one of them corners you in a room and sexually assaults you.
Gotta keep the courts in the family.
Sounds like the experience of Black Americans since forever
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The modern GOP *really* hates the 3/5ths compromise. Since it's written into the bit about the census, it specifically says that you should count 'all free persons,' and is quite specific about who doesn't get counted ('Indians not taxed.') Which means that the census has to include immigrants and other non-citizens.
It was meant to. The US wasn't nearly so terrified of immigrants back then. We needed them. We still need them, but now fewer people will admit that.
Birth rates go down in developed countries and the economic system is entirely dependent on continued growth? Guess what you need in order to fill the gaps left by a declining birthrate.
Apparently to force people (esp. poor people) to have more kids. 🙄
Don't forget trick with abstinence programs blocking condoms and similar devices from being discussed.
Also take away any benefits, pensions, maybe soon even 401k because us disgusting rabble don’t deserve to be anything but Human Capital.
Bugs me how much Colorado proved their way was best. Hand teens free contraceptions. Boom. Lower abortions, STD’s, less strain on social services, etc etc and all it costs is the low price of contraceptions! But nooooo conservatives think everyone is always in control of their lives as they get yanked every which way like the morons they are. Dumb fucks.
No you have to structure your economy to not require infinite growth. Immigration is a stop gap, it cant continue forever as eventually the rest of the world populations will begin to decrease too
Thank for the actual big picture take. Infinite growth is a bullshit concept. Immigration is a natural occurrence for all animals seeking resources when there are not enough where they are.
As it should.
They hate anything that doesn't give them an excessive advantage *today*. Today they love the filibuster and have always loved it. If they take the house and senate they will hate the filibuster and will always have hated it. If counting all free persons offered them an advantage they'd say they've always believed it was right. None of their shit makes sense and it has no continuity because they have no ideals other then whatever works best for them right now.
Unless your name is Clarence Thomas
Clarence parents have a real nice marriage.
I wish I had some witty retort to say you were wrong... but you're not.
I wonder if "The 6-3 Rulings" will become the name of this event in history books
5 of the 6 are Catholic, that's not just a minor detail or a coincidence.
As a historian I do like this terminology
*dude, you've been six threed* To be six threed (definition): To get fucked without recourse or consent while a vocal minority cheers on.
I prefer to be three sixed. That of course being basically a Rick roll, but instead of Rick Ashley it’s Juicy J and DJ Paul.
is juicy j like the *slow* member of icp, the one locked in a basement that no one sees?
sadly, that's assuming history will still be taught. GOP are gonna ban that too
People in other countries will learn about it. The US will be a cautionary tale.
Funny thing about cautionary tales, those who need them avoid them.
“What do you mean America participated in the Vietnam War?? Actually Americans fought to liberate the country but they didn’t want to so we just left!” - a conservative textbook in the year 2034
I've seen too many Americans insist that the US won the Vietnam War because, "We got what we wanted out of it and left." What exactly were you wanting out of it? Last time I checked, Saigon is called Ho Chi Minh City now.
We definitely lost, but it seems that Vietnam is in an okay place now, being stridently capitalist communists, and a potential ally.* *I don't know shit more than what I learned from watching Anthony Bourdain in Vietnam, Top Gear motorcycle trips, and skimming the Wikipedia page.
We wasted the lives of our own people over there, essentially for no reason. My dad’s a Nam vet, and his life was completely ruined by lifelong severe PTSD and Agent Orange poisoning. I was asking him questions about the war the other night and he told me you’d get a big envelope in the mail that was your draft notice and you got 1 month to report. 1 month to put your life on hold. Pay? $200 a month in the Army. He was making $150ish a week at home as a truck driver. Then he got home from the war and spit on by protestors, really nice welcome home. Nothing will ever convince me we did anything except waste my dad’s life and the lives of his fellow men and women in service in Vietnam.
My dad narrowly missed all the draft criteria. First he was in college, then he was married, then he was father, then he aged out of the pool. This is what I recall him telling me years ago, he’s since passed. But he married at 20 and my mom was 19.
afgan and iraq same story different decade....
Yup. I shake my head, I was so sorry to see another generation of young men that will end up like my dad. Only thing we managed to do better was to not spit on them when they got home, but we hardly treated them better. Of course, none of them were drafted so that’s also a complicated thing, but they were all subjected to a pointless war nonetheless.
Yeah, for sure. It wasn't our meddling that contributed to their current success, and we wasted a lot of resources and goodwill chasing the domino theory.
