Supreme Court

[Mori Chu]

Trump is expected to announce his nominee for new SCOTUS justice today. Will post again once it's announced.

[Nodack]

Trump nominated Brett Kavanaugh.

[Mori Chu]

Based on what I am reading, I don't like Kavanaugh. Too staunchly conservative. Will overturn Roe, gut voting rights, choose corporations over people.

I'm reading on Twitter that Kennedy may have had a backdoor deal with the President that he'd retire as long as Trump appointed Kavanaugh to succeed him. Curious to hear what comes of it.

[Indy]

GWB seems to be a very big supporter...

[In2ition]

Based on what I am reading, I don't like Kavanaugh. Too staunchly conservative. Will overturn Roe, gut voting rights, choose corporations over people.

I'm reading on Twitter that Kennedy may have had a backdoor deal with the President that he'd retire as long as Trump appointed Kavanaugh to succeed him. Curious to hear what comes of it.

Funny, he was the most liberal of the 4 choices. Might as well appointed the most conservative one of the bunch if there is going to be outrage no matter what.

I'm more Live and Let Live in my opinion.

[Mori Chu]

What makes you say that he is the most liberal? What decisions or cases lead you to think so?

[Cap]

Just because his other announced candidates were even worse...

Gotta give Trump credit for knowing how to play his game.

[In2ition]

What makes you say that he is the most liberal? What decisions or cases lead you to think so?

I really don't know myself, but that's what the people that actually look at it are saying.

[Mori Chu]

What makes you say that he is the most liberal? What decisions or cases lead you to think so?

I really don't know myself, but that's what the people that actually look at it are saying.

Who?

[Mori Chu]

Anybody else paying attention to the start of Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing today? It's just chaos. Protestors yelling, constant interruptions, Democrats trying to call for the hearing to adjourn, shots at Trump, you name it. This is just ridiculous. They released 42k documents about Kavanaugh last night, before anybody has the chance to read them. And even with those documents, something like 90+% of Kavanaugh's records are still private. They claim they are being held under "executive privilege," which has literally never been done for any Supreme Court nominee.

I don't know how anybody who believes our country is a representative democracy can be okay with what is going on here. They're trying to ram this guy through as fast as they can before the midterms and not following any sort of norms or standard process.

[Indy]

Yeah, I am not sure how anyone could vote to confirm someone to the highest seat of the judicial branch with 90% of the evidence if they are fit for the seat being hidden. Can you image if a state senator was running for US senate and one party or another found a way to hide their voting record at the state level? It is so strange.

[Superbone]

Yeah, I am not sure how anyone could vote to confirm someone to the highest seat of the judicial branch with 90% of the evidence if they are fit for the seat being hidden. Can you image if a state senator was running for US senate and one party or another found a way to hide their voting record at the state level? It is so strange.

Yet par for the course with this administration.

[Indy]

Yeah, I am not sure how anyone could vote to confirm someone to the highest seat of the judicial branch with 90% of the evidence if they are fit for the seat being hidden. Can you image if a state senator was running for US senate and one party or another found a way to hide their voting record at the state level? It is so strange.

Yet par for the course with this administration.

I get it for Trump. He has been lying his way through life. But there are plenty of people in the Senate that understand what this country stands for, and understand the difference between rule of law and rule of man. They probably even studied that in law school. But they are turning a blind eye to it in order to score a point in a game. It is crazy to me.

[Mori Chu]

If nothing else, Trump has revealed the deep levels of corruption to which most of our elected officials are willing to sink, or at least, be complicit.

[Nodack]

Everybody likes to win. Naming a Supreme Court Justice is a HUGE deal to Republicans and Democrats. That decision lasts for many decades and can totally affect decisions that affect us all. All gloves come off and they are willing to do and say anything to get their guy or stop that guy from being confirmed. And of course in the Trump era all norms are gone and there is no such thing as right or wrong. It’s all about winning at all costs.

Ever watch the Pelican brief?

