BREAKING: The Supreme Court holds that the Trump administration violated the due process rights of Venezuelan migrants last month in its rushed effort to expel them to El Salvador in the middle of the night (which SCOTUS blocked). Alito and Thomas dissent. www.documentcloud.org/documents/25…
— Mark Joseph Stern (@mjsdc.bsky.social) May 16, 2025 at 3:51 PM
I expected this, but I expected 5-4.
Gorsuch and Kav being in the majority here is unexpected and I think indicates how much of a longshot a lot of Trump's admins actions are in SCOTUS.
This is such a rebuke I almost expect them to drive us into a nullification crisis over it.— Schnorkles O'Bork (@schnorkles.bsky.social) May 16, 2025 at 4:10 PM
Also this, there is pretty clear evidence now that even Gorsuch and Kav are unwilling to give the government the benefit of the doubt that they will act in good faith.
— Schnorkles O'Bork (@schnorkles.bsky.social) May 16, 2025 at 4:23 PM
Notably, SCOTUS is saying here, in direct response to Trumps "We won't have a country" rant, is that "no, you have to give all of them trials."
The Habeas petition crap is not my favorite, but the court saying "They have to be able to know they can contact counsel, contact counsel— Schnorkles O'Bork (@schnorkles.bsky.social) May 16, 2025 at 4:19 PM
He's big mad but he's not talking like he's going to defy them
— Chatham Harrison dba TRUMP DELENDUS EST (@chathamharrison.bsky.social) May 16, 2025 at 5:21 PM
Baud
The right wingers really don’t want liberals to start believing that Dem presidents can ignore court orders.
satby
@Baud: well, all but 2. Alito and Thomas are ok with dictators. Especially their own.
Baud
@satby:
Those two are more in the “court orders can vary based on political party” camp.
Geo Wilcox
@Baud: Exactly. Some one is thinking long term and it ain’t MAGA.
Betty Cracker
I hope the takeaway for Thomas and Alito is that younger Fed-Soc drones like Kavanaugh, Gorsuch and Boney Carrot are woke Marxists in Fed-Soc clothing and therefore it is Thomas and Alito’s sacred duty to stay on the court until they die of old age. (I had worried that they’d retire and let Trump replace them with Cannon and Kacsmaryk.)
Baud
@Geo Wilcox:
What happens if democracy isn’t dead and Dems get a trifecta again in 2029?
The Supreme Court will be the last bastion of protection for the people of the right.
H.E.Wolf
The gradual return of Anne Laurie posts is a very welcome ray of hope! Best wishes for your ongoing recovery.
JML
@Betty Cracker: Bishop Alito certainly won’t retire. He’s the shadow Chief right now and has finally been able to get some of his crazy-ass minority opinions/rants turned into law. Thomas, on the other hand, will almost certainly retire in this administration. the question is whether he’ll be bribed into it before the midterms or after them. But there will be a substantial payoff for Clarence “Why Am I Not Super-Rich?!?” Thomas.
eclare
@H.E.Wolf:
Yay!
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone😊😊😊
rikyrah
@H.E.Wolf:
This🤗🤗🤗🤗
Baud
@rikyrah:
Good morning.
rikyrah
Due Process
Due Process
Due Process
Nukular Biskits
Good mornin’, y’all.
On the porch, drinking coffee. Watching the antics of a squirrel and two very angry mocking birds.
NotMax
Extended watch for a Saturday morning.
Boomer (and beyond) memories: Hanna-Barbera sure cranked ’em out, throwing everything against the wall to see if it’d stick.
;)
Nukular Biskits
@Baud:
All us humans are hypocrites but most of us (hopefully) don’t take hypocrisy to Olympian sporting event levels.
The source of a lot of my frustration towards “conservatives” is the blatant hypocrisy, which is nothing short than yet another form of lying. Perfect example would be Republicans celebrating a nationwide injunction by a “conservative” federal district judge overturning a Biden Administration action as sacrosanct “Rule of Law”™ that must be unquestioningly respected … and then decrying a nationwide injunction against clearly unconstitutional acts by the Trump Admin as … wait for it … “judicial activism” that requires the impeachment of said judges.
