The Commentariat -- June 26, 2013
Adam Liptak has the New York Times story.
The Los Angeles Times liveblog is here. "President Obama this morning tweeted: "Today's DOMA ruling is a historic step forward for #MarriageEquality. #LoveIsLove"
... Update: here's President Obama's statement. The working part: "... I've directed the Attorney General to work with other members of my Cabinet to review all relevant federal statutes to ensure this decision, including its implications for Federal benefits and obligations, is implemented swiftly and smoothly."
... Amy Howe of SCOTUSblog: "Here's a Plain English take on Hollingsworth v. Perry, the challenge to the constitutionality of California's Proposition 8, which bans same-sex marriage: After the two same-sex couples filed their challenge to Proposition 8 in federal court in California, the California government officials who would normally have defended the law in court, declined to do so. So the proponents of Proposition 8 stepped in to defend the law, and the California Supreme Court (in response to a request by the lower court) ruled that they could do so under state law. But today the Supreme Court held that the proponents do not have the legal right to defend the law in court. As a result, it held, the decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, the intermediate appellate court, has no legal force, and it sent the case back to that court with instructions for it to dismiss the case." ...
... Pete Williams: 5-4 vote; Supreme Court decided it cannot take up challenge to Prop 8. Kennedy dissents, joined by Thomas, Alito & Sotomayor. Sets no precedents for other states. Allows trial judge's decision to stand. So same-sex marriage legal in California. ...
... Opinion: The case is remanded. The Ninth Circuit had no jurisdiction to review the state law. ...
... SCOTUSblog: "Majority is Roberts with Scalia, Ginsburg, Breyer, and Kagan." "From the opinion: 'We have never before upheld the standing of a private party to defend the constitutionality of a state statute when state officials have chosen not to. We decline to do so for the first time here.'" ...
... The opinion & dissent are here.
Court Strikes Down DOMA
The Guardian profiles Edith Windsor, the gutsy 84-year-old widow of Thea Spyer. Windsor brought the DOMA suit, which is captioned "UNITED STATES v. WINDSOR, EXECUTOR OF THE ESTATE OF SPYER, ET AL."
Leahy Gets the Last Laugh. Dylan Matthews of the Washington Post has an overview of the decision. CW: Here's something cool: "... comprehensive immigration reform probably need not include a provision specifically tailored to making sure bi-national partners of same-sex couples can get visas automatically, the same as opposite-sex partners." Take that, Marco Rubio. & the rest of you bigoted GOP Senators who forced Pat Leahy to remove his amendment guaranteeing equal immigration rights to same-sex couples. ...
The New York Times' liveblog on DOMA is here. ...
... SCOTUSblog's liveblog is here. Decision is 5-4; Kennedy wrote the opinion, joined by Ginsberg, Breyer, Sotomayor & Kagen. "DOMA is unconstitutional as a deprivation of the equal liberty of persons that is protected by the Fifth Amendment." "Justice Scalia is reading from his dissent right now. [10:10 am ET] The Court's opinion both in explaining its jurisdiction and its decision 'both spring from the same diseased root: an exalted notion of the role of this court in American democratic society.'" ...
... NBC expert Kenji Yoshino: will not affect states that don't recognize same-sex marriage, so same-sex couples will not get federal benefits (that come thru marriage) in those states. ...
... The opinion & dissents are here. ...
... Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "... shortly after 10 a.m. [today] the [Supreme Court] justices will announce their rulings on challenges to two laws that define marriage to include only unions of a man and a woman."
The Blue Marble. "The snapshot taken by astronauts on December 7, 1972, at 5:39 a.m. EST (10:39 UTC) -- is one of the most widely distributed photographic images in existence.[2] The image is one of the few to show a fully illuminated Earth, as the astronauts had the Sun behind them when they took the image. To the astronauts, Earth had the appearance and size of a glass marble, hence the name." -- WikipediaPresident Obama speaks on his plan for reducing the effects of climate change. The transcript is here. The New York Times story, by Mark Landler & John Broder, is here:
... Al Likes It. Al Gore: "This was a terrific and historic speech, by far the best address on climate by any president ever. I applaud the new measures announced by President Barack Obama this afternoon to help solve the climate crisis -- particularly the decision to limit global warming pollution from existing as well as new power plants." CW P.S. Take that, Bill Clinton.
