It’s hard to overstate how much damage these corrupt rulings by Republicans on the Court — from Buckley and Bellotti in 1976/1978 to Citizens United in 2010 — have done to American democracy
When Thomas Jefferson objected to the supreme court striking down laws, a friend wrote him and asked, “If the Supreme Court is not the final authority about what the constitution means, who should be?“
Jefferson‘s answer was, “The people themselves.“ Which is the title of professor Larry Kramer, former dean of the Stanford law school’s book on the topic.
So, how do we get Rachel Maddow, Lawrence O'Donnell (who frequently has Lawrence Tribe as a guest), Chris Hayes, and attorney/host Ari Melber, and various other university professors, analysts and politicians or legal experts talking about this? Why is this sordid history of Roberts and Alito and the rogue Supreme Court not known to more people or to the general public? This should be a topic of discussion every time there is any mention of the overturning of Roe or any of the other scandals being perpetrated by this gang of six on the high court on news programs, panel discussions, college political science classes, etc. Let's not allow it to remain a secret any longer.
"Corporations are people too" said Mitt Romney. Let's hold them responsible for their actions and punish them just like other Americans. Corporations have freedom of speech, thanks to a Republican packed Supreme Court. Corporations can give unlimited funds to politicians to get the laws they want thanks to the John Roberts Supreme Court.
You can be arrested for speeding, but a corporate exec can get away scott free for creating an environmental disaster that harms millions of Americans. Investors make billions from corporations and proclaim their ethics, but bear no responsibility for the harm they fund. How fair is that? It's time to start holding corporations accountable for their actions, just like any other criminal."
Thom: You said the good news is that there are a number of things congress can do about political bribery.
Being the eternal realist A Republican congress will do absolutely nothing, because they have benefited, and with Gerrymandering and voter suppression I do not see this ever being a Democratic congress again. To compound the problem, the DNC is as addicted to campaign funding by corporations, PACs and plutocrats. Which you acknowledge with your recounting of Al Gore’s cowardly performance.
I read that liberals, progressives, Democrats out number the fascists, but the fascists are organized and motivated, not so the liberals, progressives, Democrats. And way too many of them are myopic and petulant. We need to be incensed, the DNC needs to trigger the amygdala, like the Republicans trigger the amygdala, but alas with the evidence that too many "Democrats" are slopping at the corporate trough, and are basically conservative (the myth of the moderate), we are poorly led or is that misled.
For instance I’ve been watching on TV South Carolina Democrats bragging how they basically control the Democratic party and determine who it’s candidate will ebe in the Presidential election.
And that is true, but with the exception of the 2020 election, in which a head of cabbage could have beat Trump (81 million people, an all time record) showed up to kick his butt out of the White House,
The South Carolina Democratic party is, by their myopia and arrogance, actually electing a Republican as president. And if SCOTUS validates the Independent Legislature suit before it, then it is all over, because as it stands now, the Democratic party only has 188 electoral votes, and the so called Swing states are controlled by Republican legislatures.
Any candidate selected by the South Carolina Democratic party, and the Red states, will highly motivate the white Christian Nationalist fascists to turn out and vote. And I fear that the 2024 election will be the last election, and all else from then on will be like Hungary’s or basically a plebiscite like the one that confirmed Hitlers appointment as Chancellor…IOW a fraud.
BTW the Democratic party is full of shills. Hakeem Jeffers is a shill for AIPAC, and 109 Democrats in the House, including Hakeem and Nancy, voted yea on HR 9 which condemned socialism. I let my representative, Rick Larson, know how unhappy I was with his vote.
As I read this remarkable essay, I could not help thinking that our education system is part of the problem in that schools still encourage conflating communism with socialism with evil with democrats. Educators also do not clarify that "liberal" merely means open to considering alternatives and enabling conflating the term liberal with holding leftist viewpoints. Similarly, "conservative" merely means cautious - slow to adopt new policies and practices. One can be both liberal and conservative at the same time. But our "2-Party System" creates and promotes this false dichotomy. The fact that the largest number of voters are neither registered as Republicans nor Democrats shows that an Americans are waking up to this reality. Alas, the false distinctions promoted by both parties results in nearly always having to vote for the lesser of two evils; not between two competent candidates with differing platforms.
Excellent article. I was completely unaware of the Roberts-Reagan report on Article 3.2.
Though not mentioned above, I imagine you may want to include Scotus "Term Limits" as part of the lists of changes needed for the court.
Term Limits would substantially reduce the rigging and packing of the court by members of Scotus and the Senate. And would contribute to avoiding the devastating and stunningly bogus decisions like 2000 Bush Vs. Gore, where Justices O'Connor, Thomas, and Rehnquist would not have been present to appoint Bush so that O'Connor could retire and be replaced by a Republican president's appointment (18 year limit, and they're gone - for a 9 judge bench).
