The Dems are making a mistake not going after Thomas and Alito

[edhopper]

Last edited Mon May 20, 2024, 11:02 AM - Edit history (2)

full throttle. Acting as if they deserve respect and deference just because of their position, with no consideration how corrupt they are, is a good way to let them get away with it.
If the Parties were reversed, the GOP would hammer at the Justices every day, and the Media would follow suit.
The level of obvious corruption should not be ignored. Senate hearings should be the order of the day.

[LiberalFighter]

1. In a way Biden reference that Trump would appoint judges without a brain

[Lonestarblue]

2. I think the better description is that Trump would appoint a justice without a soul or moral compass.

[Alliepoo]

3. I agree with you a million percent!

Alito and Thomas do not deserve any kind of respect or deference. Like you said the Dems need to go after them hard. And the sooner the better.

[samsingh]

4. we should

[CrispyQ]

5. No one wants to take action this close to an election is my guess.

You'd think they'd at least campaign on the issue, though. Something along the lines of "We can't fix the court until we have bigger majorities in Congress." Remind people that the president & the senate are limited with our current numbers. I'm always stunned how voters forget this, overlook this when judging how much dems have accomplished.

[Demsrule86]

8. The issue that will win us the house is Roe...we can go after the two ( I have see Dems doing this) and link

the bad behavior of the justices as proof they will continue to interfere even if we codify Roe...that would be the best solution.

[duckworth969]

28. That's a good point

Riling up the Senate could increase the willingness of donors to pump more $ into those races.

[MOMFUDSKI]

36. The Dems will play nice per usual. I don't

understand that at all. Hammer and tongs is the way to go when Democracy is threatened.

[myohmy2]

6. I...

...have a tendency to agree, they don't deserve respect and deference or cover...

...the magat hacks on the court are going to somehow fuck this election up...and the way I see it

...this is the last election we have to get it right...after that

...all bets ae off...

[Demsrule86]

7. There is nothing we can do...you get that? We don't have the votes to impeach.

[edhopper]

9. What we can do

is point out how corrupt they are and show the voters how they are reshaping the country with their illegitimate rulings.
Make it a reason to not vote for Repugs.

[tableturner]

11. We can at least raise hell like they would if the situation were reversed!

There IS a benefit to that!

[markodochartaigh]

18. Yes, Thom Hartmann

was just pointing out how the Republicans threatened Abe Fortas and his wife on trumped up charges so that Nixon could swing the court to the right.

[duckworth969]

29. Trifecta

Dems need control of Congress and Executive branch to begin any meaningful SC reform.

[tableturner]

10. 100% agree! If Kagan or Sotomayor did what the others did, they'd be gone by now!

We need to be flooding the airways with massive numbers of Democratic surrogates non-stop venting about this like the GOP would do! This is how and why the GOP takes a nothing event related to the Democrats and blows it up to be a huge deal, while the Democrats take a genuinely huge deal related to the GOP and allows it to devolve into almost nothing.

We need to fight just as viciously as the Republicans would, although since the Democrats' arguments would be fact based, we STILL would NOT be fighting as viciously as the Republicans would even if we raised the same amount of hell as they would if the circumstances were reversed.

[lees1975]

12. We have a senate majority so tie up the committees there like the GOP is doing on the house side.

Make this a huge deal on the 24 hour news cycle. A new senator comes out with attacks on these two every single day. Pressure them to step down.

[FBaggins]

14. Pressure them how?

Our system is designed to make them as immune to political forces as possible. A string of senators yelling "Stop! Or I'll yell stop again!" doesn't accomplish much.

[tableturner]

25. I vehemently disagree! It definitely influences public opinion, and that is HUGE!

[brooklynite]

13. And what would going after Thomas and Alito accomplish?

They won't be Impeached and it won't shift any votes for either Biden or a Democratic Congress.

[ThoughtCriminal]

15. It reminds the public that the GOP is the party of corruption and non-accountability - nm

[Emile]

26. It would point out how corrupt Republicans are.

WTF

[brooklynite]

32. Biden voters don't need to be convinced....

Trump voters won't care....

Undecided voters are thinking about the Supreme Court.

[elocs]

16. Well, it wouldn't be the first time Dems have made a mistake, and it won't be the last.

But hands down, the biggest mistake that Dems have made for years and will make again this year: Not voting for the nominee of the Democratic Party! Just do it!