Jackie Calmes, et al., of the New York Times: "President Obama on Tuesday said he was 'deeply disappointed' with the Supreme Court's 5-to-4 decision ruling a central piece of the 1965 Voting Rights Act unconstitutional, and he called on Congress to pass legislation protecting access to voting." The President's statement is here. ...
... Attorney General Eric Holder responds to the Supreme Court's decision to decimate the Voting Rights Act. Worth listening to:
... Dylan Matthews of the Washington Post has a rundown of expert opinions on the effects of the Shelby County decision. ...
... Ari Berman of the Nation takes a look back at the many failed attempts -- until yesterday -- to gut the Voting Rights Act: "The VRA hasn't changed, but the Republican Party has. Today's 5-4 decision by the Roberts Court gutting the VRA was the result of three factors, as I wrote in February: 'a whiter, more Southern, more conservative GOP that has responded to demographic change by trying to suppress an increasingly diverse electorate; a twenty-five-year effort to gut the VRA by conservative intellectuals, who in recent years have received millions of dollars from top right-wing funders, including Charles Koch; and a reactionary Supreme Court that does not support remedies to racial discrimination.'" ...
... CW: underlying all that is the strongly-held (and barely-hidden) belief that the United States was perfect in 1790, right before the Bill of Rights was adopted. It has been downhill from there, what with allowing non-propertied white men to vote, abolishing slavery, letting women vote, then ensuring that minorities could vote, too. Slowly, slowly, the right is returning the U.S.A. to the "perfection" of its birth.
... ** "A Decision as Lamentable as Plessy or Dred Scott." Andrew Cohen of the Atlantic: "Five unelected, life-tenured men this morning declared that overt racial discrimination in the nation's voting practices is over and no longer needs all of the special federal protections it once did. They did so, without a trace of irony, by striking down as unconstitutionally outdated a key provision of a federal law that this past election cycle alone protected the franchise for tens of millions of minority citizens. And they did so on behalf of an unrepentant county in the Deep South whose officials complained about the curse of federal oversight even as they continued to this very day to enact and implement racially discriminatory voting laws." ...
... Richard Hasan, in a New York Times op-ed: "... The chief justice couches his opinion in modesty, stating that the court is striking only the Section 4 coverage formula and not Section 5. But don't be fooled: Congress didn't touch the formula in 2006 because doing so would have doomed renewal. Congress avoided the political issue then, and there's no way today's more polarized Congress will agree upon a new list of discriminatory states." ...
... ** Jamelle Bouie of the American Prospect: "... our long history of apartheid, discrimination, and white supremacy requires an equally long attempt at repair and reconciliation. It's why the 2006 reauthorization extended the VRA for another quarter century: because '40 years has not been a sufficient amount of time to eliminate the vestiges of discrimination following nearly 100 years of disregard for the dictates of the 15th amendment,' the law's authors note. The last three years are proof positive of this assessment." ...
... Washington Post Editors: "LED BY Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., the Supreme Court on Tuesday gutted a key element of the Voting Rights Act, one of the most potent anti-discrimination tools Congress ever devised. It was an audacious ruling devoid of the restraint the chief justice and his colleagues in the majority should have shown." ...
... Rep. John Lewis and others react to the ruling. (You could skip what the American Enterprise guy says. Like the Stephen Colbert character, he evidently doesn't see color.) ...