Were I to literally bang my head on the desk, I’d have numerous concussions.
Nukular Biskits
@NotMax:
I wonder about you sometimes … LOL
Doug R
@Baud:
NO.
Y’all gotta get this nazi shit locked down.
I was listening to the CBC and someone was mentioning that it took from 1983 to 2006 for Argentina to finally convict their military dictatorship.
It took the French 10 years to lock up Le Pen.
YOU CAN DO IT.
Matt McIrvin
Aren’t we already in a nullification crisis? Where is Kilmar Abrego Garcia?
Ben Cisco
@Nukular Biskits:
Pretty much this.
Also the racism because it’s baked into EVERYTHING they do.
Nukular Biskits
@Doug R:
With this in mind:
is it truly “justice” if it takes decades?
Yeah, we Americans are impatient and have the political attention span of a microbe but I don’t want to wait another twenty years to see justice served to Trump … and those who enabled Trump.
Nukular Biskits
@Ben Cisco:
It can’t be racism ’cause they have a black friend …
Matt McIrvin
@NotMax: And whenever Hanna-Barbera had a genuine hit, they’d rip themselves off with dozens of cookie-cutter imitations. “Scooby-Doo but with a ghost!” “Scooby-Doo but with a sentient car!” “Scooby-Doo but with a talking shark and he’s in a rock band and it’s an undersea city in the future!”
Nukular Biskits
@Matt McIrvin:
THIS.
Nukular Biskits
@Matt McIrvin:
And, the really sad part is we still watched it, even if we thought it was stupid and we hated it.
Even now at the age of 60+, I hate Scrappy-Doo with the intensity of a thousand supernovas.
Matt McIrvin
@Baud:
But if Republican presidents can ignore court orders, they can help ensure there will never be another Dem president. It’s a bigger bet, I guess.
Matt McIrvin
@Nukular Biskits: In the days before home video recordings, the sheer feeling of having a multi-hour block of programming aimed at YOU was powerful. It was why the CBS SPECIAL PRESENTATION bumper gave my whole generation such a thrill–whether it was good or not (and that definitely varied), there was something for us airing in prime time!
As a geeky kid, I actually preferred the educational programming on PBS, but I’d watch anything that was for kids.
NotMax
@Nukular Biskits
Newton Minow wept.
;)
Nukular Biskits
@Matt McIrvin:
I’m old enough to remember the prime-time shows put on by CBS, NBC and ABC (? …. not sure … growing up, we didn’t have an ABC station in Meridian, MS) the Friday before the roll-out of the new season of Saturday morning cartoons.
Sigh. A lost era.
NotMax
@Matt McIrvin
Young’uns will never understand (nor should they) the weekly task of poring through the pages of TV Guide.
:)
sab
@Nukular Biskits: Oh dear. Our pitbull looks just like Scrappy Doo, with the big head and the tiny body. Only she is a sweet girl.
Nukular Biskits
@NotMax:
I admit I had to look that one up.
Matt McIrvin
@Nukular Biskits: …The weirdest one featured on that video in hindsight is “Wait ‘Til Your Father Gets Home”, because it was basically Hanna-Barbera trying to do “The Simpsons” or “Family Guy” or “King of the Hill” but decades early. Only it flopped because it was really bad, which is kind of a sticking point for a lot of these.
You could argue that “The Flintstones” or “The Jetsons” was that already, but they both had the high-concept hook to keep kids watching, and they were ultimately more successful repurposed as kids’ shows.
pajaro
@Matt McIrvin:
Right now, the Administration is doing everything except saying “we are going to directly disobey a Supreme Court order. Stuff it.” They are saying “the dog ate my homework,” or, “we can’t get that answer for you right now, give us more time,” or, “we can’t compel El Salvador (who contracted with us to house the prisoners) to turn them over, because they are a sovereign state.” They are also dropping hints all over the place that they think the Court is behaving irresponsibly, and bad things will happen if their hands are tied. They are also lying about what they plan on doing, saying “we’re not planning on sending people away” and then, oops, doing it anyway.
