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You are here: Home / Politics / Activist Judges! / The Roberts Court’s “Greatest Threat to Public Confidence”

The Roberts Court’s “Greatest Threat to Public Confidence”

by Anne Laurie|  October 30, 20147:38 pm| 123 Comments

This post is in: Activist Judges!, An Unexamined Scandal, Republican Venality

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citizens united fall sale sargent
(Ben Sargent via GoComics.com)

Linda Greenhouse, in the NYTimes, on “A Supreme Court Misstep“:

… Late on a Friday night earlier this month, the Supreme Court voted in another case from Texas to permit the state’s voter ID law, the strictest in the country, to take effect. A federal district judge in Corpus Christi found after a nine-day trial that the law’s stringent requirements for particular forms of identification would prevent as many as 600,000 Texans, 4.5 percent of all those registered, from voting next month. The impact, Judge Nelva Gonzales Ramos found, would fall disproportionately on black and Latino Texans. She ruled that the law violated Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 — the section that remains functional after the Supreme Court cut the heart out of that law last year — and that it operated as an unconstitutional poll tax. Judge Ramos issued a permanent injunction to bar the state from applying the law.

The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit — yes, the same court that brought us the Texas abortion clinic closings, before the Supreme Court granted a reprieve two weeks ago — gave Texas an immediate stay of the ruling, putting the voter ID law back into effect for next week’s election. The plaintiffs then asked the Supreme Court to lift the stay.

The six justices who let the stay remain in effect didn’t bother to explain themselves beyond the word “denied.” That left it to Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and two others, Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan, to explain in dissent what was wrong with that outcome. (Where was Justice Stephen G. Breyer? I have no idea.) The dissent was issued shortly after 5 a.m. on the morning of Saturday, Oct. 18, the 81-year-old Justice Ginsburg having stayed up all night to finish it.

“The greatest threat to public confidence in elections in this case,” Justice Ginsburg said, “is the prospect of enforcing a purposefully discriminatory law, one that likely imposes an unconstitutional poll tax and risks denying the right to vote to hundreds of thousands of eligible voters.” A law, in other words, that in the full glare of publicity and on the verge of a highly polarized election, threatens destruction to the social fabric in the most dangerous way, by shutting thousands of citizens out of the democratic process of choosing their leaders.

“There is no right more basic in our democracy than the right to participate in electing our political leaders,” Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. wrote for the court in April of this year. His subject then was the right to spend money in politics, not the right to vote. If people conclude that the current Supreme Court majority cares more about the first than the second — surely a logical inference — the court will have entered a dangerous place. And so — as a conservative justice once realized in another context — will the country.

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Reader Interactions

123Comments

  1. 1.

    Howard Beale IV

    October 30, 2014 at 7:46 pm

    So sayeth Justice Roberts.

  2. 2.

    Villago Delenda Est

    October 30, 2014 at 7:47 pm

    Roberts is racist scum.

    End of discussion.

  3. 3.

    Baud

    October 30, 2014 at 7:49 pm

    If the Supreme Court allows these new Jim Crow laws to come back, I hope the phrase “John Roberts laws” gains currency.

  4. 4.

    Patricia Kayden

    October 30, 2014 at 7:51 pm

    Just reading that article is enough to make your blood boil. This is why every election matters. Don’t put Republicans in positions of power or they’ll take away what little power you have.

  5. 5.

    beth

    October 30, 2014 at 7:53 pm

    I saw a suggestion in the comments section of LGM that everyone refer to these voter ID laws as John Roberts Laws in order to make his name synonomous with voter suppression, just like you know exactly what a Jim Crow law was. If someone here made the suggestion I apologize for not remembering and giving you credit. I think it’s a great idea for every left wing blogger and commenter. Make him own these decisions.

  6. 6.

    Linnaeus

    October 30, 2014 at 7:55 pm

    (Where was Justice Stephen G. Breyer? I have no idea.)

    Unless new information has come to light, the fact that Breyer did not join the dissent does not necessarily mean that he voted with the majority.

  7. 7.

    Howard Beale IV

    October 30, 2014 at 7:55 pm

    @Baud: Just remember what Roberts looks like should you ever run across him in an auto accident and you do triage. He can wait.

  8. 8.

    burnspbesq

    October 30, 2014 at 7:56 pm

    It is entirely in keeping with the traditions of the Court that conjured up out of nowhere in the Second Amendment an individual right to keep and bear arms that it continually shoots its own legitimacy in the foot.

  9. 9.

    Baud

    October 30, 2014 at 7:57 pm

    @beth:

    I came up with that idea on my own, but I’m happy others have the same thought.

  10. 10.

    wmd

    October 30, 2014 at 8:01 pm

    Notorious RBG with another fine dissent.

    I’m with everyone on calling these “John Roberts’ laws”. The man should be identified with the policies he enabled.

  11. 11.

    Baud

    October 30, 2014 at 8:03 pm

    OT: White guy cop killer was killed captured today.

  12. 12.

    WereBear

    October 30, 2014 at 8:11 pm

    On top of everything else, he is a very sketchy legal scholar.

    Oh, he does a lot of flips and spins, but never sticks the landing.

  13. 13.

    Hal

    October 30, 2014 at 8:12 pm

    “There is no right more basic in our democracy than the right to participate in electing our political leaders,” Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. wrote for the court in April of this year. His subject then was the right to spend money in politics, not the right to vote.

    This makes my head hurt. I’m trying to figure out the cognitive dissonance between what Roberts is saying, and the reality that what he is doing is giving explicit rights to a very small minority of wealthy people/corporations to try and unduly influence elections in their favor above all else.

    That Clarence Thomas would support these laws is a whole other universe of wtf to me, but I guess when you’re BFFs with Limbaugh and your wife is a white conservative crank, what else you gonna do?

  14. 14.

    Howard Beale IV

    October 30, 2014 at 8:12 pm

    @burnspbesq: To the NRA the preamble to the second amendment is like garlic to a vampire.