... Scott Lemieux in the American Prospect: "The Voting Rights Act of 1965 (VRA) is arguably the most important and successful civil rights legislation passed by the United States Congress. Today, without remotely adequate justification, a bare majority of the Supreme Court cut the heart out of the centerpiece of the Great Society. That this outcome was expected doesn't make it any less outrageous." CW: Roberts is a smooth operator who is very good at pretending to be "reasonable & fair." You will not catch him making faces at Ginsberg. ...
... Ah, Adam Serwer of NBC News makes that point about Roberts, too. "By kicking the decision of whether Section 5 the Voting Rights Act lives or dies to Congress, Roberts avoids the blame for its demise.... Rather than killing a landmark civil rights law by borrowing the racial resentment of Scalia or the historical inversions of Thomas, Roberts chooses a route that appears more narrow but may be no less final, one that better insulates the high court from criticism. Roberts didn't kill Section 5, he simply anesthetized a terminally ill patient and left her in the operating room, waiting for a surgeon who will never arrive." ...
Huh. My experience with John Lewis in Selma earlier this year was a profound experience that demonstrated the fortitude it took to advance civil rights and ensure equal protection for all. I'm hopeful Congress will put politics aside, as we did on that trip, and find a responsible path forward that ensures that the sacred obligation of voting in this country remains protected. -- House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.), in a statement ...
... Sahil Kapur of TPM: "House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) declined to comment...." ...
... "Ku Klux Kourt." Greg Palast in Truth-Out: "The Jim Crow majority on the Supreme Court just took away the vote of millions of Hispanic and African-American voters by wiping away Section 4 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965." CW: this sounds about right to me. The white supremacists who dominate state legislatures & administrations, along with their loyal ALEC assistants, must be busy little bees tonight initiating new plans to disenfranchise Democratic-leaning voters. What is needed is a Constitutional Amendment guaranteeing the right to vote & giving the Justice Department the same responsibilities for all states that it had under the Voting Rights Act for some. Thanks to James S. for the link. ...
... If You Think the GOP Is Bad Now.... Joshua Green of BusinessWeek: "The Supreme Court's decision to strike down a central provision of the Voting Rights Act will make it easier for Republicans to hold and expand their power in those mainly Southern states. That will, in turn, make it easier for them to hold the House. It will also intensify the Southern captivity of the GOP, thereby making it harder for Republicans to broaden their appeal and win back the White House." ...
... Via Ed Kilgore:
... See also today's Local News.
Quote of the Day. The speaker [Boehner] has said, within a period of a little over 24 hours, we're going to pass immigration but we're going to have Democratic votes to do it. As soon as his crazies heard that, I guess they talked to him and next day he comes back and said: 'I will only pass it if I have the majority of the majority.' So the point is, I'm not sure that he -- or anyone else in leadership in the House -- really know what they're doing. -- Harry Reid, speaking to reporters Tuesday
Mark Hosenball, et al., of Reuters: "Even as U.S. intelligence agencies and their global partners assess potential damage from Edward Snowden's disclosures about surveillance programmes, militants have begun responding by altering methods of communication, a change that could make it harder to foil attacks, U.S. officials say. Intelligence agencies have detected that members of targeted militant organizations, including both Sunni and Shi'ite Islamist groups, have begun altering communications patterns in what was believed to be a direct response to details on eavesdropping leaked by the former U.S. spy agency contractor, two U.S. national security sources said." ...
... Eli Lake of the Daily Beast: "... Edward Snowden ... has a plan B. The former NSA systems administrator has already given encoded files containing an archive of the secrets he lifted from his old employer to several people. If anything happens to Snowden, the files will be unlocked. Glenn Greenwald ... told The Daily Beast on Tuesday that Snowden 'has taken extreme precautions to make sure many different people around the world have these archives to insure the stories will inevitably be published.... If anything happens at all to Edward Snowden, he told me he has arranged for them to get access to the full archives.' The fact that Snowden has made digital copies of the documents he accessed while working at the NSA poses a new challenge to the U.S. intelligence community...." ...