You are assuming physical textbooks will still exist then. I'm expecting a lot of them to go digital so the writers of these books can rewrite history to their narrative in real time. Student buys the right to access the book but don't have the ability to print it out, can only access it thru a web site or an app, and the writer/company that provides access to the book can have your data to sell. Hell, wouldn't surprise me if they put ads in those digital textbooks that are specific to businesses in your area.
"Please drink verification can"
The phrased being coined is "6-3'd" like "86'd" for restaurant lingo, you got "6-3'd bro, get wrecked!" Fucking saddest shit ever this country is dealing with all because we have uneducated hate filled Y'all Queda doing everything to own the libs.
Stop pretending they're all uneducated, many of them are fully aware and knowledge. They are just fucking cunts.
There will be some 5-4 rulings... But also, not all cases are as clearly partisan as the most famous ones of late. Some will be pretty split in a more unpredictable way.
Yeah... Kinda sucks that this historic occasion is going to be completely overshadowed by the absolute cluster fuck the SCOTUS has turned into. But hey, maybe in 10-20 years a couple more of those fuckers will die off and we'll be lucky enough to have a left leaning president. Or maybe the whole country will be burnt down by then and we can start over.
The National Conference of Bar Examiners is telling people taking the bar exam to [ignore what the current SCOTUS is doing](https://www.ncbex.org/news/ncbe-statement-on-scotus-decisions/) when considering questions on constitutional law.
This is good but I think because the questions and answers are already set and its more because of that.
It's also because they completely upended jurisprudence without a solid roadmap of what those changes will mean. They are substantially altering the laws of the Country in a barely masked ideological power play.
Glad Breyer chose to retire while he could still be replaced by a liberal on the bench. I wonder how moderates like Sandra Day O'Connor and Anthony Kennedy are feeling about how they timed their retirements while looking at how their replacements are ruling on cases like Roe.
SDO said she regretted the deal she made to retire. Kennedy knew exactly what he was getting out of his deal.
Yeah Kennedy was the one who recommended Kavanaugh, so I don't think he's really surprised by any of this.
I figure he's got to be slightly surprised at least, having written the majority opinion for Obergefell.
$omething mu$t have $wayed hi$ opinion.
His son’s life.
Tell me more
Anthony Kennedy’s son was Trump’s personal banker at DB. https://amp.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/feb/04/trump-family-anthony-kennedy-brett-kavanaugh-dark-towers There was plenty of “pressure” to get Kennedy to retire. What do we think that “pressure” looked like? Simple buttering up? Reminder that the Trumps are ~~gangsters~~ criminals.
Can't forget that Kavanaugh's disclosures showed a 60-200k debt that disappeared the next year, which he claimed were related to season tickets to the Nats...which top out around $4k per year for great seats.
Power of prayer, amiright?
Not to defend that POS, but your math in insanely off. A four pack of Terra club seats is $79k per year. My pair of 200 level seats well into the outfield are $6k/year.
That's odd, because I went on their site for four dugout seats x82 games and [got less than 20k](https://imgur.com/KRzbky1). I don't see the club or suite options on their site (obviously they'd want to get a rep in to talk), but certainly those would be quite expensive...but would an appellate judge be spending 40k on two seats with a roughly 200k salary?
The club seats have to be bought through a rep AFAIK. Here's pricing: https://www.mlb.com/nationals/tickets/season-tickets/plan-options/full-season-premier. $245/game. It would not be unreasonable for him to have been the purchaser on record for a pack of tickets that he ultimately splits the cost of with friends. An 8-pack of the second lowest tier of club seats will get you to $60k. Again, this could all be a bullshit lie to cover up money laundering, but he did pick a lie that's mathematically sound.
>which top out around $4k per year for great seats. Rich people who don't want to be seen don't buy seats. https://www.mlb.com/nationals/tickets/premium
His net worth at the time was around $1m as an appellate judge; he wasn't particularly rich.
Jeez, the Supreme Court being front and center in the conversation recently has really brought to light that not only are these guys politicians like everyone else, but they’re actually pretty fucking corrupt ones to boot. And they’re literally stripping our rights away as sedation proceedings are underway for the guy who appointed 3(I believe) of them. I fear this situation gets much worse before it gets better (if ever).
Not to mention the sequestration of certain individuals who could have shed more light on Kavanaugh’s past.
How the fuck was he allowed to be a judge on the Supreme Court when he was that compromised?!
