Anthony Kennedy, You Are a Total Disgrace to America

[DonViejo]

No one expected Kennedy to allow Donald Trump to pick his successor. But he has. And it should forever taint his legacy as a jurist, Michael Tomasky writes.

MICHAEL TOMASKY
07.02.18 4:54 AM ET

It’s been a few days now, but the shock of Anthony Kennedy’s retirement announcement hasn’t abated a bit. This is partly because of the ghastly coming ramifications, more on which later. But it’s also because I honestly didn’t think Kennedy would allow Donald Trump to name his successor.

I thought he had more respect for the United States of America than to allow this corrupt gangster who’s almost certainly never read a Supreme Court opinion in his life to name his successor. Yes, Kennedy is conservative, so to that extent it makes sense that he’d want a Republican president to make the call, and maybe it’s just that simple. But whatever his motivation, Kennedy has altered and destroyed his legacy.

Let me put it this way. If I owned a restaurant and he walked in, I’d serve him dinner. But if the other diners mocked and shamed him, I wouldn’t exactly cry.

Until last week, Kennedy’s legacy was going to be that of a basically conservative but sometimes interesting jurist. He was awful on money in politics. Awful.

If you never read Jeffrey Toobin’s important New Yorker piece from 2012, a tick-tock on the inside baseball of how the Court decided Citizens United, do so. Toobin shows that it was Kennedy who pushed behind the scenes to move the opinion as far to the right as a majority would accept. When this new Court has struck down any and all limits on campaign donations, as it almost surely will, and this country becomes an open oligarchy, we’ll have Kennedy to thank.

more
https://www.thedailybeast.com/anthony-kennedy-you-are-a-total-disgrace-to-america?ref=home

[Baitball Blogger]

1. My prediction: Kennedy has hastened Trump's downfall.

We are going to dig deep to determine how all these planets were realigned so conveniently to benefit Trump, and this time, if we find evidence of wrongdoing in that election I think it's safe to say that Democrats will galvanize to demand legal remedies.

Otherwise, the message is clear that if you game the system to win, then stealing fair and square is valid.

[pangaia]

2. Legal remedies.......?

1- By then the courts will be owned by the gangsters
2- Even IF some are found guilty, WHO will arrest them?


Needless to say I am not as optimistic as you are.

[NJCher]

30. the most important court is the court of public opinion

Note in the OP that it states Kennedy advised as to how far to push it?

Toobin shows that it was Kennedy who pushed behind the scenes to move the opinion as far to the right as a majority would accept.

Even they know that they can only go so far. If there is enough outrage there may very well be a remedy.

[pangaia]

31. I hope you are right.

In which case we need more outrage...

[Lonestarblue]

8. The realignment of the planets has been going on for awhile.

It’s been clear for years that corporations and the wealthy rule this country. So far, they’ve been somewhat constrained by law, but we are on a precipice where they can gain total control: president who worships money and power, Congress willing to pretend that high crimes and misdemeanors are not happening right in front of them and willing to do anything to support the wealthy, and now a Supreme Court willing to support corporate rule, zealot Christians eager to subvert the Constitution for Biblical law, and ditch long-standing civil rights laws. If you read Jane Mayer’s book, Dark Money, you know how much influence the Koch brothers and their millions of dollars have had on all these issues. I’m also currently reading a book by Nancy MacLean, Democracy in Chains, that starts with Southern resistance to Brown v. Board of Education and continues with the philosophy espoused by its resistors of using ststes’ rights as a means to overturn any legislation that does not benefit wealthy, white property owners. I’m not very far into the book, but it’s an interesting read on the history of how we got to where we are today.

[mn9driver]

3. Kennedy is trying to protect his son.

Who is going to be caught up in the Trump Russia money laundering indictments that will soon be unsealed.

Kennedy would be forced to recuse, but a properly selected replacement could sit on the case and protect junior. That’s what is happening here.

[rockfordfile]

6. It seems that way. I heard other people say he tossed it away.

[Hugin]

7. I'm starting to believe this is the big kahuna kompromat Putin had on Old Yeller.

Not any pee tapes. Because, Trump just don't care about those kinds of things and neither does his base. (and neither does, Mueller.)