... Diane Bartz & Tabassum Zakaria of Reuters: "Government auditors discovered four years ago that a select group of private contractors conducting background checks for high-security jobs were not doing enough to ensure the quality of their investigations. Some investigators hired by the companies were not adequately trained or closely supervised, and the background reports they turned over to agencies for hundreds of thousands of prospective employees had missing information that could lead to risky hiring, the inspector general for the Office of Personnel Management said in a 2010 report that got little attention. Now ... the report's findings are drawing new attention. Some lawmakers are calling for a full review of how security clearances are done."
Congressional Race!
Michael Levenson, et al., of the Boston Globe: "Veteran Democratic US Representative Edward J. Markey edged past Republican businessman Gabriel E. Gomez today in a special election for US Senate in Massachusetts that had been marked by its brevity and by low voter interest. The Associated Press called the election at about 9:15 p.m." CW: Thanks to contributor Julie, et al., for your good works. ...
... Ed O'Keefe of the Washington Post profiles Sen. William "Mo" Cowan, the man Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick chose to keep Secretary of State John Kerry's Senate seat warm until voters picked a replacement.
Local News
Kate Alexander of the Austin Statesman: "Hundreds of orange-clad abortion rights supporters filed into the gallery of the Texas Senate Tuesday morning to support state Sen. Wendy Davis' planned filibuster to kill a controversial abortion bill. And there to greet them was Cecile Richards, president of Planned Parenthood and daughter of the late Texas Gov. Ann Richards." ...
... CW @ 11 pm ET Tuesday: State Senate Republicans are being beyond cruel to Davis, attempting to end her filibuster because she put on a back brace. ...
... Austin Statesman Update (4:12 am ET): "Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst returned to the Senate floor at 3:01 a.m., banged the gavel and announced that, 'regrettably, the constitutional time expired' on the special session. Senate Bill 5 cannot be signed because it passed after midnight, he said.... The crowds in the Capitol, loudly cheering early word that the bill had failed, let loose with another rousing cheer when told that it was official. Speaking to reporters afterward, Dewhurst said he was furious about the night's events. 'An unruly mob, using Occupy Wall Street tactics, disrupted the Senate from protecting unborn babies,' he said." CW: all hail the unruly mob. And Wendy Davis. ...
... Manny Fernandez & Erik Eckholm of the New York Times: "Hours after claiming that they successfully passed some of the toughest abortion restrictions in the country, Republican lawmakers reversed course on Wednesday and said a disputed late-night vote on the bill did not follow legislative procedures, rendering the vote moot and giving Democrats a bitterly fought if short-lived victory. The reversal capped a remarkable day in the Texas Legislature here. A petite Fort Worth Democrat in pink sneakers staged a 10-hour-plus filibuster marathon in which she never sat down. Abortion rights activists succeeded in disrupting Republican senators, and the fate of a bill that Gov. Rick Perry had made a priority devolved into a legislative mess...." ...
... Huffington Post: "Texas state Sen. Wendy Davis (D), who captivated the country with her attempted 13-hour filibuster of a sweeping anti-abortion bill, likely would have lost her seat in 2012 to redistricting if not for the Voting Rights Act that was gutted Tuesday by the U.S. Supreme Court."
Voter Suppression Now! Ed Pilkington of the Guardian: "Officials in Texas said they would rush ahead with a controversial voter ID law that critics say will make it more difficult for ethnic minority citizens to vote, hours after the US supreme court released them from anti-discrimination constraints that have been in place for almost half a century. The Texas attorney general, Greg Abbott, declared that in the light of the supreme court's judgment striking down a key element of the 1965 Voting Rights Act he was implementing instantly the voter ID law that had previously blocked by the Obama administration.... The provocative speed with which Texas has raced to embrace its new freedoms underlines the high-stakes nature of the supreme court ruling." ...
... Gary Robertson of the AP: " Voter identification legislation in North Carolina will pick up steam again now that the U.S. Supreme Court has struck down part of the Voting Rights Act, a key General Assembly leader said Tuesday." ...