  15. 15.

    Woodrowfan

    October 30, 2014 at 8:16 pm

    @Hal: he really is a self-hating black man.

  16. 16.

    Botsplainer

    October 30, 2014 at 8:20 pm

    We break to say Suck It, ‘Noles.

    L1C4 – Go Louisville Cards

  17. 17.

    pat

    October 30, 2014 at 8:22 pm

    There is no downside for the court here. So what if there is no confidence in the courts or the elections?

    How do the courts lose power? Until someone just refuses to enforce a court order, there is no downside.

    In my opinion, the right is most likely to refuse the court. But since the right is getting everything they ask for, that isn’t going to happen.

    Bush’s selection in 2000 did not make it impossible for him to do the damage he did. The supreme court is still making ruling after ruling, those rulings are still being obeyed.

    Why should the court care about how bought and paid for, or their approval ratings. It affects nothing.

  18. 18.

    cmorenc

    October 30, 2014 at 8:27 pm

    @Patricia Kayden:

    Don’t put Republicans in positions of power or they’ll take away what little power you have.

    The more strategically aware and far-sighted among the national and respective state leadership of the GOP recognized the inevitability of the party’s gradual demographic erosion into permanent minority status outside an enclave of solidly red states, and also recognized that the 2010 mid-terms created a relatively short window of six to ten years to erect strong structural barriers to prevent that from happening.

    They also have had the fortunate advantage of having five highly partisan Supreme Court Justices blatantly in the tank for the GOP – the fact that Bush was president and go to name Alito and Roberts to the court instead of the type of justices Gore would have nominated was yet another leveraged gift of their having a different five highly partisan Supreme Court majority who gave the election of 2000 to Bush.

    This is among the reasons the #1 priority of Democrats in 2016 MUST BE TO WIN, rather than get huffy and puffy about not having some preferred progressive purity pony be the nominee. Let the GOP self-destructively indulge their own (albeit far more extreme to that side) purity pony – such as presidential nominee Cruz. Or Santorum.

  19. 19.

    RareSanity

    October 30, 2014 at 8:32 pm

    @Botsplainer:

    Bobby Petrino is your coach.

    You should be ashamed.

    -Signed,
    Atlanta Falcon Fan

    P.S.
    Auburn and Arkansas fans agree.

    P.P.S.
    Anyone that knows anything about Bobby Petrino agrees.

  20. 20.

    tybee

    October 30, 2014 at 8:35 pm

    @RareSanity:

    +1

  21. 21.

    Botsplainer

    October 30, 2014 at 8:38 pm

    @RareSanity:

    Oh, Bobby Petrino is half brother to Satan, but he’s always interesting.

    Chop that, ‘Noles, you fucks. 14-0

  22. 22.

    raven

    October 30, 2014 at 8:42 pm

    (CNN) — After nearly seven weeks on the run, suspected cop killer Eric Matthew Frein is in custody, Pennsylvania State Police spokeswoman Connie Devens said Thursday.
    “I can confirm that we have taken Eric Frein into custody. Further information will be released at a later time. No further information will be released or confirmed at this time,” she said in an email to reporters.

  23. 23.

    Brendan in Charlotte

    October 30, 2014 at 8:42 pm

    The Roberts Court is the “Greatest Threat to Public Confidence”. It’s a feature, not a bug.

  24. 24.

    JPL

    October 30, 2014 at 8:43 pm

    @Baud: My thought for the Roberts court is much worse.

  25. 25.

    Anoniminous

    October 30, 2014 at 8:43 pm

    “There is no right more basic in our democracy than the right to participate in electing bribing our political leaders,”

    Quote fixed for accuracy.

  26. 26.

    Botsplainer

    October 30, 2014 at 8:44 pm

    Aaaaand ANOTHER interception….

    Go Cards!

  27. 27.

    schrodinger's cat

    October 30, 2014 at 8:45 pm

    So is Roberts the new Taney?

  28. 28.

    RareSanity

    October 30, 2014 at 8:47 pm

    @Botsplainer:

    Oh, Bobby Petrino is half brother to Satan, but he’s always interesting.

    Well, shit…I can’t argue with that.

  29. 29.

    Botsplainer

    October 30, 2014 at 8:48 pm

    21-0

  30. 30.

    raven

    October 30, 2014 at 8:57 pm

    @RareSanity: Where ya bean frijole?

  31. 31.

    JPL

    October 30, 2014 at 8:59 pm

    @Botsplainer: Not for long..

  32. 32.

    raven

    October 30, 2014 at 8:59 pm

    @RareSanity: And Grantham

  33. 33.

    RareSanity

    October 30, 2014 at 9:04 pm

    @raven:

    Well, it’s the two half brothers of satan on the same sideline…

    I’ve been trying to keep an arms length from the political stuff recently. I read it, just don’t comment on it as much…just angries up the blood, know what I mean? lol

    I was going to say hello to you in an earlier thread, but then I agreed with the comment of yours that I was about to reply to…I do not want to comment in this thread…abandon thread, abandon thread!

  34. 34.

    raven

    October 30, 2014 at 9:07 pm

    @RareSanity: Well I miss seeing you here, a Rare dose of Sanity indeed. Obviously it’s been a crazy year over here and on the flats as well. Saint Mark may have turned it up a notch with Pruitt, we’ll see.

  35. 35.

    trollhattan

    October 30, 2014 at 9:08 pm

    @raven:
    Good! That bastard needed catching.

  36. 36.

    RareSanity

    October 30, 2014 at 9:15 pm

    @raven:

    Thanks man, I need to get back, I miss all you knuckleheads…even burnsie. lol

    I really hope they finally make the run this year, it’s all lining up right in front of them.

    You know I grew up in Atlanta, so I have always rooted for both teams, I’m just partial to Tech when they play each other. But it’s time for the Bulldogs to straighten up, fly right, and break through.