I read somewhere that Kennedy's son had lent Trump to the tune of $450 Million since 2006 via Deutsche Bank. Probably, via the Kremlin.

Now, Trump is using it as an opening to get a friendly traitorous justice to keep him out of prison...

This is why the Democrats must collectively insist a new Justice recuse themselves from any part of the Special Counsel's investigations which make it as high as the SCOTUS. Gorsuch should, too.

[RVN VET71]

18. Ain't gonna happen

I don't know if it's even possible to make the request during the confirmation process. Request for recusal would be seen as insulting -- the nominee, of course, is a man (probably) so full of honor and integrity that it oozes, like bloody sweat, from his pores. So, the GOP and Trumps idiot loyalists will reason, it would outrageous to ask them to something like make a preemptive recusal, even if it were the, errr, honorable thing to do.

(And I saw your reference to Gorsuch and am still laughing, bitterly, as I'm sure you were when you added it to your post.)

A thought in passing: if the Dems move against the nominee, whoever it is, Trump's Senate will begin exploring ways to impeach Ginsburg. It will be at that exact moment that we peasants will either rise up and storm the palace or just sigh sadly and resign ourselves to serfdom. And I doubt we will rise up.

[shanny]

21. fwiw the Senate doesn't impeach; that would be the House.

The Senate would need 67 votes to convict, even if the House managed to dream up charges.

[shadowmayor]

17. Presidential pardon

He retired so his son would get a guaranteed Presidential Pardon if it comes to that - which seems likely.

[RVN VET71]

22. Could be

Certainly, since Orange Hair became the unelected Leader, I've grown ever more cynical in my views of things political. And there were, apparently, meetings between "O.H. the Leader" and Kennedy prior to his official resignation, so we know that something transpired between them to "encourage" Kennedy to resign. And I suspect that Trump was not at all above saying something to Kennedy like: "That's a great kid you have there. It'd be a real shame if something bad happened to him." But I'm sure there were other reasons discussed, some benign, some nefarious, at those meetings.

Trump's obvious motivation: Kennedy, at 82, is not close enough to death's door to guarantee that his replacement would be a conservative-fascist stiff, like Gorsuch. So get Kennedy to quit and bring in a young fascist before the mid-terms. A fascist who will sit on the court for 40, maybe even 50, years. That way the Dems are stuck, regardless what happens in future elections.

Kennedy's motivation: to leave the Court gracefully and not face any of the threats laid before him by Trump. Also, Kennedy may have been hopeful that, if he resigns now, the next Justice will be named and confirmed before the mid-terms. In other words, Kennedy may not care whether an authoritarian with a Nazi patina is nominated; in fact, he may hope that that will be the case.

Life sucks and then Trump happens and it becomes a black hole.

[Fla Dem]

19. Can the senate be sued to prevent them from approving a replacement SC appointment?

For God's sakes! there is so much corruption, collusion and conflict of interests. There's no way the senate should be approving s SCJ selected by a president who very well may end up having his legal issues before them. Or a president that probably promised Kennedy he'd pardon his son of any criminal conviction if he would step down. This is so rotten.

[DetroitLegalBeagle]

33. Not a chance.

Any attempt would be thrown out for lack of standing.

[MadDAsHell]

37. That's a tough sell. Every President is basically at all times "under investigation"...

because American politics today dictates that you do everything in your power to undermine, and if possible, even impeach, the President of the other party.

The gradient of crimes, is unfortunately, irrelevant. If we disqualified a President under investigation from nominating, that would basically end the nominating process.

[Orsino]

4. He was pretty much a disgrace long before Trump's candidacy.

We needn't feign surprise that he puts party over country.

[former9thward]

34. When Kennedy wrote the decision legalizing gay marriage

that was not the viewpoint towards him around here. Not only did he write the decision but he provided the 5th and decisive vote in the 5-4 decision. Maybe you had a different viewpoint.

[Orsino]

36. Anyone who looked at his regressive record had a different viewpoint.

I don't know or care what sort of polish he thought he was putting on his turd of a career with a couple of exceptional moments.