... Hunter of Daily Kos: "The eagerness with which Abbott and others are certain that now they'll be able to get away with things that the federal government wouldn't let them get away with before puts a rather large dent in the Court's theory that we can stop being quite so diligent against the efforts now."
Another Texas Milestone. Allan Turner of the Houston Chronicle: "For the second time in two days, Texas' highest appeals court on Tuesday rejected Dallas killer Kimberly McCarthy's request that it consider irregularities in the selection of her jury. McCarthy, 52, is scheduled to be executed Wednesday for the July 1997 robbery-murder of a 71-year-old Dallas woman. McCarthy would be the 500th killer put to death since the state resumed executions in 1982."
Carol Leonnig & Rosalind Helderman of the Washington Post: "A prominent political donor purchased a Rolex watch for Virginia Gov. Robert F. McDonnell, according to two people with knowledge of the gift, and the governor did not disclose it in his annual financial filings. The $6,500 luxury watch was provided by wealthy businessman Jonnie R. Williams Sr.... He is the chief executive of dietary supplement manufacturer Star Scientific and the person who paid for catering at the wedding of the governor's daughter.... Williams's gift came in August 2011 -- about two weeks after he met with a top state health official to pitch the benefits of his company's health products at a meeting arranged by first lady Maureen McDonnell.... Williams bought the watch at the urging of Maureen McDonnell, who admired Williams's own Rolex and suggested that he buy her a similar one she could give to her husband.... Her proposal occurred moments before the meeting she had arranged with the state official...."
News Ledes
Orlando Sentinel: "From the witness stand Wednesday, the state's star witness in the George Zimmermanmurder trial, Rachel 'Diamond' Jeantel, gave her account of Trayvon Martin's last seconds -- and they were dramatic."
AP: "Moscow's main airport swarmed with journalists from around the globe Wednesday, but the man they were looking for -- National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden -- was nowhere to be seen."
New York Times: "The former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd on Wednesday pulled off one of the most sensational political comebacks in this country's history, ousting in a party vote the woman who replaced him as leader of the Labor Party in a 2010 party coup, Prime Minister Julia Gillard." The Sydney Morning Herald's liveblog is here.
Reuters: "More than 100,000 people have been killed since the start of the Syrian conflict in March 2011, now the longest and most violent of the recent Arab uprisings, a monitoring group said on Wednesday." ...
... Reuters: "Talks between the United States and Russia to set up a Syrian peace conference produced no deal on Tuesday, with the powers on either side of the two-year civil war failing to agree when it should be held or who would be invited."
Bloomberg News: "Marc Rich, the commodities trader who fled the U.S. to avoid federal indictments during the 1980s before President Bill Clinton pardoned him two decades later, has died. He was 78."
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Reader Comments (17)
CW: I'm reposting this comment which Diane made yesterday as she makes a number of important points. Also, much of it is hilarious, in a tragicomic way:
"I was in a hotel room this am when the voter rights massacre came down. CNN or Fox were the choices. The spokesmodel on CNN asked Jeffrey Toobin a couple questions and "deferred" to his expertise, which I thought was really magnanimous since she's obviously a former Harvard Law Review editor. Moving right on after 2 minutes, Harvard Law Review spent 8-10 minutes on whether Paula Deen was racist or not, complete with interviews with her offspring and some 'expert'. Priorities on CNN are clearly spot-on. Lets crack on then CNN.
"The appointments of every open Court seat in this country must be filled before Obama leaves the presidency. The point was made emphatically, painfully and boldly today that the legacy of dickheads lives through the Courts way beyond any elected office holder. This is important shit. I have been very concerned about Justice Ginsberg. What a conundrum. Clearly she is a rock on the Court. If she leaves, will Obama be able to get his nominee seated before the end of his term? the closer it gets to the end of his term the more problematic it becomes.