    Even after the curse of Spurrier struck again, it’s still all right there for the taking.

  37. 37.

    raven

    October 30, 2014 at 9:16 pm

    @RareSanity: It’s been fun.

  38. 38.

    RaflW

    October 30, 2014 at 9:34 pm

    A law, in other words, that in the full glare of publicity and on the verge of a highly polarized election, threatens destruction to the social fabric in the most dangerous way, by shutting thousands of citizens out of the democratic process of choosing their leaders.

    If there is violence in the streets in the coming years, it will in no small part be as a result of those robed white dudes (and Clarence) taking away the one truly peaceful course of action that citizens have.

    If/when our democracy crumbles so much that tyranny or chaos replaces it, Chief Justice Roberts will be noted (by me, at least, and one thinks, the three dissenters in the opinion) as one of the architects of the end of democracy.

  39. 39.

    Brendan in Charlotte

    October 30, 2014 at 9:35 pm

    @schrodinger’s cat: Taney’s his role model

  40. 40.

    raven

    October 30, 2014 at 9:36 pm

    @RaflW: The mayor of Lansing, Michigan was on predicting just such violence today.

  41. 41.

    max

    October 30, 2014 at 9:37 pm

    His subject then was the right to spend money in politics, not the right to vote. If people conclude that the current Supreme Court majority cares more about the first than the second — surely a logical inference — the court will have entered a dangerous place.

    Oh, they already have. The question is how far do they get with it.

    @cmorenc: This is among the reasons the #1 priority of Democrats in 2016 MUST BE TO WIN

    That is exactly right.

    max
    [‘Four in a row would save the Republic.’]

  42. 42.

    raven

    October 30, 2014 at 9:38 pm

    BTW, from what I just saw of LaPage he is setting Hickox of for violence.

    “”Right now, she can come out of the house if she wants, but we can’t protect her when she does that. The reason there’s a police car there when she does that is to protect her more than anybody. ‘Cause the last thing I want is for her to get hurt,” he said. “But at the same token, her behavior is really riling a lot of people up, and I can only do what I can do. And we’re trying to protect her, but she’s not acting as smart as she probably should.”

  43. 43.

    RaflW

    October 30, 2014 at 9:40 pm

    @Hal: Participating in electing means all the money one can muster, and all the legally dubious coordination of campaigns. Participating most clearly does not mean voting. Not for those people, anyway.

    Roberts and his pals, (again, including Clarence), are deeply in thrall to white privilege. They can’t quite help themselves, they’re so steeped in it. They don’t see it, they don’t question it, they just perpetuate it. And what says privilege more than $$$$$$.

  44. 44.

    RaflW

    October 30, 2014 at 9:49 pm

    @efgoldman: Kinda makes one think the totally phony New Black Panther scare of a few years ago might need to come true (Fox nooz post-Ferguson hyperventilating notwithstanding).

  45. 45.

    Elizabelle

    October 30, 2014 at 9:51 pm

    @schrodinger’s cat:

    That’s how I think of him. “Well hello there, sir. Pleased to meet you, Roger B. Taney.” (giggle)

  46. 46.

    RaflW

    October 30, 2014 at 9:54 pm

    On a more constructive note: Do we have any BJers on the ground in Georgia? I’m thinking we could do a moneybomb, like we have for Cole’s pet adoptions and past election cycles.

    The GA NAACP, or the New Georgia Project, or whomever. We can’t outspend the Kocksuckers, but we could help fund some scrappy grass roots folk.

  47. 47.

    burnspbesq

    October 30, 2014 at 9:55 pm

    @Howard Beale IV:

    To the NRA the preamble to the second amendment is like garlic to a vampire.

    Wouldn’t it just be itonic as shit if we could kill the NRA with a silver bullet? Sadly, i dont think it works that way.

  48. 48.

    Baud

    October 30, 2014 at 10:02 pm

    @raven:

    That would be quite uncivil if he were a Democrat.

  49. 49.

    SiubhanDuinne

    October 30, 2014 at 10:03 pm

    @RaflW:

    Not sure what you mean by “on the ground.” I’ve been volunteering for Nunn and Carter for months, and have spent pretty much every day recently poll-watching at advance voting locations. Don’t have as much discretionary income as I did before I retired, but a substantial amount of it is going to Dem candidates this year. I guess come Tuesday I will have a better idea of whether it’s been worth it.

  50. 50.

    boatboy_srq

    October 30, 2014 at 10:05 pm

    “There is no right more basic in our democracy than the right to participate in electing our political leaders,” Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. wrote for the court in April of this year. His subject then was the right to spend money in politics, not the right to vote.

    IOW, The best republic money can buy.

    @Villago Delenda Est:

    Roberts is racist, sexist, heterosexist, anti-Otherist Xtian scum.

    A bit closer to the truth.

  51. 51.

    boatboy_srq

    October 30, 2014 at 10:07 pm

    @burnspbesq: So THAT’s what a beryllium sphere is for…

  52. 52.

    boatboy_srq

    October 30, 2014 at 10:08 pm

    @RaflW: I read that as “white robed dudes”… and suddenly the Roberts Court made sense.

  53. 53.

    RaflW

    October 30, 2014 at 10:11 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne: Aha, I am wondering what you or other Georgia BJers might think of the organizations who are working on the appeal of the 40,000 missing registrations, etc. What could out-of-staters do for them, how do we advance this, WTF can we do, because it is an extreme outrage.

    I am thinking more and more about attending the 50th commemoration of Bloody Sunday and the marches out of Selma, over in Ala. It is totally messed up that as we near that milestone, the whole thing is being trashed.

    The resurgence of injustice has been sharp and shocking, and I for one need to channel it. So, any ideas from the deep south appreciated. And your work for Dems is too, Siubhan!

    ETA: My partner and I visited Selma and Montgomery just this past July. It was moving, and upsetting, and we saw clear signs of the craptastic voter ID beast there. Ugh.

  54. 54.