[FBaggins]

5. "No one expected Kennedy to allow Donald Trump to pick his successor."???

Almost everyone expected it. I have no idea what planet the author has been living on.

Many of us expected it last year. For those who didn’t, the only question was whether it would be this year or next. Whether he would take a chance at a Democratic Senate. But it would still be Trump replacing him.

[FakeNoose]

10. Kennedy wanted to retire a couple years ago, but they talked him out of it

The GOP didn't want another SCOTUS selection for Obama, so they made him wait. What does that tell you?

I'm fearful for Ruth Bader Ginsburg who's even older than Kennedy and in somewhat frail health.
She feels like she can't retire even though she would like to. But what if she dies before 2020?
It could happen you know. We should all pray for RBG to stay healthy!

[FBaggins]

13. Sorry... I've seen no evidence for that. In fact, just the opposite

I remember reports of Kennedy telling his friends that he would not retire under Obama and was waiting for a Republican president. I remember reports of Democrats trying to get him to retire (claiming that an Obama white house tempered by a Republican Senate would combine to produce a justice as much like himself as possible). I've seen nothing about Republicans having to try to "talk him out of it" - nor would that explain why he didn't retire last year when many expected him to.

There were plenty of us wishing that Ginsburg would retire while we held the WH and Senate, but it was her decision to make. As you point out... that could come back to haunt us.

[RVN VET71]

24. That WILL come back to haunt us.

[jberryhill]

28. What it tells me is that his retirement was pretty much expected

The GOP didn't want another SCOTUS selection for Obama, so they made him wait. What does that tell you?

It tells me he was waiting for a Republican president before retiring.

That he would be likely to retire has been no surprise for years.

[Mr. Ected]

9. Question: Why hadn't the media linked Kennedy's son to Trump before now?

The moment Kennedy retires, boom, the Big Reveal.

No matter what is going on here, the media seems complicit in hiding pertinent information, particularly if it is damning to conservative causes.

We face a huge uphill battle.

[FBaggins]

16. They did

There were a few stories around the time of the inauguration... but the conspiracy theories weren't quite as strong at the time.

[disndat]

32. Why the silence in media -

I was waiting to hear an explosion, at least from MSNBC, after the revelation of the Trump clan's
close relationship with A. Kennedy's son, Justin, Deutsche Bank employ, laundering Putin money for Trump.

[zentrum]

11. Well said.

[Firestorm49]

12. Harvard University declared the United States to be an oligarchy two years ago.

[shanny]

23. A study at Princeton concluded that in 2014

based on data from 1980 to 2001 iirc

[virgogal]

26. And if Harvard said that it MUST be true.

[mountain grammy]

14. and I'm sure he has his jacket ready..

I really don't care, do u? He's a right wing asshole who occasionally landed on the side of the law.. no legacy.

[oberliner]

15. No one expected Kennedy to allow Donald Trump to pick his successor??

Actually, pretty much everyone expected that.

[tavernier]

20. Appears that almost anyone else would be a better choice.

We do have some say in the confirmation process, if someone will see to it that Schumer keeps his “civility” to himself.

[FBaggins]

25. What say do we have?

Reid gave it all away a few years back. We no longer have a say in the confirmation process (as the minority). We can only try to convince someone who does have a say (e.g., Collins) to help us out.

[RVN VET71]

27. Shumer's and Pelosi's insistence on civility

and passive resistance in the face of RW mobs and racist attacks on leaders like Obama is what will make the struggle to re-establish the principles of the Constitution and human rights a generational one. It is lost for the next 20 years or so, despite what happens in 2020, because the authoritarian Corporate kleptocrats will have a dominating majority in SCOTUS. But the Dems have an opportunity to stand up against fascism and become a powerful voice of opposition, if only they weren't led by people who would not dare call a fascist a fascist -- because that would be so uncivil, doncha know?

[tavernier]

35. Yes. Better for him to turn on dems.

Less chance to stir up Rump’s ire.

[empedocles]

29. Kennedy is going to see much more bad stuff come out against him