"It would fitting when those 5 putrid, partisan hacks show up at the Gates of Hell in their specially fitted clown car, that John Wayne Gacy, the head clown in Hell greets them. As Scalia sprouts breasts, false eyelashes and 5 inch stilettos, he's inducted into the Army of Hell by an especially strapping young gent who is giving him the eye, Alito suddenly has overwhelming lustful feelings for Thomas, Thomas finds himself speaking only Spanish and searching for a non existent green card, Roberts protests that the treatment in Hell isn't fair, and Kennedy is forever bewildered because his opinion doesn't matter anymore. Gacy; 'You are surprised? You reaped what you have sown.'"
Diane
@Diane: I'm as concerned as you re: Ginsberg. I suspect she is, too. While I think she should resign, no later than the end of the next term, unless 2014 brings us some pleasant surprises -- which I'm not counting on -- it will be extremely difficult to get a nominee through the Senate who is as liberal as Ginsberg. She's not a flaming lefty, but she does hold strongly to center-left liberal principles -- and to moral principles.
If Obama chooses someone who is more moderate than Ginsberg to appease the Jeff Sessions contingent, the Court will move substantially right, especially since I don't think Kagan is as liberal as Stevens. Not sure yet about Sotomayor-Souter; Souter wrote some pretty right-wingy opinions & went along with even more of them.
Marie
If this idiotic decision has any up-side, it may be that it gets Cousin Weak-Knees off the fucking dime on filibustering judicial appointments.
@James Singer. I agree. The best result of Republican obstructionism would be to force Democratic Senators to hit the red button & end cloture votes for judicial nominees. Anything less than allowing an up-or-down vote is not just undemocratic; it is not contemplated anywhere in our sacred Constitooshun.
Marie
What with white births now outnumbered by non-white births (and a substantial number of children born to those white parents likely won't vote Republican), and given the smashing success of GOP outreach to minorities and women, the ubiquitous and outrageous gerrymandering throughout the south, and now the gutting of the Voting Rights Act, there is the very strong possibility that conservatives are setting the stage for this country's very own apartheid state wherein the vast majority of the country is kept out of power by a small minority of elite white men who control the congress, the courts, the media, and the police state, all of whom are aligned to protect only their rights and the rights and powers of corporations.
They might not have the votes anymore but by Jesus they'll keep the other party's voters from the polls. Other elections can simply be stolen. The Party of No has just officially added another (now legal) NO to its menu.
If they can't win fair and square, they'll circle the wagons restrict the vote and hand out weapons to their shrinking band of supporters.
And Little Johnny, who might be bothered by being seen as a racist thug by gutting the VRA, need not worry about kicking the issue over to congress. There are plenty of GOP racists there who won't lift a finger to fix this problem. In fact, it's what they've all been praying for. The Rat and the Fraud must be pissed that the dwarfs didn't get to this any earlier. Their coronation might have been assured.
Re: Not needing a safety harness. By bringing the VRA to the Supreme Court for validation proves that it's still needed. We should have a Federal voting code; nothing more.
In less than an hour we'll see how Johnny and the Dwarfs feel about equal protection under law (stifle the urge to laugh or cry). They may diddle about on some technicality in the California case but the DOMA bullshit will have to be taken on and decided in some way.
If they come down on the side of the DOMA supporters who believe equality is only for who they say it is, the dwarfs on the Kourt will prove to everyone that law in this country is influenced more by Christian dogma than the Constitution.
So much for Originalism.
Just as with the abortion debacle, DOMA rests on religious belief rather than the basic American tenets of equal protection for all under constitutional law. A win for DOMA will be a win for anti-Americanism.
Just imagine the howling and brandishing of weapons if a law based on passages from the Koran were upheld by the Kourt.