They are evading complying as much as they can. but they haven’t crossed the line to explicit outright defiance. And one thing about the Sup. Court opinion is that there seem to be 7 Justices who seem to understand that they simply cannot be trusted, who have crafted an order that’s seemingly devoid of wiggle room.
So if you define constitutional crisis as the point where Trump says, “I’m not going to comply with a court order”, and then actually follows through with the threat, we’re not there yet, but we certainly may be there soon.
Nukular Biskits
@Matt McIrvin:
I had to look that up as well. I didn’t remember it.
sab
@pajaro: This reminds me of the Court’s redefinition of bribery, to the point that if you don’t have a signed contract with notarized signatures it isn’t bribery anymore.
p.a.
Fingers x’d Roberts and his “oh my god, what have I done” (h/t David Byrne) chorus get some pizza deliveries! You built it… “enjoy” it.
+ covid test this a.m.😡 second time. I’m, I think, up-to-date. Last shot in the fall. So much for The Kifness show tonight.
Same as last time; body aches, low fever, lethargy (more than usual lethargy ). No paxlovid: doc says side effects potentially worse than a mild case. Fluids, rest. Grandma remedy.
Eunicecycle
Just wanted to wish everyone going to the Ohio meet up a great time! I would like to be there but just not good timing.
Matt McIrvin
@Nukular Biskits: Oh, yeah, and “Wheelie and the Chopper Bunch” was one that I watched but had great difficulty convincing other people even existed. “Oh, you mean Speed Buggy?” No, not Speed Buggy.
Today, the show is easier to explain because… it’s “Cars.” It’s just Pixar’s “Cars” done decades before “Cars.” And, you know, worse.
Some of these shows had fairly solid concepts, they just weren’t executed very well.
sab
@pajaro: This reminds me of the Court’s redefinition of bribery, where if there isn’t a signed contract with notarized signatures it isn’t bribery any more.
sab
@Eunicecycle: We will work on a NEO one for later this summer or in the fall, right?
Chief Oshkosh
@pajaro: I think their plan is to continue drawing it out until the defiance is normalized.
Clearly the press is over it. Until one of them is disappeared. And even then, Trump would have to be stoopid* enough to disappear one of the kewl kids.
*He’s stoopid enough, but he’s also got that knack of being able to pick on juuuuust the right people to avoid most serious pushback.
different-church-lady
So y’all think Hanna-Barbera was the pits? I give you…
NotMax
@Matt McIrvin
And then there was (shudder) Turbo Teen.
“Is that your stick shift or are you just glad to see me?”
//
bbleh
@Nukular Biskits: so, Fox And Friends on the teevee?
NotMax
@different-church-lady
Hat tip.
;)
Matt McIrvin
@Chief Oshkosh: Trump will actually back off of something if the pushback to the overreach is bad enough that it looks like he might lose some of his base or the media. But there’s this constant, never-ending testing of the boundaries, like a bratty toddler, with accumulating long-term damage. And if you’re not in those narrow categories he cares about, he’ll do anything to you.
In 2020 he lost because there was a crisis he didn’t create that he couldn’t deal with adequately by just backing off a little (though he rode the discontent with the measures to deal with it back into power). And it might take that again.
Manyakitty
@Eunicecycle: we’ll take a picture. Let’s definitely plan for one in NEOhio soon.
Matt McIrvin
@different-church-lady: Sid and Marty Krofft’s stuff at least had a certain psychedelic verve, though so many of their shows followed the same formula too, and the formula was “The Wizard of Oz, but on a budget of about a buck 95″.
