Supreme Court associate justice Anthony Kennedy’s announcement sent shockwaves through much of the legal community. For years now, he has been the X Factor in the legal system, the swing vote in 5-4 rulings, for better or worse. While not so much this past term, Kennedy did more to shape the outcome of the Court than any other justice. And now, poof, he’s gone.
And heads exploded. From the anti-Oracle of legal opinion, Mark Joseph Stern shrieks at Slate
Anthony Kennedy’s retirement ensures the Supreme Court will allow states to outlaw abortion.
Others with less moderate views see Kennedy’s retirement as the end of America, the world, life as we know it. The primary cause of the Apocalypse is that Darth Cheeto will get to appoint Kennedy’s replacement, but the secondary cause awaits the nomination itself.
Going out on a limb and predicting that a number of intelligent, well-credentialed, reasonable sitting Court of Appeals judges will be defamed in the coming weeks … https://t.co/76W9ihgzR6
— Rick Garnett (@RickGarnett) June 27, 2018
It’s possible that Trump could nominate someone as crazy as Jeanine Pirro, possibly the dumbest person to ever have her wealthy felon-husband buy her a public office until she was ditched into a judgeship just to get rid of her, given her vehement support of Trump using only small words.
But it’s more likely that Trump will nominate a sitting federal Court of Appeals judge to take the seat. And as that wild-eyed radical prawf, Rick Garnet, notes, the mere potential means that some jurist who has earned great respect for her accomplishments will be ripped to shreds by lies, distortion and hatred. The day before, the mob won’t have known the judge’s name. The day after the name is mentioned as a potential Trump nominee, the mob will know more than the judge’s proctologist.
And once a nominee is actually named, the mob will destroy the nominee, his family, mailman and sixth-grade teacher. After all, if Trump nominates him, he must be the anti-Christ who will reverse Roe v. Wade by himself on his first day at One First. Then he’ll eat babies for lunch at a table with Sam Alito and Clarence Thomas.
If the nominee for the Supreme Court should be a sitting Court of Appeals judge, we will already know that they are smart and exceptionally accomplished. They may not reflect the perspective some would prefer in a justice, but that’s not because they are evil or malevolent (sorry, Judge Bork), but because smart and accomplished people don’t necessarily turn to the woke for their spiritual guidance.
I may never agree with Justice Alito on a crim law issue, despite his roomie’s, NY Supreme Court Justice Mark Dwyer, best effort to raise him properly, but my invariable disagreement with him doesn’t make him the devil. Just someone with whom I seem to always disagree.
Mention the name Neil Gorsuch to the passionate and they will start to sputter, to spit, their hair going on fire and their eyes bugging out of their sockets. He’s become the personification of evil, hateful eyes parsing every word, every punctuation mark, to denigrate everything from his analogies to his imagined drooling as he undermines the fabric of society.
Before his nomination to the Supreme Court, he was highly-regarded judge on the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals. Nobody hated him. Few even knew his name. Certainly, no one would lose sleep at night over his rulings or opinions. Upon his nomination, my dear friend, Judge John Kane, told me that Judge Gorsuch, whom he knew very well, was a brilliant and honorable judge, open minded and hardly ideological. But then, Judge Kane actually knew Judge Gorsuch, so what would he know?
Ramping up on whom to destroy, what careers to ruin, what lies to create and what opinions can be twisted sufficiently to gaslight the clueless into losing their minds over the end of the world, may begin shortly. After all, replacing Kennedy is the biggest thing to ever happen since the election of Darth Cheeto. It will almost certainly hit ramming speed when a name is actually announced.
And when that happens, a good, smart, hard-working, civic-minded jurist will watch helplessly as puny nutjobs throw feces on his or her life’s work, wondering whether she will be allowed to eat at a restaurant in peace, whether her kids can go go to school unmolested, whether the sacrifices for a career marked by integrity were worth it when they’re going to be accused of pederasty no matter what.