Alex MacGillis in the New Republic has a piece called "Welcome to South Carolina John Roberts" in which he highlights all the problems that will arise because of the damage done to the VRC. He interviews Dr. Brenda Williams who with her husband have a small family-physician practice. She spells out for him the many examples of hardship some of her patients encounter just to be able to vote. Here is one of many:
"Based on Brenda Williams’ experience in South Carolina, it is indisputable that Ginsburg’s reading is correct: things would be a lot worse without the VRA. As Williams set out to help patients without the photo IDs required by the new law—state officials estimated there were 180,000 residents in that category—she found person after person for whom getting the ID would be a struggle. There was Thelma Hodge, a 76-year-old who lacked a birth certificate—when Williams called the local health department about getting one, she says she was told to "contact vital statistics." That led to a call to a company called VitalChek, which has rights to a national registry of birth certificates and charges $30 for a copy, plus a $12.95 handling fee, plus $9.75 shipping—a total of $64.70. Williams put it on her credit card, as she would for many of the other 100-plus people whom she helped secure IDs."
Long ago and far away when Clarence Thomas was working with Anita Hill while working Anita Hill he gave a speech saying how grateful he was getting all the help he got from the government and others in order to muster on in this segregated world of ours. But through the years and through the lies he changed his mind and now looks back at that speech and shutters. No help must be given to those who need to get a leg up because that stigmatizes them forever and folks will say those persons didn't get where they are today on their own. Well, shit, Clarence, honey, you are one lucky guy since you got what you got on your own with just a little help from Jesus and Uncle Sam? and you sit on the highest court in the land? WTF?
Marie,
I think you're absolutely correct about the rightward movement of the Kourt. This is one of the great success stories emanating from the generation of screaming and cries of victimhood and treason from the right. More reasonable (ie not insane) people have felt compelled (or bullied) by these constant cries and accusations to appease wailing conservatives and their media hounds by moving ever so slightly to the right on just about everything, especially judicial appointments. It's getting to the point where red state congressional types will set their hair on fire if Obama were to suggest a judicial nominee five inches to the left of Charles Krauthammer, especially on social issues.
Maybe the pendulum will swing back some day but I doubt if any of us will be alive to see it.
It doesn't matter how much actual support wingnuts have out in the country, as long as they have their hands glued to the levers of power, they have no problem dragging everyone to rightwing hell along with them. And with every Kourt nominee setting a bit further in that direction, it will be a piece of cake (white cake, of course).
@P.D.Pepe: Thomas's problem with Yale Law, IMHO, has nothing to do with Yale & nothing to do with the color of his skin, but everything to do with his well-deserved feelings of inferiority. He uses the excuse of his blackness to blame Yale -- and everybody else -- for his sense of otherness, but his real sense of otherness has more to do with his actual intellectual inferiority, his radical and anti-social views & his rotten personality.
He wrote that Yale never accepted him & that after he was graduated his Yale Law degree was worth about 15 cents because it didn't get him a job. Excuse me. I imagine he had trouble getting a job because interviewers saw what a prick he was. Law firms looking for associates & judges looking for clerks, etc., are thrilled to score Yale Law grads of every ethnic stripe, and unless it's Paula Deen, Esq., the firms are extra-thrilled to get a grad who's also an ethnic minority.
Marie
Roberts joined the majority in the Prop 8 decision, same sex marriage stands here. He made a calculation and decided that his "legacy" trumped on this decision. It must be difficult to reign in all that omnipotence. Do you think the offspring greet him at the door singing Hallelujah?
The legislative route to remediation of this decision is obviously not a short or satisfying pathway, but none the less, necessary. The most energy should be focused on filling Court vacancies, register voters-register voters-register voters, and electing Democrats to the House and pay attention to elections in the States!
I got a blast email from Donna Brazile yesterday who is the "voter rights" Chairwoman of the DCC. Hopefully, they will establish a fund for the purchase of documents for folks like the woman with no birth certificate. I'd donate.
Harry, PUSH THE DAMN BUTTON NOW! Trust me, that is the pathway to a legacy not dancing with Devil Mitch.
Relieved to see that justice triumphed (only barely) over bigotry.