    Elizabelle

    October 30, 2014 at 10:12 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    Very proud of you, Siub. Tuesday, may we raise a glass together from our respective states. Good work.

  55. 55.

    boatboy_srq

    October 30, 2014 at 10:13 pm

    @raven: By those terms, LePage shouldn’t set foot outside Lewiston.

  56. 56.

    drkrick

    October 30, 2014 at 10:14 pm

    @Hal:

    This makes my head hurt. I’m trying to figure out the cognitive dissonance between what Roberts is saying, and the reality that what he is doing is giving explicit rights to a very small minority of wealthy people/corporations to try and unduly influence elections in their favor above all else.

    It’s easy: ignore what he says and watch what he does. His stated principles are as phony as Gingrich’s outrage about Clinton’s infidelities at the time he was keeping Mrs. Gingrich-to-be #2 as a mistress.

    AT LEAST 75% of the reasons conservatives give for their positions are red herrings. They’re not particularly good at covering them up, I’m not sure why so many of us insist on responding to them at face value.

  57. 57.

    Howard Beale IV

    October 30, 2014 at 10:23 pm

    @burnspbesq:

    Wouldn’t it just be itonic as shit if we could kill the NRA with a silver bullet? Sadly, i dont think it works that way.

    Indeed, it would be. But, alas, it’s going to take people who actually have a scintilla of real intelligence and actual reading comprehension skills and another century before the real true meaning of the Second Amendment is brought out from the perverted twisted Reconstruction that has been its ugly foundation to the true local protection it was always meant to be, rather than the onanistic Orwellian fantasy laid out by the syphilitic-addled Alex Jones of the world.

  58. 58.

    e.a.f.

    October 30, 2014 at 10:25 pm

    Texas doesn’t sound like a democracy to me, if they are denying people the right to vote. Perhaps its time to call in the Armed Forces and invade this dictatorship, well they do it to other countries which aren’t being run democratically and deny women basic rights.

    Oh. you only get freed through invasion if you live in Afganistan. If you live in Texas, its just how the old white boys like it.

    Guess its time to get rid of the old white boys club. America was all about democracy, not democracy for the white and rich. But that was before the Koch brothers and Rick Perry.

    Would the few remaining people in Texas with the right to vote, get out and do so. It is so disconcerting to live next to a country which deprives its citizens of their voting rights and their right to health care because you’re female.. I’m in the country due north of the 49th and I’m concerned those types of ideas might creep north.

  59. 59.

    SiubhanDuinne

    October 30, 2014 at 10:27 pm

    @Elizabelle: Thanks, Elizabelle! I will be raising a glass Tuesday night regardless of the outcome, but I am feeling optimistic. Not deliriously optimistic, you understand, but heartened. If I may be permitted to draw some broad conclusions from the voter turnout I’ve witnessed over the past 2-1/2 weeks of early voting, the demographics encourage me to think that we may be in pretty good shape. I have no idea how Gwinnett County compares with early voting in the rest of the state, but I’m seeing a minority turnout well in excess of population breakdown.

    (Don’t everybody get up in my grill. I’m sure some AAs are voting (R) and some whites are voting (D). I already said I was generalizing.)

  60. 60.

    SiubhanDuinne

    October 30, 2014 at 10:32 pm

    @RaflW: Can’t speak for anyone else. I’m outraged, of course, but honestly not sure what I can do beyond what I’m already doing — poll-watching to make sure there are no shenanigans at the voting site (or if there are, making sure those issues are addressed immediately). For the record, I’ve been doing this since the first day of advance voting almost three weeks ago, and if anything, the poll workers I have seen have been conscientious to a fault in making sure everyone who shows up has every possible legality on his/her side. These are dedicated, professional folks — unlike the behind-the-scenes scum who would deny 40,000 Georgians their suffrage.

    I may very well join you for the 50th anniversary march.

  61. 61.

    JGabriel

    October 30, 2014 at 10:39 pm

    @Hal:

    “There is no right more basic in our democracy than the right to participate in electing our political leaders,” Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. wrote for the court in April of this year. His subject then was the right to spend money in politics, not the right to vote.

    This makes my head hurt. I’m trying to figure out the cognitive dissonance between what Roberts is saying, and the reality that what he is doing is giving explicit rights to a very small minority of wealthy people/corporations to try and unduly influence elections in their favor above all else.

    Cognitive dissonance assumes Roberts is arguing in good faith. If Roberts knows he’s lying about his personal beliefs when he says There is no right more basic in our democracy than the right to participate in electing our political leaders, then there’s no dissonance.

    So I assume he’s lying about his beliefs. Roberts knows damn well that he is undermining democracy in favor of oligarchy and plutocracy, and that is his desired outcome.

  62. 62.

    Mike in NC

    October 30, 2014 at 10:39 pm

    @e.a.f.: “If I owned Hell and Texas, I’d live in Hell and rent out Texas” – General Phil Sheridan

    After spending three weeks at Fort Hood in July, I’d agree.

  63. 63.

    Arclite

    October 30, 2014 at 10:43 pm

    The dissent was issued shortly after 5 a.m. on the morning of Saturday, Oct. 18, the 81-year-old Justice Ginsburg having stayed up all night to finish it.

    Damn, Notorious must have been livid to stay up all night. I am half her age, and can barely make it past midnight.

  64. 64.

    Omnes Omnibus

    October 30, 2014 at 10:47 pm

    What’s with all the apocalyptic rhetoric tonight? Over the past six years, a lot of progress has been made on a large number of issues. Some things have moved backwards. Can someone name a time when things weren’t so? We are one more Democratic president from getting back the Supreme Court. So let’s elect one. And in the short term, let’s improve the damned situation in Congress. Stop sniveling. Jesus fuck.

    ETA: I am so fucking tired of people bitching that the country is going to hell in a hand basket. If you think so, do something about it. If you think that it is hopeless, read some Camus and do something about it anyway.