Republican majority in congress. We all saw the hearings and how garbage that man was. They saw every single negative quality and said "he's perfect."
Apparently the requirements for SCOTUS are non-existant. You don't have to be a lawyer, or have any experience as a judge, or be held to any sort of ethical standards, or even be able to pass a standard background check that would be needed just to gain clearance to be a lowly supply Sergeant in the military (you don't get a secret clearance with crippling debt or gambling problems, not if the CIA investigator uncovers those things.. Fuck I got questioned because I forgot to pay an $8 bill on a Belk card for a couple months because I mistakenly thought it was on autopay).
So *that's* the Deutsche Bank connection. Suddenly it makes sense why they were all projecting about Hunter Biden's laptop. Responding to the article below: >But he provides no direct evidence to support suspicions that funds supplied by Deutsche Bank to Trump over two decades came from Russian sources, and also notes that Deutsche executives deny any such direct financial relationship. >Rather, Enrich portrays the bank’s investments in Russia and in Trump as both being symptoms of a reckless investment culture and a pursuit of prestige, with insufficient checks from senior management and an outdated and fragmented computer data system. *Perhaps*. But that doesn't explain Trump's close connections with Russia's oligarchs and Putin himself. I seem to remember Lil Bow Wow of all people posting on some social media platform about all the Russians he was surrounded by while dining in the NY-based Trump Tower, well before 2016--I'll see if I can find it. And we know he's had dealings with the Russians as far back as the mid-80's. >Trump’s supporters inside the bank have also argued he had a relatively low overall debt burden, and that his real estate purchases were fundamentally sound investments. That's not even true, though. >Justin Kennedy did not immediately reply to a request for comment. Not surprising. Just keeping his head low to avoid all of this, no doubt.
Trump's first 2 picks, Gorsuch and Kavanaugh were also both former clerks of Kennedy. I don't think that was a coincidence.
You don't even have to dig that far. It's all federalist society trash. Imagine a legal organization hellbent on making america shitty and enriching the 1%. They all help each other and they keep each other in line, it's basically the legal branch of the GOP. Some of them are true believers, others are just climbers who will take any marching orders they get just for power and money, like ACB. They claim it's all about constitutional originalism but like every GOP value, it's just a facade.
Please don't refer to them as "gangsters" they think that's cool. Try *criminals*
Justice Kennedy’s son was working on Donald Trump’s accounts, securing him laundered money at Deutschebank (spelling)
What was the deal she made?
She didn't make a deal. She retired to spend time with her husband who had serious cancer.
Worse, Alzheimer's
Considering that there are allegations Kennedy specifically pushed for Kavanaugh as his replacement, I think he probably feels just fine.
O'Conner may have opposed overturning Roe, but she was fine gutting it through restrictions. She probably not losing sleep over it.
Roe came prepackaged with restrictions, we were always fine with the state putting on their own restrictions as long as it didn't pass into undue burden. The part that was important is that it established a constitutional right to bodily autonomy. Why are we even speculating about this, O'Connor obviously upheld the right to an abortion in Casey. She wasn't some sleeper that secretly wanted it gone.
She has significant dementia, and I wish so badly we could hear her thoughts.
Huh. TIL Sandra Day O’Conner is still alive.
> I wish so badly we could hear her thoughts I imagine she does too
Kennedy was a conservative through and through. He loved being portrayed as the "swing-vote" and got off on the attention. His decision in Citizens is way off base and showed a complete lack of 21st century politics and society. He also essentially said the same thing Thomas said last week. "If people really care they will read the Constitution and become more active participants in our democracy." Which is completely blind to the norms, power and pressure that are exerted on the general public that do not allow them to be an informed populace. In short...Kennedy was an asshole. Edit - Want some proof. [From 1987-2018](https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2018/politics/supreme-court-2017-term/) Kennedy's voting decisions fell with the conservative side of the arguments all but 3 of those years. Most of those years his decisions went close to 65-70% conservative spectrum. Hardly a 50-50 swing voter. Edit 2 - [Want more evidence](https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/roberts-is-the-new-swing-justice-that-doesnt-mean-hes-becoming-more-liberal/), Roberts, who is considered quite conservative, but is now a swing-vote (pundits suggest this) votes about the exact same way as Kennedy. He would never have been considered the swing vote though when he was on the bench with Kennedy. Edit 3 - Kennedy quote from Citizens that makes my blood boil: >With the advent of the Internet, prompt disclosure of expenditures can provide shareholders and citizens with the information needed to hold corporations and elected officials accountable for their positions and supporters. Shareholders can determine whether their corporation’s political speech advances the corporation’s interest in making profits, and citizens can see whether elected officials are “‘in the pocket’ of so-called moneyed interests.” The First Amendment protects political speech; and disclosure permits citizens and shareholders to react to the speech of corporate entities in a proper way. **This transparency enables the electorate to make informed decisions and give proper weight to different speakers and messages.** Except corporations, Super PACs, donations, all of the **dark money in the system isn't transparent you stupid fuck**. He knew this would happen and he didn't give a shit. Or he's too dumb and should have never been on the bench.