But we are just one justice away from all of these decisions going the other way. If and when Justice Ginsburg decides to step down the president (if it is Obama) might not be allowed to propose a nominee to maintain the balance (never mind one who would help pull the Kourt back from the brink of wingnuttery).
Then again, I read somewhere that Ginsburg does 20 push-ups a day and works out twice a week with a personal trainer. That beats Scalia whose workouts involve killing small animals with a shotgun. So maybe she'll be around longer than expected.
Nonetheless, one more slightly righty justice and we're all on the highway to hell.
I vividly remember sitting in my 8th grade civics class learning about the Supreme Court. When I saw a picture of the actual building, I imagined the towering structure, this stone sarcophagus protecting our society from unjust laws while the giant columns outside stood defiantly like prison bars, blocking the entrance from any ideological influence. The ultimate patrimonial figure, always there to right the wrongs...
Then I grew up. Ain't that a bitch.
In other news from the Land of No, way down in the Lone Star state, GOPers were on the rampage to try to screw poor women by not only restricting abortions but denying them many other kinds of healthcare by closing women's clinics across the state in accordance with Christian Sharia Law. But a tough lady, Wendy Davis, and an "unruly mob" stopped the Texas Taliban in its tracks.
I guess conservatives are only in favor of "unruly mobs" when they're populated by screamers and droolers in tricorn hats carrying signs with misspelled messages calling the president a fashist and a sochilust.
Not to worry, Imam Rickbrahim Perry will call another special seshun to, um, to, ahh...well, he forgets what but no doubt it will be to say NO to some damn thing cooked up by libruls to steal our freedoms.
Local News: A timeline of Wendy Davis's filibuster. Most interesting to me: the role of all the so-called social media. Amazing display of crowd sourcing and rallying the troops.
http://tinyurl.com/oznzs8p
MSNBC is broadcasting the Zimmerman trial. The prosecution's "key witness" (on phone with her when Zimmerman confronted and shot him) is testifying. In a film noir sort of way, its morbidly fascinating. The witness seems to have some cognitive deficits and I'm hoping, what is nervousness, as her demeanor often doesn't comport with the situation. She wanted no involvement with the case as it was too emotional for her and she did her best to avoid contact with the parents. Its pretty painful to watch her struggle to make herself understood and to understand questions. I suspect she is overwhelmed quite easily, although the attorney is not badgering her or asking complex questions. At one point the defense attorney mentioned the death report on the news to which she replied " I don't watch the news." Later, she reiterated the same thing with some energy, "I told you...." At an hourly rate, the Zimmermans need a lot of cash to just cover questioning this witness. The defense attorney is not making points. He seems to think lying about going to the wake and not correcting Martin's mother's belief that she was 16 rather than 18 is somehow significant. I think her testimony may be helpful to the prosecution, but maybe not. She is a shaky witness to say the least and states that she is "confused" quite a bit. It is quite painful and the young women is pretty sad. Now she's trying to explain why she thought she was his "girlfriend" rather than just a friend.
Like Charles Pierce says each time he writes about this case , "Nothing good will come of this."
In lieu of yesterday's and today's Supreme Court rulings, I thought you guys might enjoy these two YouTube videos. Sorry, I'm not good at the link thing, so I hope you can find your way there via these words.
Cute Kids Upstage Gay Marriage News Conference
After watching the above video, how can anyone deny that these men are raising wonderful children and deserve the same rights and privileges as others who just want to love and be loved.
MACKLEMORE & RYAN LEWIS - SAME LOVE feat. MARY LAMBERT (OFFICIAL VIDEO)
My son introduced me to the Macklemore song and video. I was so moved watching it and listening to the words. As you watch it, look for the little black girl holding up the sign that reads, "I believe in the Supreme Court." Stunning that all these years later, that same court took away the rights of so many minorities yet to come.
Marie, I think your analysis of the weasel know as Clarence Thomas is spot on. What a horrible little man.