MagdaInBlack
@different-church-lady: Will you think less of me if I admit I watched “H.R. Pufnstuf?”
Extra points for “The Banana Splits?” (H-B)
geg6
@sab:
That one might be easier for me to make from WPA, depending on where in NEO. I feel ok leaving John alone for a few hours, but the time to get to Columbus and back is just too much time to leave him.
NotMax
@Matt McIrvin
The Bugaloos is best consigned to the sub-sub-subbasement of the gray matter.
Almost Retired
@different-church-lady: but but but, it had guest appearances by Witchiepoo, and an elderly former Munchkin in a supporting role….Alas, it failed to revive the career of Eddie Munster.
Matt McIrvin
@MagdaInBlack: “The Banana Splits” was Krofft AND Hanna-Barbera!
It’s two great tastes that taste great together! …I guess…
Another Scott
@p.a.: ☹️
Hang in there. I hope that you recover quickly and fully, and get to see Kifness another time!
Best wishes,
Scott.
Manyakitty
@MagdaInBlack: now the Banana Splits theme song is stuck in my head. “La la la, la la la”
Matt McIrvin
@Manyakitty: I can’t unhear it being “Buffalo Soldier”.
NotMax
@Matt McIrvin
Trivia: A Krofft Halloween special also included the first appearance on network TV of KISS.
Doug R
@different-church-lady: So glad we didn’t have The Hudson Brothers Razzle Dazzle show, but Family Guy did a bit:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TcQr6oF2bQk
No One of Consequence
@Doug R: HE’LL BE DEAD.
But his minions, hangers-on, co-conspirators, and associated dumpster-juice-humans — WON’T BE.
I’m not hopeful this country will make it happen, but you are correct in that it can be done.
I simply want what all citizens SHOULD want, which is an adjudication of criminal matters. If they have pardons, they can present them, and then be compelled as witnesses, without jeopardy. If my understanding of pardons is correct. They cannot plead the Fifth to testimony for those crimes for which they hold a pardon.
I want the record. Not the video record of any talking head of any stripe, but the Evidentiary Record of a Court of Law. Without that, this will have all been for naught. That record is the ONLY thing that has kept me from advocating for the hoisting of the Black Flag and the slitting of throats. A group of people took a run at our democracy. Many of them have, to date, escaped the consequences of their actions and involvement. This cannot stand.
-NOoC
Doug R
@Matt McIrvin:
He tore up Obama’s pandemic playbook and pulled the CDC team out of China.
WHICH HAD BEEN BASED IN WUHAN.
Spanky
“NEO” to some of us means “Near-Earth Orbit”, which would be a hella meetup.
No One of Consequence
@Nukular Biskits: Concur.
But you have to admit: Grape Ape was The Shit.
-NOoC
Matt McIrvin
@No One of Consequence: This is something that probably ought to be emphasized. At this point, Trump is effectively immunized from any consequences of his actions. Someday, he’ll die, but so do we all, so that’s hardly any kind of justice.
But if you do his bidding, you’re not immune. And Donald Trump certainly doesn’t care about your long-term well-being.
Doug R
@No One of Consequence:
Part of the Argentinian breakthrough was the ruling that impunity laws and pardons for crimes against humanity were unconstitutional.
Suzanne
Listened to the Focus Group podcast this morning. The episode was on people’s opinions of Couchfucker. The guest pointed out that the entire purpose of having Couchfucker on the ticket for MAGA was to make the end of democracy seem safe and cuddly.
God I am not evil enough for these people. Every time I think I understand, someone smarter points out another aspect of the plan. And it’s so, so fucking bad.
Professor Bigfoot
@sab: PLEASE! Let’s!
(looking forward to meeting folks in Columbus… but also planning to swing by Mozarts and grab a couple slices of torte to go home with. I’ve already decided “today is not going to be a ‘heart-healthy’ day.” 😂 )
Edit: PUNCTUATION!