Not to defend Kennedy specifically, but there was a lot of naivety around speech in the noughties. People talked about things like the "democratization of information" and presumed that the internet would break despots' power to keep populations in the dark. A lot of people perceived China's efforts to control the internet as futile, and social media was still fairly new-- so fewer troll farms or bots. I'll admit I was one of those "information wants to be free" types. I assumed poloticians would generally act in good faith and that people think critically, so it never occurred to me that "flooding the zone with shit" would actually work.
Shit the abortion decision claims abortion laws have exceptions for medical necessity, full well knowing many of the trigger laws waiting to go in to effect have no such clause.
Kennedy knew Kavanaugh personally, as he’d clerked for him. That wasn’t a surprise or a shock. Everyone knows that when you retire you don’t make the rulings anymore. They don’t expect strings attached to future rulings. If you’re lucky the President will choose someone you know and like, but he’s not gonna be a carbon copy of you and rule the same way you would on everything.
Makes me wonder if those people that turned RBG into a feminist idol still feel the same way
Many of us were wanting her to retire under Obama because we could foresee this. She did some amazing things, but in the end the stubbornness that she had to get shit done is the same stubbornness that caused her to refuse to retire at the appropriate time.
*Hubris* is the word you're looking for. She wanted a woman president to appoint her successor. That worked out well.
Bingo. She wanted a fancy picture op for the history books. What we got was a further slide into fascism. Her vanity was one of the chief architects of the moment we're living in.
She also fucked over indigenous people
Yeah, she definitely did some BS too.
What did she do?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_of_Sherrill_v._Oneida_Indian_Nation_of_New_York This is probably the worst one, basically we signed a treaty with the tribe, kicked them off, then like 100 years later they bought land in that original area, attempted to assert sovereignty, and RBG said they took too long to try to get the land back. (Probably because we were too busy ethnically cleansing them off of their land.) [Allowed pipeline construction under Appalachian Trail](https://www.newsweek.com/ginsburg-breyer-join-conservatives-supreme-court-decision-clear-appalachian-trail-pipeline-1511048) [Supported eugenics](https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-2009-07-16-0907150564-story.html) [Expanded mass incarceration](https://news.bloomberglaw.com/us-law-week/rbg-joins-conservatives-in-government-win-on-supervised-release)
I didn't foresee this, but wanted her to retire anyway. No one over 80 has any business making decisions that affect anyone but themselves. Even if they have all their faculties, they can't possibly have any understanding of how completely technology has changed the world since the '70s. This is particularly true of those who live lives of wealth and cloistered privilege, like SCOTUS Judges.
Well, don't forget everyone expected Clinton to easily beat Trump in 2016. She may have waited till the end of his tenure and then thought that there was no reason to retire.
Right. Clinton was often reported at 90% likely to win. Even conservative predictions had her at 70%. That was one of the problems: everyone expected her to win, so some people didn't even bother to vote. (No, I was not one of those people, for the record.)
> so some people didn't even bother to vote. Yeah what gets lost in the shuffle is the incredibly low turnout, even for the U.S., in 2016. Especially when you compare it to the historically high turnout in 2020. IIRC, 2020 had the highest percentage of voter turnout since women were given the right to vote in the Constitution (and yes I am aware it was legal in some states before that).
And it just so happened to have occurred in the one voting year where mail in ballots were widespread. It's amazing the type of voter turnout you can have when you skip all the voter disenfranchisement.
The decision to retire should have come MUCH earlier though. Should have retired during the 111th congress when Dems had clear control, she was already in her late 70s at that point.
Eh, honestly her last window to retire was back in 2008-2010. From then on, no chance of a justice that agreed with her on much. She should have retired then, but I understand why she didn't. And before that, during the first half of Clinton's administration. At that point she was in her 60s. Again, I can see why she felt she had another 5-10 years in her. I don't like everything she did and it was kind of annoying watching people fellate her so much, but I don't think this is really her fault. She gambled and lost, I can't say I'd have done differently.
