I want to be a wet blanket about the “big win” in the Rahimi domestic violence gun case from the Supremos.
First, the well-worn doctrine of constitutional law, first expressed by Holmes and reinforced by Brandeis*, that “even a blind pig finds an ear of corn once in a while” is in full operation here. Most of these amateur politicians in robes knew god damned well that this case was a political loser: Rahimi, a drug dealer, fired a shot at a bystander while Rahimi was beating up his girlfriend in a parking lot. She escaped, and he called her to tell her he’d shoot her if she told anyone about the assault. She got a restraining order that suspended Rahimi’s gun license, making him a prohibited possessor. After that order went into affect, Rahimi was involved in five shootings. When the cops arrested him (on some other charge, not a gun charge), they found a shit-ton of guns in his house, so he was charged with illegal possession. Even old white men who don’t give two shits about a woman’s life have to at least acknowledge that Rahimi’s girlfriend and mother of his child was in a wee bit of danger from the arsenal this motherfucker was maintaining.
Note that I said most of the amateur politicians in robes knew this was a sure political loser: Thomas was the lone dissent. Clarence has transcended the realm of mere petty political considerations to an exalted plane of existence where all that matters is whether his rulings will satisfy the most inflamed, butthurt Fox-News-watching paw paw. (A lawyer I know says that Thomas’ last act as a justice will be to write the opinion overturning Loving v Virginia.)
Second, these fuckos just threw us all a bone. Just as with the mifepristone decision, where they ruled the “right way” on a case that was a slam-dunk and should never have made it to the court, the Rahimi decision was supposed to show everyone that there’s a kinder, gentler side to the Supreme’s brand of sharia law. They just want to soften the blow of whatever fuckery they’re going to throw down on the Trump immunity decision. Also, mark my prediction well: there will be a case with better facts where they’re going to take a bite out of gun restrictions for domestic violence convicts. ( The current law is that anyone who was convicted of a misdemeanor crime of domestic violence can’t own firearms.)
Finally, the really sad thing is that the press is aching to portray these fuckers as “kinder gentler facists”. Here’s a Politico piece on how philosopher-queen Amy Coney Barrett is going to “split” the conservatives on the court, based on her concurrence with the majority opinion where she took a couple of shots at Thomas. Baby Jesus save us from the soft bigotry of low expectations on display there.
In closing, Democrats should never press pause on their constant efforts to portray the court for what it is: a bunch of corrupt hacks out to take away our rights.
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* This is bullshit I just made up, similar to most recent Supreme Court decisions.
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