A short but cogent analysis of the unexpectedly not-terrible SCOTUS emerging at the tail end of this term. Josh Marshall is a smart observer of government, and he makes an interesting argument that I think has some real value.

  • No, the conservatives ruling the SCOTUS are not awesome. They know that two of their rank were caught red handed in corruption. So they’re rejecting the small, easy right wing nonsense to appear reasonable, while taking a chunk out of America with the Affirmative Action ruling.

  • First, we should note that the term isn’t over. Major decisions on affirmative action and student debt, among others, are still to come. So it’s premature to evaluate the term before it’s complete.

    Yeah, you can say that again

  • It would be nice if this was true but I dont see any actual evidence that they are rebuking or censuring the Justices who have been taking bribes gifts.

    The worst thing that these conservative Justices dont understand is that the concept of Judicial Review is not codified in the constitution. Congress can at any time revoke that power without any feedback from the Court. If they continue to get caught in corruption, and continue to knock down popular policy it will eventually backfire, and could end up with the Court loosing much of its assumed power.

    Frankly all of their choices and actions scream internal coup of the American political system. I honestly believe they expect to turn us into authoritarian executive branch (Unitary executive theory).

    They are throwing a hail marry in the last quarter of the game. If they can reverse all the democratic and liberal decisions and restore white men to a position of sole ownership of power and then vest that in the executive branch, then they can rig the system so only “Republicans” can win and run things.

    Why else would they risk backlash unless they really think they can “win.” Additionally I wonder if they are convinced that even if they dont win, it will cause a civil war where they can violently take control.

    Roberts might care, and he might have some power, but its clear the extremists are driving the conversation and he cant hold them back.

      •  rustyspoon   ( @rustyspoon@beehaw.org ) 
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        1 year ago

        You’re right I didn’t, and maybe I should have, but I would argue that it’s also just unhealthy for an article to have a title that’s completely antithetical to what it’s actually saying.

        • Maybe the fault was mine, for including a piece from the Editor’s Blog (which is a bit more informal than most of TPM’s reporting and assumes familiarity with their other work).

          I forget who originally said that whenever you see a headline with a question mark (colloquially referred to as the Cavuto Mark, after Fox’s Neil Cavuto, perhaps the most prominent practitioner), the answer is almost always ‘no,’ but it’s been such a piece of conventional wisdom that I didn’t realize it was more widely understood as such.