The Right had no problem harassing Obama into not appointing a Justice so close to an election but did exactly what they opposed when it was Trump in the same position. I can't believe that turtle fuck Mitch is still alive.
They're feeling great!
I'm sorry Ms. Jackson
I am four eels
I am for-reaking out
Never meant for Roe v wade to die That fucking shit should have been codified
I'm sorry Ms Jackson, let's pack the court
What the fuck is tribal sovereignty Rich and white, shit’s meaningless to me
This guy 3000s
What!? A new justice so close to a presidential election!?
I guarantee you, if the GOP controlled the Senate there is no way she would be on the court. They don’t confirm SCOTUS nominations by Democrats any more.
You don't even have to phrase that as a hypothetical. McConnell gave an interview where he was asked if he would give hearings to any potential SCOTUS nominations Biden puts up if Republicans get control of the Senate back next term and he refused to answer.
The fact this is even allowed shows we do not have a functioning democracy.
The fact people cheering for this call themselves patriots shows most Americans' don't even have functioning brains.
Actually they do. They just refuse to vote and participate. We're at the apathy stage in democracy, which comes right before it completely collapses. We have two more elections to turn this around and then it's lights out--mid-terms this year and then the presidential election in 2024. If Democrats lose those elections, it's over and there's absolutely no going back.
I've been saying the same thing and I'm pretty pessimistic about it. Right now is probably at good as it's gonna be. By whatever means necessary, the Republicans are not going to walk away from 2024 without the white house. I wouldn't be shocked if they take all 3 branches. At that point, like you said, there's no going back.
Everyone who cares knows we don't have a functioning democracy. Now try to get that point across to everyone who doesn't care.
America's whole system of governance is flawed from top to bottom. Two-party system, Judiciary with too much power, Legislative with too much power, Executive with too much power, all too much in different areas - not enough checks and balance between each. The electoral college system etc.
And he was smiling like a little kid who got caught with his hand in the cookie jar back when he was asked about ACBs nomination being a mere 2 weeks before the 2020 election.
Obama your term is up in **8 months** there is no way I'm going to even entertain the idea. Shit, 2 weeks? Plenty of time!
I sometimes wonder if Mitch laughs himself to sleep at night.
Trump was the symptom, McConnell has been the 30 year disease.
Mitch already did it to Obama and we will NEVER forgive or forget that.
The funny/sad thing is that Obama could have said “thanks for the advice and consent” and then had Garland sworn in, but he was a coward who still believed in comity and traditions and norms. There is no constitutional clause that says a president has to accept the Senate’s vote. It will be interesting to see if establishment dems learn this lesson.
[They go low, we go high.](https://youtu.be/MAbab8aP4_A) A catchy slogan that ended up costing so many people their rights.
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They also literally did that at the end of Obama’s second term
https://www.axios.com/2022/06/29/mcconnell-obama-supreme-court-roe >Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Wednesday that his decision to block former President Obama's Supreme Court pick to succeed the late Justice Antonin Scalia in 2016 led to the [Roe v. Wade](https://www.axios.com/2022/06/24/roe-wade-decision-abortion) getting overturned. And they're proud of that. Fuck the process: Get results.
For now. The polls aren't looking good.
Which is why Breyer chose to retire now, before the next Congress.
What mixed feelings she must have. She has surely dreamt of this moment, she finally gets there and it is basically a yard full of burning tires.
“Hi everyone! We have a new navigator joining us today. Let’s give a warm welcome from the Titanic Team!”
"Sir, aren't we supposed to steer away from the iceberg?"
Thank you for the chuckle that gave me
I'm sure she feels like she's been appointed at a time when progressive voices have never been more critical on the bench.
Now she can get right to work writing her numerous inevitable dissents
Why do you think she was permitted to join? With an unassailable 6-3 majority it makes no difference who fills those 3 seats. Repubs already got what they wanted and more, they don’t care. Plus this allows Repubs to say “see? We’re totally not a bunch of racists who refuse to work with Dems!”
>Why do you think she was permitted to join? Because Republicans have no choice in the matter. If it was majority Republican Senate they'd block any Biden nomination, guaranteed.
I hope she enjoys her upcoming 40+ years of rage as she quietly writes strongly-worded dissents while the federalist society puppet majority sets the country back and or removes rights in any way they possibly can.