  65. 65.

    Baud

    October 30, 2014 at 10:52 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    I didn’t find this thread negative like some have been.

  66. 66.

    Jordan Rules

    October 30, 2014 at 10:54 pm

    @Arclite: RBG is the truth! Such respect for her. I wish I could see some of her unfiltered, real time reactions to this insanity.

    This decision can fuel more immediate action, GOTV….but we’ve got to get a really, really good hella long term game plan together.

  67. 67.

    Frankensteinbeck

    October 30, 2014 at 10:54 pm

    @drkrick:
    Always look at actions, and if someone’s claimed principles don’t match, assume it’s a cover. People are even better at lying to themselves than to each other.

    (Also, the entry on ‘cognitive dissonance’ is a perfect example of why college teachers scoff at wikipedia.)

  68. 68.

    Omnes Omnibus

    October 30, 2014 at 10:55 pm

    @Baud: I am reacting a bit to what I have seen all day. Hopelessness, the people are stupid, Dems suck, a violent revolution is coming, blah blah blah. I am tired of it.

    Edited slightly.

  69. 69.

    Baud

    October 30, 2014 at 10:56 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    I hear ya.

  70. 70.

    Mike G

    October 30, 2014 at 10:56 pm

    Public lack of confidence in the electoral process suits John Roberts and his patrons just fine.
    It’s a feature, not a bug.

  71. 71.

    Arclite

    October 30, 2014 at 10:56 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    What’s with all the apocalyptic rhetoric tonight? Over the past six years, a lot of progress has been made on a large number of issues. Some things have moved backwards. Can someone name a time when things weren’t so? We are one more Democratic president from getting back the Supreme Court. So let’s elect one. And in the short term, let’s improve the damned situation in Congress. Stop sniveling. Jesus fuck.

    Until we can fix the corrupting influence of money in politics I don’t see how we “win” anything more than skirmishes and minor victories while sliding ever further down the slope. It was bad before Citizen’s United, but now it’s just game over. We’re literally entering a new age of robber barons with the divide between rich and poor wider than any time since the great depression. We need a fundamental restructuring of how candidates are elected so government works for the people instead of corporations. For example, I like Cenk’s idea, but I just don’t have hope that it will get support.

  72. 72.

    Frankensteinbeck

    October 30, 2014 at 10:58 pm

    @Arclite:
    Romney is not president. The unstoppable power of Citizens United is greatly exaggerated.

  73. 73.

    Omnes Omnibus

    October 30, 2014 at 10:58 pm

    @Arclite: With that attitude, we have already lost.

  74. 74.

    the Conster

    October 30, 2014 at 11:06 pm

    Neil Young on Charlie Rose. Charlie Rose is being smarmy and clueless. Neil is going to take him to school. Popcorn!

  75. 75.

    Arclite

    October 30, 2014 at 11:07 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus: I vote every election. I donate money to candidates and causes. But I am also a realist. Cenk’s initiative is a good one, but it’s been stuck in place for the past six months. I just can’t see the way out, can you?

    And yes, Obama is president, and he is much better than Romney would have been. Like I said, we’ve been winning skirmishes while losing the war. Please lay out for me the plan to bring us to a state that passes laws the benefit the people of this country instead of the corporations?

  76. 76.

    James E Powell

    October 30, 2014 at 11:12 pm

    We can never lose sight of the fact that what we are seeing is the real America. About half the country very much wants to pass laws that make it harder or impossible for people they don’t like to vote. They do not believe there is anything wrong with this. To the contrary, they believe they are restoring the white, Christian, male political society that governed the nation for most of its history.

    They are confident that they can pull this off. They think and talk about it all the time. They know that we do not. They only care about winning. They know that we have other issues that prevent us from winning. They vote every election. They know that our voters do not.

    If you tried to pass a law that restricted their right to vote for any reason, they would shut down the government and riot if necessary. They know that Democrats will not even really talk loud in public about efforts to deny black people the right to vote.

    We are about to get waxed again. Not as bad as 2010, but just as important. The Obama administration is over. The next two years in statehouses all over the country, people like Scott Walker, John Kasich & Rick Snyder are going to be working very hard to rig the 2016 election. I expect the Democratic leadership to do absolutely nothing about it.

  77. 77.

    Baud

    October 30, 2014 at 11:12 pm

    @Arclite:

    We had that country in 2009-10. We on the blogs pissed all over it. Maybe if we stop pissing on ourselves, we can have that again.

  78. 78.

    the Conster

    October 30, 2014 at 11:15 pm

    @the Conster:

    Charlie Rose is a fucking clown. Wipe them out, all of them.

  79. 79.

    Omnes Omnibus

    October 30, 2014 at 11:16 pm

    Seriously, we have never had a Golden Age when equal rights and social democracy prospered. We have had times when one or both have mad progress. That’s it. All we can do is strive to make things better. If we make huge strides, this is wonderful. If we make small strides, that also is wonderful. Finally, if collapse and distopia are inevitable, wouldn’t one rather stand with those who fought it? Those Romans who did so were venerated by Renaissance scholars.

  80. 80.

    Uncle Jeffy

    October 30, 2014 at 11:21 pm

    The problem is that the Roberts quote (“There is no right more basic in our democracy than the right to participate in electing our political leaders”) was taken out of context. The rest of the sentence reads, “and only people who think like me should have that right.”

    I’m long pitchforks, torches, barrels of tar, and feather pillows……

    UJ

  81. 81.

    Omnes Omnibus

    October 30, 2014 at 11:24 pm

    @Arclite:

    Please lay out for me the plan to bring us to a state that passes laws the benefit the people of this country instead of the corporations?

    My plan? Smart educated people who care should climb down off their crosses and step into the muck of real world politics. Start small – aldermen/women, school board members, and so on…. It’s what the GOP assholes did. Or whine on a blog about shit sucking. I have reached a point where I don’t really care to hear bitching. Do the hard work in the trenches or STFU.