No One of Consequence
@Doug R: Did NOT know this. Wow. If something like that happens here, I’ll fuggin’ cheer it, if for only how the Pardon has been so grievously abused.
Thanks for the knowledge.
-NOoC
Matt McIrvin
@No One of Consequence: I don’t know how the United States at this point gets modifications to the Constitution that aren’t driven by the worst of us. Every conventional mechanism works by states in a way that privileges the bad guys, and any unconventional mechanism would presumably work by bullets and bombs in a way that would privilege the bad guys even more.
Some kind of mass public repudiation has to happen that’s hard to imagine. We even had a literal megadeath incident last time and that didn’t even really do it, it ended up trashing the good guys’ reputation more.
Melancholy Jaques
@NotMax:
And almost everything sponsored by breakfast cereal.
Manyakitty
@Suzanne: anyone who thinks Couchfucker is cute and cuddly is broken in ways I can’t even imagine.
New Deal democrat
@pajaro:
Agree 100%. The tipping point seems to have been the DoJ saying to the TX District Court “We aren’t planning on deporting anyone today,” and it subsequently turned out there was a bus on the way to the airport for a flight that would have left after midnight.
As awful as this Supreme Court is, they don’t want to legitimize autocracy.
oldgold
After closely following the brrreakkking news this week, I have decided not to support Joe Biden in the 2028 democratic presidential primaries.
Meanwhile, this morning, the Short-Fingered Vulgarian is ranting in all caps about the 2020 election being rigged.
I guess in depth coverage of 2025 issues will have to wait for our journalists to publish their cold takes books in 2027.
No One of Consequence
@Matt McIrvin: Yeah, I hear you. A Constitutional Convention opens up pathways for WAAAAAYYYYY bad shit to occur via bad actors.
I used to, long long ago, have some faith that Republicans were still Americans, and could be counted on to act accordingly.
I no longer hold that faith. I see little evidence for interest in Governing among the current crop of Republicans. In recent memory, even with controls of the levers of power, little interest in the actual job.
But damnit, One Way Or Another, This Darkness Got to Give.
-NOoC
Miss Bianca
@Matt McIrvin: God, I can still remember – and probably *sing*, ffs – practically the entire theme song to “Wait Till Your Father Gets Home”. WHY?? When I have forgotten so much meatier and more pertinent fare!
zhena gogolia
@oldgold: I know, right?
MagdaInBlack
@Manyakitty: He is the most “cute and cuddly” of the lot.
Which ain’t saying much, other than he is the cutest leopard.
trollhattan
Ironic the felon types that whilst out of the country, disproving his point.
YY_Sima Qian
The 7-2 vote is more notable than the ruling itself. It will be a bit more difficult for Trump & the reactionary counterrevolutionaries around him to paint the SCOTUS decision as illegitimate (as opposed to “craven”) if 4 of the 6 reactionaries on the Supreme Court voted against the Trump Administration.
schrodingers_cat
@zhena gogolia: The renewed attacks against Biden are to tank the Democratic frontrunner in 2028. And to stall the Democratic momentum going into the midterms.
IDK when parts of our coalition and some electeds are going to learn that the media is not our friend.
NotMax
@Melancholy Jaques
Hey now, the prime time shows were sponsored by cigarettes (cereal for grown-ups)
.;)
BellyCat
I’ll take at least 7 USSC justices engaging with reality this topic!
Hive mind question: What is a neutral and safe place to store net proceeds from sale of marital home until equitable distribution in a divorce is completed. Timeframe might easily be two years?
I proposed an interest-bearing account with our bank that requires either joint signatures or order of court for any withdrawal. I also proposed that a neutral attorney could hold these funds.
My wife’s attorney is refusing, demanding that either she holds the funds or the sale of the house is off. WTF?!?!
different-church-lady
@oldgold: 2028? Fuck that, I’ve decided to vote for someone else in November 2024!
different-church-lady
@schrodingers_cat:
NotMax
The pertinent point (IMHO) is that all 3 Dolt appointees voted against him.
different-church-lady
@BellyCat:
Here in this sack I’m holding.
different-church-lady
@MagdaInBlack: Wait, are we still taking about Krofft brothers characters?