Term Limits would stop the hoarding, rigging, and packing, of seats by the Justices, where 2 of their seats have remained in Republican control since Eisenhower (Stewart> O'Connor> Alito), and Nixon (Powell> Kennedy> Kavanaugh)! Those 2 seats provide the margin of votes casting us into this abyss, with the help of Moscow Mitch's packing, and the too-long-serving Thomas.
Did Oama mention this (citizens united) when he ran in 2012? Did Hillary in 2016? Did Joe in 2020? Joe is off to a good start, but there is so MUCH MORE they can do to call out these bastards... Instead they are babbling about balloons...
The downward slide of the U.S. Supreme Court began when the corrupt justices led by Scalia and Sandra Day O'Connor decided to block the recount of votes in Florida and made GW Bush the president of the United States. Without this decision there would have been no massive shift of the court to the far right with the justice appointments by Bush. There would have been no invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq that were planned by the neocons before Bush was sworn in as president. There would not have been the gutting of the FDA and EPA and FCC by the Republicans.
A key turning point for the elites was in 1947 when the anti-union Taft-Hartley Act was passed over Truman's veto and this required the support of both political parties. With no union political power we have two parties that are feeding at the same corporate trough. It is why we had the Affordable Care Act that doubled profits for the drug companies and why the life expectancy of Americans is declining and why the country has the maternal and infant death rates that rival third world countries.
Bottom line, when the private Federal Reserve raises interest rates or Congress enacts legislation to cut taxes for the rich but increases payroll taxes by 50% as under Obama, there is a massive transfer of wealth from the working and middle class workers and their families to the elites (who are taxed at 3% with current laws). It is why we have 500,000 American families living in tents and millions that cannot afford food and medicine and rent and energy to heat or cool their homes.
A false assumption is made that the USA is a functional democracy, when by design has been a plutocracy from day one. It is this structural aspect of govenment that has poisoned the well for four centuries.
Wearing a pink ribbon ribbon was a lawful and nonviolent way to get thousands of women to become aware of preventive breast cancer examinations. Fact.
Symbolism is far more powerful than armed conflict. Nazis and the Confederacy both lost their wars and revolutions. Yet you are familiar with their symbols and they are still used by the fringe to promote those lost causes.
The left should never have ceded patriotism to the right. Our nation’s ideals of freedom and democracy are built into the Constitution and we should embrace patriotism to defend them.
The Republicans really have a problem with defining things. Every time they ask us what a woman is, we should respond by asking them what money is or what a corporation is.
When Occupy Wall Street was happening, my friends and I did our own version every Wednesday---rain or shine. Ours lasted even through covid and wearing masks. My signs were huge; they said: "Corporations Are Not People" and "Money Is Not Speech". We got a great deal of attention and even some press. People stopped by to discuss politics and most understood those signs. They knew what the Supreme Court has done to our nation.
Sadly our Occupy is no more. Life and death always get in the way. The WOMEN I stood with didn't need anyone to define them. It's time for Congress to define their role and take back what the Constitution gave them. So glad you keep writing about the history and this issue, Thom.
Expanding the court is probably the best and quickest real solution to the corruption problem. I am totally in favor of that proposal. However, I believe that support for expansion has been weak to date. If the talking heads and influencers on TV and elsewhere were providing the background and the constitutional rationale for Congress to intervene and if the public were to be outraged and animated, expansion would be at the top of the list of actions with overwhelming support. Public awareness and action will be essential in getting anything done. Who knew about Roberts and Alito's dastardly work to undermine Brown and Roe until Thom pointed it out?
So then what keeps Congress in check? And balance in our governance? I’m assuming that the will of the voters will eventually prevail, bringing the system back to an equitable balance?
"Appellate" refers to appealed cases, and appellate jurisdiction is distinguished from original jurisdiction in Article III. The categories of original jurisdiction listed in Article III include cases brought by U.S. states: they originate in the Supreme Court rather than arriving via the appellate process. The Citizens United case falls under appellate jurisdiction, but what about the case where Congress rewrites a law like the 1965 Civil Rights bill to curb the current abuse in States culling the voting roles. If the States sue to overturn, the case would go directly to SOTUS and would seem to be classified as original jurisdiction. Is there anyway to extend the exception clause to include protecting laws against State abuse from SOTUS review?
When Thomas Jefferson objected to the supreme court striking down laws, a friend wrote him and asked, “If the Supreme Court is not the final authority about what the constitution means, who should be?“
Jefferson‘s answer was, “The people themselves.“ Which is the title of professor Larry Kramer, former dean of the Stanford law school’s book on the topic.