[KPN]

17. There probably is not much we could actually accomplish. Nevertheless, I agree that we -- the party

as a whole -- should be making a much bigger stink about Alito and Thomas. President Biden made a backhanded reference to them and their conservative cohorts on the bench this weekend -- which is good, but it sure seems like we should be raising a lot more cain about their corruption and ideological jurisprudence between now and the election.

[onecaliberal]

19. We are going to wait ourselves out of democracy. WHO THE FUCK is going to do something about the criminals in our

government before they take it from us and start killing us?

[MotownPgh]

35. Biden should have had an emergency break in

on all networks stating that doj will investigate radical right wing groups infiltrating the highest echelons of the government and courts. He could reassure the nation that they are continuing to battle with the forces trying to end our democracy. It would be bold and shocking but this is, in fact, an emergency.

[nakocal]

20. The media is the problem

The Democrats have very little say in what the right wing owned (90% owned by the far right and extreme far right) media. For every one Democratic person that speaks they will put on twenty republicans who will lie and say the opposite.

[HandmaidsTaleUntold]

22. And Yet The Lie About Liberal Bias In Media

It’s very simple. These dumbasses repeat republican bullshit. The OWNERS of the media are conservatives. Rank and file journalists and photographers are mostly liberal. For a reason. They are a cross section of average Americans. And they see the reality on the ground. They are the witnesses to reality and of course that would make them liberal after seeing the truth. Simple.

[thomhartmann]

21. Dick Durban needs to take a lesson from Congress and Nixon...

And convene an investigation of Alito, Thomas, and their wives:

https://hartmannreport.com/p/the-supreme-scheme-how-alito-and-7a9

[ancianita]

24. And then what.

[ancianita]

23. Dems are the ONLY ones going after Thomas and Alito. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse is leading the charge.

Besides what he's done to inform the public through a 33 part presentation of The Scheme that presents the monetary evidence of the SCOTUS capture, and continuing to write as president of a Senate committee on such matters, there's absolutely no action Dems can take without the Republican majority's votes, which they won't get. And you know this, or should know this.

The ONLY mistake here is to continue blaming Dems for things they can't control, such as
-- the party makeup of the House and Senate,
-- the Judicial Conference's glacial action when sent ethical reports by an IG or Whitehouse himself on behalf of his particular congressional house.

Dems can ONLY go after Thomas and Alito AFTER DEMS WIN ON NOV 5. (caps for EMphasis, not shouting)

I'm with Democrat and constitutional scholar Jamie Raskin, who says that the 119th Senate will begin addressing SCOTUS in 2025 and beyond.

But as this Dem says, first things first:
1. Win on Nov 5
2. Defend that win through Jan 6 2025
3. Restore the Voting Rights Act
4. Restore Roe v Wade
5. Hold regularly scheduled judicial reform hearings in both Houses' Judiciary Committees to create congressional legislation to
-- restructure the Supreme Court,
-- set action deadlines for the Judicial Conference on ethics violations, and
-- increase funding for expanded courts and judgeships

There's more important groundwork to be done before going after Thomas & Alito can come to anything at all beyond distraction from 2024.

We're in an election year.
It's a mistake to expect Dems to take on every possible problem in a presidential year.

DEMS' first priority in 2024 is WINNING.

[Raven123]

27. Sheldon Whitehouse has been the leader on SCOTUS corruption via big money

The only way to “go after” them is to play the long game and win elections.

[BeyondGeography]

30. Raskin: "The highest court in the land has the lowest ethical standards."

There’s your attack line. People who say we can’t do anything about this don’t understand the power of shaming. And even if you disagree with that statement, where has “oh well” gotten us so far?

[budkin]

31. 100%

We always bring plastic knives to gun fights.

[people]

33. Agreed. Dems need to cite 28 USC 455 -- Alito and Thomas must disqualify themselves from Trump's cases

There is a federal statute that says justices (includes SCOTUS justices) must recuse themselves from cases where their impartiality is reasonably questioned. Glenn Kirschner pointed it out and democrats should be reciting it every hour:

Kirschner posted text from federal law, 28 U.S.C. Sec. 455, which reads: "Any justice, judge, or magistrate judge of the United States shall disqualify himself in any proceeding in which his impartiality might reasonably be questioned."

[Cartoonist]

34. Would going after Thomas alienate black voters?

A high tech lynching as he called it.