Ruth Marcus: The soul-crushing lot of a Supreme Court liberal

[Nevilledog]

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Laurence Tribe
@tribelaw
“There are moments where I am deeply, deeply disappointed. And yes, there’ve been moments where I’ve stopped and said, ‘Is this worth it anymore?’ And every time I do that, I lick my wounds for a while. Sometimes I cry. And then I say, okay — let’s fight.”

washingtonpost.com
Opinion | The soul-crushing lot of a Supreme Court liberal
The best they can do, in most cases, is dissent.
5:43 PM · Jun 17, 2022

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/17/court-liberals-years-in-minority/

No paywall
https://archive.ph/UT2Pm

To be a liberal justice on a Supreme Court with a conservative supermajority is a daunting — even soul-crushing — task. In the cases that matter most, you are consigned to almost certain loss. Victory happens, if it occurs at all, only along the doctrinal edges; winning consists of avoiding greater harm.

So how do you keep going in the face of this? How do you convince the public — more important and perhaps more difficult, how do you convince yourself — that the institution on which you are serving for life deserves legitimacy and respect, even as it proceeds to take the law in directions with which you profoundly disagree?

On the cusp of what could be a cataclysmic moment in the history of the court, with the conservative justices seemingly poised to remove constitutional protection for abortion, expand gun rights, and lower the wall of separation between church and state, Justice Sonia Sotomayor offered a revealing — if not entirely convincing — glimpse into how she manages that emotional and intellectual feat.

“Look, there are days I get discouraged,” Sotomayor acknowledged in an appearance at the liberal American Constitution Society. “There are moments where I am deeply, deeply disappointed. And yes, there have been moments where I’ve stopped and said, ‘Is this worth it anymore?’ And every time I do that, I lick my wounds for a while. Sometimes I cry. And then I say, okay — let’s fight.”

*snip*

[The Unmitigated Gall]

1. Chief Justice Sotomayor...someday.

You keep in it, IMO, because the fascist judges are/will soon be

Killing people.

[Joinfortmill]

2. Love her.