So, how do we get Rachel Maddow, Lawrence O'Donnell (who frequently has Lawrence Tribe as a guest), Chris Hayes, and attorney/host Ari Melber, and various other university professors, analysts and politicians or legal experts talking about this? Why is this sordid history of Roberts and Alito and the rogue Supreme Court not known to more people or to the general public? This should be a topic of discussion every time there is any mention of the overturning of Roe or any of the other scandals being perpetrated by this gang of six on the high court on news programs, panel discussions, college political science classes, etc. Let's not allow it to remain a secret any longer.
The same argument about 'Corporations being people' could also be used to charge CEOs for their actions like other Americans. This DemLabs infographic illustrates how. https://thedemlabs.org/2023/02/16/norfolk-southern-environmental-disaster-toxic-train-disaster/
"Corporations are people too" said Mitt Romney. Let's hold them responsible for their actions and punish them just like other Americans. Corporations have freedom of speech, thanks to a Republican packed Supreme Court. Corporations can give unlimited funds to politicians to get the laws they want thanks to the John Roberts Supreme Court.
You can be arrested for speeding, but a corporate exec can get away scott free for creating an environmental disaster that harms millions of Americans. Investors make billions from corporations and proclaim their ethics, but bear no responsibility for the harm they fund. How fair is that? It's time to start holding corporations accountable for their actions, just like any other criminal."
Thom: You said the good news is that there are a number of things congress can do about political bribery.
Being the eternal realist A Republican congress will do absolutely nothing, because they have benefited, and with Gerrymandering and voter suppression I do not see this ever being a Democratic congress again. To compound the problem, the DNC is as addicted to campaign funding by corporations, PACs and plutocrats. Which you acknowledge with your recounting of Al Gore’s cowardly performance.
I read that liberals, progressives, Democrats out number the fascists, but the fascists are organized and motivated, not so the liberals, progressives, Democrats. And way too many of them are myopic and petulant. We need to be incensed, the DNC needs to trigger the amygdala, like the Republicans trigger the amygdala, but alas with the evidence that too many "Democrats" are slopping at the corporate trough, and are basically conservative (the myth of the moderate), we are poorly led or is that misled.
For instance I’ve been watching on TV South Carolina Democrats bragging how they basically control the Democratic party and determine who it’s candidate will ebe in the Presidential election.
And that is true, but with the exception of the 2020 election, in which a head of cabbage could have beat Trump (81 million people, an all time record) showed up to kick his butt out of the White House,
The South Carolina Democratic party is, by their myopia and arrogance, actually electing a Republican as president. And if SCOTUS validates the Independent Legislature suit before it, then it is all over, because as it stands now, the Democratic party only has 188 electoral votes, and the so called Swing states are controlled by Republican legislatures.
Any candidate selected by the South Carolina Democratic party, and the Red states, will highly motivate the white Christian Nationalist fascists to turn out and vote. And I fear that the 2024 election will be the last election, and all else from then on will be like Hungary’s or basically a plebiscite like the one that confirmed Hitlers appointment as Chancellor…IOW a fraud.
BTW the Democratic party is full of shills. Hakeem Jeffers is a shill for AIPAC, and 109 Democrats in the House, including Hakeem and Nancy, voted yea on HR 9 which condemned socialism. I let my representative, Rick Larson, know how unhappy I was with his vote.
As I read this remarkable essay, I could not help thinking that our education system is part of the problem in that schools still encourage conflating communism with socialism with evil with democrats. Educators also do not clarify that "liberal" merely means open to considering alternatives and enabling conflating the term liberal with holding leftist viewpoints. Similarly, "conservative" merely means cautious - slow to adopt new policies and practices. One can be both liberal and conservative at the same time. But our "2-Party System" creates and promotes this false dichotomy. The fact that the largest number of voters are neither registered as Republicans nor Democrats shows that an Americans are waking up to this reality. Alas, the false distinctions promoted by both parties results in nearly always having to vote for the lesser of two evils; not between two competent candidates with differing platforms.
Excellent article. I was completely unaware of the Roberts-Reagan report on Article 3.2.
Though not mentioned above, I imagine you may want to include Scotus "Term Limits" as part of the lists of changes needed for the court.
Term Limits would substantially reduce the rigging and packing of the court by members of Scotus and the Senate. And would contribute to avoiding the devastating and stunningly bogus decisions like 2000 Bush Vs. Gore, where Justices O'Connor, Thomas, and Rehnquist would not have been present to appoint Bush so that O'Connor could retire and be replaced by a Republican president's appointment (18 year limit, and they're gone - for a 9 judge bench).