  82. 82.

    the Conster

    October 30, 2014 at 11:24 pm

    @the Conster:

    OK, anyone not watching Neil Young render Charlie Rose speechless with the gobsmacking truth he’s telling, is missing something special. Charlie Rose’s head is just about to explode now…

    Neil Young just told Charlie Rose that corporations are taking over America..

    Charlie Rose: hmmm

    Neil Young: who’s going to take care of the world and the vanishing species? who’s speaking for the rest of us?

    Charlie Rose: hmmmm

    Neil Young is just getting warmed up now, and is completely fucking totally articulately calling it all out. Charlie Rose is all like whoa… back in a moment.

  83. 83.

    pseudonymous in nc

    October 30, 2014 at 11:25 pm

    Roberts gots him a lifetime appointment.

    @James E Powell:

    We can never lose sight of the fact that what we are seeing is the real America. About half the country very much wants to pass laws that make it harder or impossible for people they don’t like to vote.

    Once more with feeling: about half of America does not believe in free and fair elections. It is impolite and uncivil to point this out in certain circles.

    The fact that there are now two distinct election cycles, and Democrats only seem to give a shit about one of them, doesn’t help. (Two-year terms are fundamentally stupid, especially in a money-soaked environment that makes only one of those years productive for actual governing, but that’s somewhat beside the point.)

  84. 84.

    Omnes Omnibus

    October 30, 2014 at 11:25 pm

    @Uncle Jeffy:

    I’m long pitchforks, torches, barrels of tar, and feather pillows……

    That world seldom turns out well.

  85. 85.

    Omnes Omnibus

    October 30, 2014 at 11:30 pm

    @the Conster: Why do you watch Charlie Rose?

  86. 86.

    the Conster

    October 30, 2014 at 11:31 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    It was just on while I was cleaning. When I heard Neil Young, I was all over it.

    Really, this show was worth watching. Neil Young is on a mission for the planet and against the corporate rape of same, and Charlie just got steamrolled with facts and truth. Neil said he’s telling the truth, because why not? What does he have to lose? Charlie looked lost. Because he is.

  87. 87.

    Omnes Omnibus

    October 30, 2014 at 11:37 pm

    @the Conster: Following my earlier rants, just stop listening to assholes. I used to listen to Tavis Smiley to get a perspective that I didn’t normally get. But when he went “mental,” I stopped.

    @the Conster: Okay, so perhaps an exception to my rule. I wonder if Neil will do anything to persuade Charlie’s viewers.

  88. 88.

    Mike J

    October 30, 2014 at 11:46 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    I wonder if Neil will do anything to persuade Charlie’s viewers.

    No. Moving the Overton window isn’t something you do with wild eyed truth telling (although it is handy for GOTV, so the Warren speech from the earlier thread is different.) The way to convince Charlie Rose viewers isn’t to scream that the world is going to end. It’s to very calmly talk about the hit house resale values are going to take when people discover the tap water can be lit like a Zippo.

  89. 89.

    Omnes Omnibus

    October 30, 2014 at 11:49 pm

    @Mike J: Hmmm… I have no problem with tailoring messages for specific audiences.

    ETA: And my real problem tonight is the people who just say “The brakes aren’t working, might as well not steer.”*

    *Credit to the The Bob and Doug Mackenzie movie. All quotes approximate.

  90. 90.

    Mike J

    October 30, 2014 at 11:54 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus: Panderererer!!!! /emo-prog

  91. 91.

    Omnes Omnibus

    October 31, 2014 at 12:03 am

    @James E Powell:

    We are about to get waxed again. Not as bad as 2010, but just as important. The Obama administration is over. The next two years in statehouses all over the country, people like Scott Walker, John Kasich & Rick Snyder are going to be working very hard to rig the 2016 election. I expect the Democratic leadership to do absolutely nothing about it.

    This is the stuff that has been annoying me. If everything bad mentioned in the quoted passage happens, does the world end? No, if it happens, get goddamned geared up for 2016. To me it is not complicated. If you want a better Democratic Party, build one. Don’t bitch.

  92. 92.

    Mary G

    October 31, 2014 at 12:15 am

    I am in a place full of old people, many of whom are convinced that the world is going to hell in a handbasket. I talked to a guy yesterday who asked me if I was a liberal when I disagreed with him. I said, why yes, I am. He said of course you are happy; your side is winning. I said, why yes, we are. Maybe not now, but soon.

  93. 93.

    Omnes Omnibus

    October 31, 2014 at 12:16 am

    @Mary G: Thank you.

  94. 94.

    Mary G

    October 31, 2014 at 12:16 am

    I just laboriously tapped in a comment and it failed. Why?

  95. 95.

    Omnes Omnibus

    October 31, 2014 at 12:17 am

    @Mary G: It did not fail. It posted.

  96. 96.

    Mike J

    October 31, 2014 at 12:20 am

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    To me it is not complicated. If you want a better Democratic Party, build one. Don’t bitch.

    What’s really fun is when you convince somebody that they really should go to the once a month county party meeting and they’re shocked that very few people there agree with their agenda of kicking out the corrupt do-nothing bosses and rebuilding the party from scratch and using the entire advertising budget to play non-stop Pete Seeger songs on election eve. And when the room doesn’t rally ’round their ideas, they go home, say, “I tried”, and never come back.

    And I can’t tell you how many campaigns I’ve worked on where damn near ever single person thought the campaign manager was a complete moron who was throwing everything away. And that was on campaigns that wound up winning.

    For people that love to say, “don’t mourn, organize”, many of them don’t understand the difficulties of working in a group setting.

  97. 97.

    RaflW

    October 31, 2014 at 12:21 am

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    What’s with all the apocalyptic rhetoric tonight? Over the past six years, a lot of progress has been made on a large number of issues. Some things have moved backwards. Can someone name a time when things weren’t so? We are one more Democratic president from getting back the Supreme Court. So let’s elect one. And in the short term, let’s improve the damned situation in Congress. Stop sniveling. Jesus fuck.