[Mori Chu]

It's too bad that the Court has become so politicized. I feel like it used to be the case that whichever party was President, they had to nominate somebody moderate to get enough votes. The justices are supposed to be mostly non-partisan and are supposed to genuinely want to uphold the Constitution and the laws of the country, even if they are different from that justice's personal views. Now we just openly talk about getting a "Republican justice" or a "Democrat/liberal justice." Kennedy was conservative, but he didn't just always do what the Republican party wanted. Now we have these guys like Kavanaugh who are basically hand-picked by shady conservative institutes because they want to repeal Roe and advance other Republican causes. How have we strayed so far?

[Nodack]

I think it also depends on how many seats each party controls. When it’s close or one party has a slight edge and the other arty has the WH then they have to work together to get anything done or not get anything done. When one party controls the House, Senate and WH they can basically do whatever they want.

The Dems had the House, Senate and WH under the first term of Obama and they were able to push through Obamacare and whatever they wanted. The second term Republicans took back control and were able to shut down Obama and even refused to consider any Supreme Court nominee he picked and stalled his pick as until Trump was elected.

Now Republicans have the House, Senate and WH and can do whatever they want. They are trying to cram Trumps pick through before Midterms because they know there is a good chance they will lose enough seats and won’t be able to pick anybody they want.

[Indy]

It's too bad that the Court has become so politicized. I feel like it used to be the case that whichever party was President, they had to nominate somebody moderate to get enough votes. The justices are supposed to be mostly non-partisan and are supposed to genuinely want to uphold the Constitution and the laws of the country, even if they are different from that justice's personal views. Now we just openly talk about getting a "Republican justice" or a "Democrat/liberal justice." Kennedy was conservative, but he didn't just always do what the Republican party wanted. Now we have these guys like Cavanaugh who are basically hand-picked by shady conservative institutes because they want to repeal Roe and advance other Republican causes. How have we strayed so far?

1) Kavanaugh. With a K. Sorry, that just really bugs me every time I see you type it wrong.

2) SCOTUS has always been very political. And as much as some say that Kennedy was a swing vote/moderate despite being a GOP appointee, that isn't the case.

[Mori Chu]

It's too bad that the Court has become so politicized. I feel like it used to be the case that whichever party was President, they had to nominate somebody moderate to get enough votes. The justices are supposed to be mostly non-partisan and are supposed to genuinely want to uphold the Constitution and the laws of the country, even if they are different from that justice's personal views. Now we just openly talk about getting a "Republican justice" or a "Democrat/liberal justice." Kennedy was conservative, but he didn't just always do what the Republican party wanted. Now we have these guys like Cavanaugh who are basically hand-picked by shady conservative institutes because they want to repeal Roe and advance other Republican causes. How have we strayed so far?

1) Kavanaugh. With a K. Sorry, that just really bugs me every time I see you type it wrong.

2) SCOTUS has always been very political. And as much as some say that Kennedy was a swing vote/moderate despite being a GOP appointee, that isn't the case.

My bad about the spelling. As for Justice Cennedy (jk), I don't claim that he was moderate, just that he was not blindly towing one party's line. He mostly voted conservatively, but he did stand up for LGBT rights and other issues of civil liberty. I'm not asking for justices who vote 50/50 liberal vs conservative; I don't think that is a reasonable standard. I just want justices that look at each issue and case on its own merits and try to do what they think is right, rather than getting their opinions from some particular party platform or organization or media outlet.

[Mori Chu]

It's been interesting watching the Kavanaugh hearings. The Dems have made a pretty decent case against him, some combination of:

- The GOP hasn't released most of the documents on him, so we can't properly review his record

- He has said that the President should be immune from prosecution and legal accountability, and he may have spoken with Trump's legal team, so this is a quid-pro-quo nomination by Trump to protect himself in future SCOTUS trials

- He apparently is involved in some early-2000s-era scandals involving hacked email documents from the Dems that were shown to Kavanaugh to give him and the GOP a leg up in various trials

- He has retrograde views on issues such as Roe v Wade, women's birth control pills, health care, guns, and so on

Kavanaugh will still very likely get confirmed with 53-55 votes (all 51 Republicans plus a few rank-breaking Dems in red states). But boooooo.