MagdaInBlack
@different-church-lady: I think we’ve segued to JD Vance…..
but itsa wake’n’bake morning here, so you’ll have these leaps.
Matt McIrvin
@Nukular Biskits:
Everyone is compromised, participating in corrupt and oppressive systems to some degree. And figuring out how far we can stand to take that to survive is everyone’s hard decision.
Liberalism and leftism today lean heavily on negative symbolic and economic choices like the boycott or the strike, and those are important tools that I would not want to abandon.
But I think that there’s a limit to how far it’s possible to take a strategy that leans on those alone. The logical endpoint of the boycott of the System is death, as a boycott of existence itself. The Great General Strike that every radical seems to dream of is probably not going to happen because people still want to eat.
different-church-lady
@MagdaInBlack: I mean, he’s creepy enough to have come out of a Krofft brothers show…
different-church-lady
@Matt McIrvin:
Only to the extent that hypocrisy is a major component of human nature. But for many of us it’s not a deliberate choice.
NotMax
@different-church-lady
Sigmund and the Porn Obsessed House Speaker never made it past the pilot.
//
storm777
@sab: Yes, please organized one for NE Ohio. I can’t make it to Columbus today either.
satby
@BellyCat: Your lawyer should kick that right to whatever judge has your case.
MagdaInBlack
@different-church-lady: JD strikes me as animatronic rather than live action.
You know there’s a “Banana Splits” slasher movie, right?
Matt McIrvin
@New Deal democrat:
It is weird to me given that the presumptive-immunity decision sure seemed to me like the judicial equivalent of the Reichstag’s Enabling Act. Why would you do that, with all that language about the need for a “robust executive”, if you don’t want a dictator? Did they think something else was going to happen? Evidently at least a few of the conservatives (Roberts, Kavanaugh, Gorsuch and Coney Barrett) did think that they were doing something other than authorizing a dictatorship, and it’s hard for me to wrap my head around what they were thinking. But Republican Brain is something I can’t always simulate.
schrodingers_cat
@different-church-lady: Its both. You can bookmark my comment. We will see this used as a stick to bit our eventual nominee.
Jackie
@NotMax:
I’m cautiously hoping they’re getting fed up with being told “they OWE him” for putting them on The Court. They also know they’ll still be Supreme Court justices loooong after FFOTUS is drooling babble while confined to a padded room in MAL.
Eunicecycle
@sab: sounds good to me!
Eyeroller
@different-church-lady: Those are not mutually exclusive motivations.
Another Scott
@Matt McIrvin: Weren’t general strikes in the US outlawed around 1946? Are they still illegal?
(On my phone because our power has been out since around 5pm yesterday.)
Thanks.
Best wishes,
Scott.
Matt McIrvin
@MagdaInBlack: Yeah, it was a bandwagon-y knockoff of “Five Nights at Freddy’s”, a horror franchise for tweens based on the inherent creepiness of Chuck E. Cheese.
Matt McIrvin
@Another Scott: Probably, but if your aims are revolutionary, illegality is part of the attraction.
US labor law is very anti-labor slanted and has been for a very long time.
Another Scott
@Matt McIrvin: I assume that they figured they were just increasing their power as unelected super legislators, since they get to decide if something is an “official act” or not.
They didn’t conceive of him actually being the wannabe fascist that the rest of humanity recognizes him to be. They’re so clean and white and pure that they can never be wrong…
Grr…
Best wishes,
Scott.
Baud
@Another Scott:
Only in connection with labor bargaining, I believe.
Melancholy Jaques
@schrodingers_cat:
I think, for some, it’s a way to justify or distract from the disaster of the election of Trump.