    I suppose I get a bit apocalyptic this close to an election that looks sucky. I also attended an event last night on climate change that didn’t inspire, it just sort of laid there like a bit of bad performance art (which it sort of was…).

    As far as doing something: I have donated more cash this cycle than any 2 year period before. I’ve continued to work on the local level trying mightily to overturn a century of racial bias in employment. We are winning. But it is grinding, slow work.

    I visited the deep south this summer and seeing the reversals of voting rights won has made me sour and angry.

    In short: I’m pissed and complaining. But I am most assuredly not sniveling. And thinking that the GOP may push their luck too far and violence breaks out is not sniveling either. It is, I believe, naming a possible consequence of cornering oppressed people.

    First line of action is (see above) working side by side with impacted people in recognition that their liberation is bound up in mine, and working for it.

  98. 98.

    Omnes Omnibus

    October 31, 2014 at 12:23 am

    @Mike J: Yeah, well…

  99. 99.

    Mnemosyne

    October 31, 2014 at 12:38 am

    @Mary G:

    I saw your story the other day but didn’t have a chance to respond. How are you doing?

  100. 100.

    Mary G

    October 31, 2014 at 12:46 am

    @Mnemosyne: I am a little more resigned to the situation most of the time. The facility is a

  101. 101.

    Mandalay

    October 31, 2014 at 12:55 am

    Speaking of judicial activism, Sweden now looks like it is reneging on its plans to interview Julian Assange in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London over rape allegations from 2010 (for which Assange has still not been charged).

    But unfortunately for Sweden their cocks are really on the block now, because it looks like the British government has had a belly full of the whole shebang (security costs related to Assange are ~$15k/day), and is happy to let Assange have his way:

    A spokeswoman for the Foreign Office said its willingness to help Swedish officials to question Assange was not a change of policy but it was “likely” that the message had not been made clear amid all the other questions about the case.

    Sweden could have interviewed Assange in London over two years ago had they really wanted to, but of course the real goal is to get Assange on Swedish soil for the CIA, and I don’t see that ever happening now.

    And now it looks like Sweden may be hoisted by their own petard: Assange’s lawyers are asking for the warrant against him to be rescinded because the Swedish prosecutor had not acted with “urgency or effectiveness”. Sweet.

  102. 102.

    Hal

    October 31, 2014 at 12:57 am

    Holy carp, did anyone see Rachel Maddow covering the Charlie baker kids had to give up scholarships to be fishermen story? I have such second hand embarrassment. He cried, paused, put his head on his hand. Story is apparently bullshit. Baker also currently leads Coakley slightly in polls though I’m guessing that’s about to change.

  103. 103.

    Mary G

    October 31, 2014 at 12:58 am

    Won’t let me edit, aargh. Facility is a thousand times better than the one I was in after knee replacement, the food is quite good and the carers care, so it could be much worse. I miss my cats and garden.

  104. 104.

    Mike J

    October 31, 2014 at 1:14 am

    @Hal: I read that the fisherman told it to him during the last election, not this one. Of course this story was cited when he was asked, “when was the last time you cried?” So, 2009 or so.

  105. 105.

    Suzanne

    October 31, 2014 at 1:15 am

    @Omnes Omnibus: LOL and word. Gay people can get married in my state, and they couldn’t two weeks ago. So fuck yeah. Change. Better. Keep fighting. And fighting to WIN, not fighting to see who’s the purest.

  106. 106.

    burnspbesq

    October 31, 2014 at 1:22 am

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    I am so fucking tired of people bitching that the country is going to hell in a hand basket. If you think so, do something about it. If you think that it is hopeless, read some Camus and do something about it anyway.

    Amen. Or, put another way

    When we die, we will die with our arms unbound,
    This is why, this is why we fight

    http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=oLSOzcEQjiE

  107. 107.

    p.a.

    October 31, 2014 at 1:48 am

    @Brendan in Charlotte: Yes. Call them the John ‘Taney’ Roberts Laws. Tar him with them. As well as Pope Scalito, and Clay ‘Loving v Virginia’, ‘The Sphinx’ Thomas (the one civil rights law he’ll support since it affects him directly), and SwingVote Tony K (where’s Cap’n Swing when you need him?)

  108. 108.

    pattonbt

    October 31, 2014 at 2:10 am

    Supreme Court is reason enough to never vote R for President. No matter how bad the D or good the R candidate, D gets my vote.

    Beyond that, I never have high hopes for presidents. I believe they are structurally limited to work in between a spectrum of tremendous harm to baby steps good. Harm is easy to pass, good is hard pass because good means success / praise / re-election and there are always vested interests (with political allies and opponents) to ensure no one is too good or gets too many kudos lest it hurt their own chances at higher office / adulations, etc.

  109. 109.

    Hal

    October 31, 2014 at 2:22 am

    @Mike J: he says it happened 2009 but can’t remember all the details. Dude is lying. I wish Coakley had just flat out called him on it. The press gushed about how real he seemed though.

  110. 110.

    burnspbesq

    October 31, 2014 at 2:24 am

    @Mandalay:

    the real goal is to get Assange on Swedish soil for the CIA

    That was a crock of shit two years ago, and it’s now an exceedingly ripe crock of shit.

    The fucker fled to avoid prosecution for an alleged sex crime. That’s not heroic. That’s chickenshit.

  111. 111.

    Another Holocene Human

    October 31, 2014 at 4:39 am

    @pat: You’re making the classic inductive error here. Nothing has happened from their POV so far.

    The SCOTUS, btw, has been ignored before in American history, defied, disobeyed.

    And there’s always the very real risk of political violence. That’s what RBG is warning about.

  112. 112.

    Another Holocene Human

    October 31, 2014 at 4:45 am

    @RaflW: I like this idea. I have a few Ameros I could donate.

  113. 113.