Who needs this?
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I just want someone that isn’t part of the eastern elite. A background in mining or real estate law would be nice as well. Or maybe maritime law. At least a different perspective. Or from a law school from somewhere west of the Mississippi.
I want someone who’s actually practices law in the trenches and tried a few cases. I also want a maple bacon donut for breakfast this morning. Life is full of disappointments.
SHG,
If anything, you underestimate what will be done to the poor schmuck who gets the nod. It will be awful. But we should look at the bright side.
Because Congress hardly functions, because the Democrats love the creation of Constitutional rights pushed by the woke and “empathy” is the judicial litmus test, because Republicans are better at playing the long game (think of the Federalist Society) when it comes to prompting Pavlovian judicial nominees, because both conservative and liberal elites agree that judicial restraint least it should raise its ugly head again and because the hunger for power has gone to the over large brainpans of the Justices, most of whom couldn’t practice law if their lives depended upon it, we now have a Supreme Court that is far too consequential in the political, rather than legal, world. The least dangerous branch has become the Oracle of Delphi. Burnt offerings are not required, but summer teaching gigs on the continent are welcome
All hail Earl Warren! We should remember that he was confirmed by unanimous voice vote. And look how that has turned out.
All the best.
RGK
I am appalled at the fact that there is no wobbly song about Earl Warren. That’s just so wrong.
You’re appalled. I am appalled at my sentence construction. It all looked good before I pushed send.
Where are my fucking keys?
All the best.
Dick Head
I’m not judgmental, but imagine what it was like to be your editor.
SHG,
One of the reasons I quit posting is because [I] have punished you enough. That is certainly not to say that you didn’t deserve it. But the Eighth Amendment and my evolving sense of decency made me stop.
All the best.
RGK
Ming the Merciful. You are way too good to me, Judge.
Unfortunate. But at least somebody recorded his Reid technique interrogation that later inspired Miranda rights.
How do you find these? Amazing.
Ask no question, I’ll tell you no lie.
The first thing I do: click “reply”.
Next, apply google-fu
Learned from Fubar Manchu.
Then “post comment” while shouting Banzai!
All food sources shall be cut off from this nominee! Forget restaurant protests. We’re cutting of grocery stores, supply lines, everything. Salt the earth.
Oh my. The Grand Marshall of the Supreme Court just stated that Trump will be appointing 3 new Justices to replace Kennedy!
Pics or it didn’t happen.
I think this is all premature. The Federal Court for the District of Hawaii just entered a temporary restraining order enjoining the retirement of Justice Kennedy.
Somebody twitted that yesterday. It’s a great meme.
I admit the joke wasn’t original, but I couldn’t find it again for citation.
It’s a great joke, right up there with the Gorsuch “I don’t think we should let Trump nominate a Supreme Court Justice during the last year of his presidency.”
It almost seems like we impeach them before they join the court.
Impeach is too substantive. Smear may be a better word.
The next justice isn’t going to be picked because he’s got great qualifications. He’ll be picked because his voting record convinces President Trump that he’ll support the party on their core issues. Ever since congress realised they could dump every live wire POLITICAL decision onto the court, like abortion rights or homosexual rights or the next generation of arguments on female equality, stuff that should be decided by the elected legislature, those judges have been reduced to political proxies of the parties who appoint them.
I think the real loss is that Kennedy was the last judge who’s vote was not entirely predictable in advance. A swing vote that wasn’t owned by the parties. His replacement will rigorously examined for any signs of similarly unforgivable defects of character.
Not only is this question begging, but it’s stupid question begging. Just because the crazies say it doesn’t make it real.
My friend and I were discussing who the President would nominate.
He opened with Trump nominating himself.
I countered with Putin.
He won with Roy Moore.
Did this happen when you were 6th grade?
No, I didn’t have any friends in 6th grade.
I bet Jeanine Pirro would have been your friend.