Supreme Court ends on a low note: Why we should now be more frightened for their next term

[marmar]

Supreme Court ends on a low note: Why we should now be more frightened for their next term
Supreme Court ends infamous term with promise for worse outcomes next time

By HEATHER DIGBY PARTON
PUBLISHED JULY 1, 2022 9:53AM (EDT)


(Salon) The 2021-2022 Supreme Court term will go down in infamy.

The right-wing majority behaved as if they were kids in a candy store, stuffing their faces with all their favorite goodies knowing there was no one who could stop them and no one who could hold them accountable for having done it. On gun rights, abortion, religion and the environment they took a wrecking ball to the court's precedents and created bold new tests out of thin air. It was a breath-taking exercise of sheer institutional power — and they're just getting started.

On the last day of the term, after handing down yet another shocking ruling (hamstringing the government's ability to deal with climate change), they announced that they plan to take up one of the most hare-brained, right-wing assaults on democracy yet this fall. Surprising even their most cynical critics, the Supreme Court agreed to take up the so-called "Independent State Legislature Doctrine," a half-baked idea that sprang out of nowhere in the opinion written by Chief Justice William Rehnquist and signed by Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas in Bush v. Gore. Rehnquist held that since Article II of the Constitution says that states are to appoint electors "in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct" a federal court can reverse a state court's decision regarding state election law if it finds that that the state court disregarded the intent of the state legislature. Justice John Paul Stevens wrote a scathing dissent in response, accusing the opinion of displaying "an unstated lack of confidence in the impartiality and capacity of the state judges who would make the critical decisions if the vote count were to proceed." He said it would "only lend credence to the most cynical appraisal of the work of judges throughout the land."

Rehnquist's novel idea was pretty much relegated to the ash heap of history except for some far-right judicial gadflies who were apparently chattering about it a Federalist Society cocktail parties for the past couple of decades. Until it reared its ugly head again before the 2020 election when Republicans started litigating their complaints about changes to the voting system due to the pandemic. ...............(more)

https://www.salon.com/2022/07/01/ends-on-a-low-note-why-we-should-now-be-more-frightened-for-their-next-term/

[dalton99a]

1. Absolute power corrupts absolutely

They are drunk with power, they thirst for more power, and they want to see more damage