    Another Holocene Human

    October 31, 2014 at 4:47 am

    @drkrick: #3. Get it right.

  114. 114.

    Another Holocene Human

    October 31, 2014 at 5:02 am

    @Omnes Omnibus: Tavis Smiley. Wow. The “raging personality disorder” perspective, then.

  115. 115.

    Another Holocene Human

    October 31, 2014 at 5:04 am

    @Mary G: Heh, I bet that felt good.

    I wonder what kind of tool you have to be to have rebelled against the New Deal.

  116. 116.

    Another Holocene Human

    October 31, 2014 at 5:09 am

    @Mike J: You’re right about a group setting, but let’s be real, a lot of these groups are set up to keep the fucktools with their petty powertrips in power and keep new, fresh blood from getting to involved and challenging them.

    Less authoritarian lefty direct action or pressure groups may be more the speed of these folks. The sort of group where you’re expected to take full part and not just offer up the motions that are telegraphed by the chair like a good little robot.

    Also, I have dealt with competent campaign managers, delusional campaign managers, wet behind the ears campaign flunkies … I just don’t recall thinking the CM was a moron on the eve of election night because I had a clear idea of what the strategy was an why. Dunno if you live somewhere where the culture is to keep volunteers in the dark. Seems dubious.

  117. 117.

    Another Holocene Human

    October 31, 2014 at 5:12 am

    @Mandalay: You’re gloating about a rapist possibly succeeding at evading justice. That’s just gross. And your CIA conspiracy theory is actually about ethics in game journalism.

  118. 118.

    Arclite

    October 31, 2014 at 6:16 am

    @Omnes Omnibus: I agree with starting local. I live in one of the most progressive states in the nation. We have some of the most progressive laws on the books, and are an overwhelmingly Democratic state. We’ve done the work here, even if there is more to go. How do we bring the rest of the country? How do we convince people to stop voting against their interests? How do you overcome the simplistic, fear-driven conservative mind? Other western countries have, why can’t we?

  119. 119.

    boatboy_srq

    October 31, 2014 at 9:04 am

    @Mary G: You can always fire back something like, “I’m sure there were people on my side of the aisle saying the same thing in 1783.” Suggesting that The Revolution™ was not a bastion of Conservatism always makes the ones willing to think do so – and gets the Conservatists’ goat every time.

  120. 120.

    J R in WV

    October 31, 2014 at 11:12 am

    @burnspbesq:

    And that’s why no Swedish prosecutor has bothered to go to England and interview him? He was accused of sexual predation AFTER he had what he said was a consensual sexual encounter. But no one is willing to carry on an investigation of the crime?

    I think it is obvious that the US Security forces managed to get him accused of a crime, wanting to get him in a crack where they could make him squeal like a pig. So far he has managed to elude them, although his “escape” looks a lot like a life sentence imprisoned so far.

  121. 121.

    lurker dean

    October 31, 2014 at 6:02 pm

    @Mary G: Okay, I’m catching up on old threads and really late to this party, but wanted to say get well soon to Mary G! Also, I hope HBM will come back and post on BJ, he’s been missed here.

  122. 122.

    Nathanael

    November 1, 2014 at 11:06 pm

    @James E Powell:

    “They are confident that they can pull this off. They think and talk about it all the time. They know that we do not. They only care about winning.”

    And their popularity levels among people under 40 are negligable. Down to 27% among Boomers (!!), 24% among Gen X, 18% among Millennials?

    The Republican Party’s *only* hope of survival is stealing elections. But do they really think they can steal elections when they’re opposed by the vast majority of the *fighting-age* population? Because that’s stupid! They can’t! They can only hope to start a civil war which they can’t possibly win.

    At the moment, they’re taking advantage of Duverger’s Law and they’re bribing Democrats to switch parties. That’s not a sustainable strategy.

    —-
    “There is no downside for the court here. So what if there is no confidence in the courts or the elections?

    How do the courts lose power? Until someone just refuses to enforce a court order, there is no downside. ”
    Someone will, if the courts keep up bullcrap rulings which are out of touch with the population. Remember Dred Scott.

    The state marijuana law vs. federal marijuana law cases are the first most obvious example where this might have happened… except that the feds backed down. The foreclosure crisis could have led to this… except that in key states, the courts rebelled against corruption and did the right thing. Refusal to follow court orders has already happened in the marriage equality cases (on both sides), but of course the good guys are now winning in the courts on this one.

    In fact, Roberts seems highly alert to the danger that a Supreme Court order may stop meaning anything — perhaps he remembers Andrew Jackson’s statement “John Marshall has made his decision, now let him enforce it”. Roberts is extremely political, and he has repeatedly made decisions which are unjustifiable judicially, but which are calculated to be just this side of the line where the President or a Governor would say “I’m not paying any attention to that court, it’s not legit.” Consider the Obamacare ruling, which made no sense, but left enough of PPACA intact that Obama wasn’t inclined to just ignore the ruling.

    This is also true of some of the campaign finance rulings; IIRC, there were a couple where the governor was as much as saying that he was going to enforce the law regardless of what the Supreme Court said, and in those cases the law was magically upheld by one vote (Roberts), using bogus distinctions.

    Alito, Scalia, and Thomas are consistently evil ideologues. Kennedy is ideological but not always evil. Roberts… is a hack who is clearly thinking politically, and not ideologically or legalistically.

  123. 123.

    Nathanael

    November 1, 2014 at 11:10 pm

    @drkrick: “It’s easy: ignore what he says and watch what he does”

    1 – Roberts is very, very concerned with his own power and reputation. (This means you can get him to vote the right way if you threaten him with being on the wrong side of history.)
    2 – Thomas hates women.
    3 – Scalia wants a Catholic theocracy.
    4 – Alito just wants a dictatorship, doesn’t much care what sort.
    5 – Kennedy is an actual conservative — dumb and rigid but not actively mean, so you can appeal to his sympathies.

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