Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation will delegitimize the Supreme Court -- and that's good

[BeckyDem]

t’s time America woke up to the radical right that’s run the Court for years.

By Matthew Yglesias

@[e-mail]

Oct 5, 2018, 5:00pm EDT


Brett Kavanaugh’s likely confirmation as an associate justice of the Supreme Court has prompted not only exuberance and anger but also a kind of hazy worry in some corners that the circumstances of his ascension will call the Court’s legitimacy into doubt.

The truth is it’s about time. The one upside to putting a person on the bench whose dishonesty and (literal and metaphorical) intemperance has been on such flagrant display is that it could prompt a sorely needed reckoning with the larger issue of the Court’s mostly pernicious role in American public affairs.

For the past 25 years, the judiciary has moved increasingly further right and the Supreme Court has tossed out duly enacted legislation, opened the floodgates to public corruption, and undermined substantive democracy. The public has largely missed this bigger picture because the American progressive movement has focused attention on the role of Court in protecting abortion rights.

https://www.vox.com/2018/10/5/17941312/brett-kavanaugh-supreme-court-legitimacy

[RealityChik]

1. Martial law will probably be in place before that happens.

That's why landslides in November are imperative. It's do it or we lose our country.

[Crunchy Frog]

2. What happens in this country when the courts are no longer regarded as legitimate?

As bad as they've gotten, I'm not so sure about the alternative.

[chowder66]

3. It's the American progressive movement's fault the court is conservative and upending the system?

"The public has largely missed this bigger picture because the American progressive movement has focused attention on the role of Court in protecting abortion rights."

WTF?

[BeckyDem]

4. He is suggesting not that the abortion issue is not important but that we

concentrated our complaints when we should have expanded them. I see his point but what we need to complain about is considering remedying the rules which are not set in stone.

What does the Constitution say about picking Supreme Court justices? Not much

There have been contentious battles over Supreme Court vacancies before. But, still, the current situation created by the death of Justice Antonin Scalia and the announced intention of Senate Republicans to refuse to confirm any nominee to replace him until after the next election takes the country into uncharted areas.

In navigating that, a great deal of bunk will be asserted about what the U.S. Constitution does and doesn’t require. You will hear all kinds of principles being asserted as if they are deeply rooted in our constitutional system. To the extent that such a claim means that the Constitution requires that this or that be done or not done, you should be aware that the actual text of the Constitution provides much less guidance than you might think. This piece is designed to convey every single thing the actual text of the Constitution, including all the amendments, says on the subject of how Supreme Court vacancies are handled. And the short summary is: Not Much.

The Constitution, for starters, does not require a nine-justice Supreme Court. It is silent on the size of the court, which has been left to Congress to decide. Over history the court has been as small as six and as large as 10.

The Constitution, in its preamble, says that one of the purposes for which the document was created was to “establish Justice,” which might be taken as a reference to the need for a federal judiciary.

https://www.minnpost.com/eric-black-ink/2016/02/what-does-constitution-say-about-picking-supreme-court-justices-not-much/

[Merry Sunshine]

5. I don't agree with Vox's premise

Although we haven't won every Supreme Court case, we have won big in many key areas. Where would we be on gay marriage, LGBTQ rights, reproductive rights, or the ACA if it wasn't for the Supreme Court? More than that, we have won many, many battles in lower courts that never went to the Supreme Court.

The real fear is moving forward as tRump stacks the lower courts and the Supreme Court with his henchman. It's going to be ever more difficult to move this country forward when all the judges believe only white males count.

[gilligan]

6. Bush vs. Gore

That is all.