Term Limits would stop the hoarding, rigging, and packing, of seats by the Justices, where 2 of their seats have remained in Republican control since Eisenhower (Stewart> O'Connor> Alito), and Nixon (Powell> Kennedy> Kavanaugh)! Those 2 seats provide the margin of votes casting us into this abyss, with the help of Moscow Mitch's packing, and the too-long-serving Thomas.
Did Oama mention this (citizens united) when he ran in 2012? Did Hillary in 2016? Did Joe in 2020? Joe is off to a good start, but there is so MUCH MORE they can do to call out these bastards... Instead they are babbling about balloons...
Great stuff as usual, Thom. Chapter 7 in the book I'm working on is entitled, "Democracy's Judas: the Toxic Supreme Court." It's 97% Hartmann. Cheers.
The downward slide of the U.S. Supreme Court began when the corrupt justices led by Scalia and Sandra Day O'Connor decided to block the recount of votes in Florida and made GW Bush the president of the United States. Without this decision there would have been no massive shift of the court to the far right with the justice appointments by Bush. There would have been no invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq that were planned by the neocons before Bush was sworn in as president. There would not have been the gutting of the FDA and EPA and FCC by the Republicans.
A key turning point for the elites was in 1947 when the anti-union Taft-Hartley Act was passed over Truman's veto and this required the support of both political parties. With no union political power we have two parties that are feeding at the same corporate trough. It is why we had the Affordable Care Act that doubled profits for the drug companies and why the life expectancy of Americans is declining and why the country has the maternal and infant death rates that rival third world countries.
Bottom line, when the private Federal Reserve raises interest rates or Congress enacts legislation to cut taxes for the rich but increases payroll taxes by 50% as under Obama, there is a massive transfer of wealth from the working and middle class workers and their families to the elites (who are taxed at 3% with current laws). It is why we have 500,000 American families living in tents and millions that cannot afford food and medicine and rent and energy to heat or cool their homes.
A false assumption is made that the USA is a functional democracy, when by design has been a plutocracy from day one. It is this structural aspect of govenment that has poisoned the well for four centuries.
Wearing a pink ribbon ribbon was a lawful and nonviolent way to get thousands of women to become aware of preventive breast cancer examinations. Fact.
Symbolism is far more powerful than armed conflict. Nazis and the Confederacy both lost their wars and revolutions. Yet you are familiar with their symbols and they are still used by the fringe to promote those lost causes.
The left should never have ceded patriotism to the right. Our nation’s ideals of freedom and democracy are built into the Constitution and we should embrace patriotism to defend them.
🇺🇸♾
Stars and Stripes Forever!
The Republicans really have a problem with defining things. Every time they ask us what a woman is, we should respond by asking them what money is or what a corporation is.
When Occupy Wall Street was happening, my friends and I did our own version every Wednesday---rain or shine. Ours lasted even through covid and wearing masks. My signs were huge; they said: "Corporations Are Not People" and "Money Is Not Speech". We got a great deal of attention and even some press. People stopped by to discuss politics and most understood those signs. They knew what the Supreme Court has done to our nation.
Sadly our Occupy is no more. Life and death always get in the way. The WOMEN I stood with didn't need anyone to define them. It's time for Congress to define their role and take back what the Constitution gave them. So glad you keep writing about the history and this issue, Thom.
Expanding the court is probably the best and quickest real solution to the corruption problem. I am totally in favor of that proposal. However, I believe that support for expansion has been weak to date. If the talking heads and influencers on TV and elsewhere were providing the background and the constitutional rationale for Congress to intervene and if the public were to be outraged and animated, expansion would be at the top of the list of actions with overwhelming support. Public awareness and action will be essential in getting anything done. Who knew about Roberts and Alito's dastardly work to undermine Brown and Roe until Thom pointed it out?
So then what keeps Congress in check? And balance in our governance? I’m assuming that the will of the voters will eventually prevail, bringing the system back to an equitable balance?
Thom,
"Appellate" refers to appealed cases, and appellate jurisdiction is distinguished from original jurisdiction in Article III. The categories of original jurisdiction listed in Article III include cases brought by U.S. states: they originate in the Supreme Court rather than arriving via the appellate process. The Citizens United case falls under appellate jurisdiction, but what about the case where Congress rewrites a law like the 1965 Civil Rights bill to curb the current abuse in States culling the voting roles. If the States sue to overturn, the case would go directly to SOTUS and would seem to be classified as original jurisdiction. Is there anyway to extend the exception clause to include protecting laws against State abuse from SOTUS review?
Don Klemencic
A Constitutional amendment would be wonderful. We have to find a new approach that the nonprofits and advocates like yourself have not tried.
Try embracing patriotism and an approach like Think Pink took to fight breast cancer. Words alone cannot sway public opinion.
TL;DR. wear a ribbon 🇺🇸♾