MagdaInBlack
@Matt McIrvin: Winnie The Pooh is a more recent victim of the slasher knock off theme
(Christopher Robin grew up and abandoned them. They went feral and they’re pissed)
Matt McIrvin
@Another Scott: Someone else here speculated that they didn’t think he was going to win the election, but in the spring/summer of 2024? Anyone with eyes open could at least see that it was a real possibility.
And even if he didn’t, surely the Presidency would not forever be occupied by people who would forswear abusing these powers. One of the persistent problems authoritarians have is that they seem to have a hard time imagining that even if they like the strongman they have, that strongman is not going to be in charge forever and there’s always a chance you’ll get one you don’t even like. Democracy and a liberal system of checks at least give you a possibility that you can eject a bad leader eventually. Rule by whatever failson gets anointed by the powers that be doesn’t.
Matt McIrvin
@MagdaInBlack: Yeah, that was a consequence of Milne’s first Pooh book entering the public domain–though it’s one of those things where you have to tread very carefully to not infringe on any aspects introduced in works still under copyright, such as Disney’s films.
But the Banana Splits one was actually licensed, which is kind of amazing.
frosty
@sab: Hmm. If I go see my son in Pittsburgh, that would be a base I could jump to NEO from. I’ll think about the logistics when you come up with a time and place.
RevRick
@Matt McIrvin: @sab: @NotMax:
Growing up in the NYC metro area, I had the luxury of seven TV stations to choose from. But my familiarity with Scooby Doo and Sesame Street comes from watching with my kids. As a child I watched Looney Tunes, but since my mom’s mantra was ” go out and play,” I watched little besides that. I spent far more time watching westerns with my grandfather Saturday mornings. Of course, I went to see all the Disney animations.
Matt McIrvin
@RevRick: My daughter just told me about Nickelodeon’s “National Day of Play” which was apparently simply a multi-hour blackout they did once a year. But Nickelodeon’s heyday was after my time and my kid was never that interested in their shows, so it was unfamiliar to me.
Jackie
@RevRick:
We must be of similar age :-)
Citizen Alan
@Nukular Biskits: i’m old enough to remember when TV Guide’s fall preview issue coming out was an Event!
Ben Cisco
@Nukular Biskits: I remember that. And for about half of my childhood, Meridian was my market too!!
BellyCat
@satby: After spending $100k (most of it borrowed) on attorneys, I’m now pro se. Would be good know what to propose to the judge as an alternative.
BellyCat
@different-church-lady: Got a small lunch bag, handy?
zhena gogolia
@Citizen Alan: Oh, yes, I’d get so excited.
New Deal democrat
@Matt McIrvin:
I believe they, like a lot of T—-p 2024 voters, thought that they were going to get T—-p V.1.0 – the 2017-19 version who didn’t know where the levers of power were – rather than T—-p. V.2.0 – the version who picked up right where he left off in January 2021 and was laser focused on becoming an autocrat.
In Trump vs. U.S., like in Shelby County, they did not make use of ether textualism or originalism. Rather, both opinions reek of supreme arrogance, as in “this is how the Founders *would have* written the Constitution if they had the benefit of our experience and wisdom.”
Geminid
@Ben Cisco: I always thought Meridien should stage a festival in mid-February, right after Valentine’s Day. Something to celebrate the city’s early history as a railroad center, and highlight its attractions for Yankee tourists.
They could call it, “Sherman Days.”
@Nukular Biskits:
cmorenc
@Betty Cracker:
@Baud:
The scenario where Ds win a trifecta in the Nov 2028 elections is precisely the scenario that makes it much more likely both Thomas and Alito decide to take a timely retirement by around Thanksgiving 2028 rather than indefinitely remain on the court – so that Trump gets to choose their replacements rather than the incoming D President, and the lame-duck R majority Senate gets to confirm them before the incoming D majority Senate takes office. The rush by Trump and the then-R controlled Senate to nominate a replacement for Ginsburg (who died in Sept 2020) rather than take the chance Biden would win and Ds would retake the Senate – is precisely why we have Justice Barrett rather than e.g. Justice Chuktan, and why it’s likely Trump and the Rs would run the same playbook in late 2028 if Thomas and Alito cooperated with timely resignations.