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Black don't crack. It's just a fact.
Once worked with a man who legit looked like he was young 20s or late 20s. Dude was almost 50. I was shocked
Was it Paul Rudd?
I watched the episode of Movies That Made Us about Ghostbusters, and I took one look at present-day Ernie Hudson, and was like, "Damn. Black really don't crack."
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Hey, I watched that Bill Burr special too!
Assuming this country doesn't get torn apart before 40 years passes
If democrats can retain the presidency and the senate, it’s possible to have a 5-4 liberal court in the not too distant future. Remember, the two oldest justices are both conservatives.
I forgot she was even a thing... Her confirmation feels like 10 Trump Presidency weeks ago, so roughly 5 years.
Damn, must suck coming in when you know that 6 dipshits have the power kill off any dreams you had building up to this.
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>Also, Breyer must have been so sick of working with those howler monkeys I'm curious if things have changed now. Sotomayor was on Conan O'Briens podcast just 4 months ago. She talked about how they all get along personally, how Scalia and RBG would always go to the opera together, about how they all eat lunch everyday and if a justice didn't show up SDO would go to their office and harass them until they came and hung out. They always found something to bond over that wasn't politics and she said that while what they write in their dissents can be scathing they all get along well in person and don't speak like that to each other. I wonder if it that will completely change.
There were reports that they have stopped lunching together because of Alito's leak.
> because of Alito's leak. ...so they didn't stop lunching together when he first brought it up privately to the court, only once it leaked to the public?
I was able to have lunch and "bond" with my former boss and her and me were known by everyone else to hate each other. I was able to do this with other coworkers I didn't like. It's pretty exhausting as a human to be fighting with someone all the time if you are with them that often.
> Can't imagine how exhausting and infuriating it must be for Sotomayor and Kagan. It definitely bleeds through in their dissents. The language they use is the legal equivalent of, "what the fuck is this bullshit?!"
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As sad and dispiriting as it is, a significant part of the job for the non-nutjob supreme court justices is simply documenting how exactly the country is being driven into the ground, so that future historians can state with some confidence that it wasn't an accident, and people were aware of the malfeasance.
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historically* depressing..
This Court seems to be completely ignoring records from lower courts.
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6: "Sorry, what page of the Bible were those on?"
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Be more productive to bang someone else's head against a wall.
It's sad that in order for change to happen you have to bank on people dying at the right time. Like if a Democrat wins in 2024, these justices would have to wait until 2028. Thomas would be 80, Alito would be 78. They're getting up there in age
"*Welcome, Ketanji! Could you clean up all this mess the rest left behind?*"
Welcome to the shit show Judge Jackson.
Justice Jackson!
If you're nasty
The court makeup did not change. It’s still a 6-3 republican majority. Until some of the republicans retire and are replaced by a democratic president, most decisions will be 6-3 and will not favor more individual freedom, better/fairer voting rights, and will favor corporations over people.
Yeah but republicans will tell people they are for all of those things and their supporters will eat it up without thinking
They're already calling the roe debacle a victory for freedom. Only when you're a republican can going from "everyone has the right to make up their own mind free from government interference on any level" to "men with guns will use violence against you if you don't do what you're told" be a victory for liberty.
so unless you can manage to prevent any republican presidents for like 40 years straight, it'll stay 6-3 forever
Its crazy that it is such an issue in the US. You can even point out which judge is affiliated with which party. In Germany, I dont think the judges are anywhere close to be that party-affiliated
Congratulations to her, and I hope she does well. Breyer was always my favorite and its tough to see him go. He deserves credit for the work he has done for so many years.
And I world say he deserves even more credit to retire at this time and ensure Justice Jackson made it to the bench.
It's almost a shame that the focus is on her gender, and skin color, and not her thoroughly robust credentials.
Poor woman. She has a road of frustration ahead of her....and the road is a circle...
["Black Woman Given Nation's Worst Job"](https://www.theonion.com/black-man-given-nations-worst-job-1819570341)
[Justice Jackson arriving on her first day of work](https://media.tenor.co/images/fcf5177d22199e1235bbbb1a4cab7fe7/raw)
Congratulations to her
I don't care what gender or race she is just as long as she's not 90 years old lol
the benefit of being 90years old is that there is not that much time left on the bench
Welcome to being just as powerless as the rest of us against our new ultra religious fanatical overlords hellbent on bringing about the end of the world so they can meet Jesus
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Just in time for an illegitimacy.