Otherwise, most of what Rs have accomplished by maintaining firm RW majority on the Court since the Presidency of GW Bush would soon be progressively eroded and unwound, going back to Citizens United and Shelby, and not merely Dobbs. If the oldest and most health-vulnerable progressive-leaning Justice, Sotomayor tactically resigned while Ds had a trifecta, a D President could cement progressive 5-4 control with three nominations no older than mid-40s, and a high probability of holding at least 5-4 control for at least two more decades.
No One of Consequence
@cmorenc: Sign me up for otherwise.
And Chief Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson.
-NOoC
cmorenc
@No One of Consequence:
It would be interesting indeed to see how Roberts would tactically choose to cope with being the Chief Justice on a Court controlled by a 5-4 progressive majority. Would he become a prolific writer of scathing dissents as the RW constitutional ideology built over the past 20-25 years gets unwound piece by piece? Or would he instead more often attempt to moderate the work of the progressive-minded 5 by joining them on condition of moderating their work (and seizing the prerogative to write the purported majority opinion, albeit the true majority opinion would often then be a concurrence written by one of the progressive-minded 4).
It’s an undecided question whether the Presidential power to appoint SCOTUS Justices in Constitution Article II, section 2.2 extends not just to selecting the Chief Justice when that office is vacant (through death or resignation of the incumbent) but also to nominating a different justice to take over as Chief Justice from an incumbent CJ who remains on the court but is being thus involuntarily displaced as CJ. Bottom line: It’s more likely than not that Roberts would remain titular CJ even if circumstances produced a 5-4 progressive majority on SCOTUS.
No One of Consequence
@cmorenc: Color me meddling, but given light of the FelonInChief’s disregard of established process/policy (let alone disdain for the law or court orders), the ‘conservatives’ demonstrated bent towards autocracy, authoritarianism, fascism, etc. — I’d like to test those ‘norms’ of a President NOT being able to enable/appoint a Chief Justice. I mean FFS, the Republican party has ‘stolen’ 2 seats in my lifetime. The first with delay of Obama’s nominee in his final (like 14?) months as president, orchestrated by McConnell, something something not prudent in an election year to allow it… And then with Justice HandmaidsTale, when the election was but a few weeks away. Heads we win, Tails you lose.
So, I feel as though the Universe would appreciate some balances be reset here. And in order to achieve balance from an obviously conservatively-skewed present, we need to really lean into liberally weighting the other side of the scales.
I’m pretty much done with norms. And until the opposition squeals like we have their genitalia in a vise, and not only agrees to codify the former norms into Law, but ACTUALLY DOES IT — norms be damned, as they only bind those who observe them.
The concept of Gentlemen is not dead. I have taught, and continue to teach my son to aspire to the spirit of the moniker. (I mean no misogyny here.) It is sad that the concept that kept most politicians at least somewhat in check during our country’s earlier years, should be so thoroughly absent when it could be leveraged most.
Alas.
-NOoC
ETA: Because my understanding is that the Chief has control over the schedule. i.e. those cases the court possibly addresses.
ColoradoGuy
I’m still surprised that any of the Supremes thought the M16-toting mob wouldn’t come for them personally. Look what they wanted to do to Mike Pence! Why do any of the Supremes think the mob would treat them any better?
The capacity of GOP business leaders and the Supremes to delude themselves continues to astound me. They absolutely refuse to acknowledge that millions of the mass “base” are stone-cold fascists, with Fox News as Radio Rwanda. If The Felon asked them to attack the Court and burn it to the ground, they would.
different-church-lady
@MagdaInBlack:
Rule 34.
Matt McIrvin
@ColoradoGuy:
I think the business leaders generally do know that. They just figure that fascism is going to win this time, and they’d better stay on its side or get burned down.