I just realized that I don’t recall a post on Brett Kavanaugh, Donald Trump’s nominee to the Supreme Court. The hearings are coming up this week, and there are lots of questions. Here is some background.
How Brett Kavanaugh Would Transform the Supreme Court
…His confirmation would result in a rare replacement of the court’s swing justice, moving Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. — a much more reliably conservative vote than Justice Kennedy — to the court’s ideological center…Justice Kennedy and Chief Justice Roberts were on the opposite sides of 51 closely divided decisions in which Justice Kennedy joined the court’s liberals…All of those precedents are at risk.
While Chief Justice Roberts, 63, would represent a sharp change as the swing justice, that does not mean that the court will make a sudden leap to the right. Chief Justice Roberts is generally inclined to move in incremental steps, and he cares about the Supreme Court’s legitimacy and prestige. “It is a jolt to the legal system when you overrule a precedent,” he said at his confirmation hearings in 2005.
That did not stop him from joining a decision in June that overruled a 40-year-old precedent in a decision that dealt a sharp blow to public labor unions. In general, though, a court with the chief justice at its center would most likely move steadily to the right in measured steps.
Kavanaugh worked in the Bush administration. Trump has declared executive privilege on that work so that Congress can’t examine Kavanaugh’s documents. (BuzzFeed, CNN)
Here’s the breakdown of likely Senate votes. Most commentators expect that Republicans will win.
Call your congresscritters. Stiffen the Democrats’ spines and excoriate the Republicans!
Corner Stone
Say what now?
Corner Stone
Maybe there was one that slipped in between one of the 47 McCain posts?
germy
Who paid off Kavenaugh’s credit card bills?
Cheryl Rofer
@germy: Thanks for reminding me!
Corner Stone
I continue to believe that if the D’s should win the House this Nov, one aspect they need to investigate is Justice Kennedy and his abdication from the bench. IMO, that whole thing is dirty and needs to be exposed.
germy
@Cheryl Rofer:
“If you said your financial history was not shady, would you be lying?”
“If you said you didn’t lie under oath a few years ago, would you be lying?”
“If you said there was nothing disqualifying in your record, would you be lying?”
HeleninEire
Hello Law people. How can Trump claim executive privilege at a time when he wasn’t the executive? This is like Don Junior claiming Attorney client privilege because no one knows why!!!!
Roger Moore
Which is bullshit two ways. On the one hand, the claim is specious. On the other hand, the Senate has serious leverage to demand those documents if they choose to use it. When they’re carrying out an investigation, Congress is in an inherently adversarial position, and the Executive has little to lose by refusing to go along; at worst, Congress can threaten to withhold something vaguely related the Executive wants as leverage. In the case of a confirmation, though, the President is asking the Senate for a favor. He needs the Senate’s consent to make the appointment, and the Senate is fully within its rights and responsibilities to withhold that consent until they’ve vetted the candidate to their satisfaction. If the Executive doesn’t give them the documents they think they need, they should just refuse to hold hearings.
Of course this is all Kabuki. The Republicans in the Senate don’t want to vet Kavanaugh, or rather they already know they like his ideology and want to protect him from public scrutiny. It’s only the Democrats who actually care about getting those documents, and the Republicans aren’t going to lift a finger to help them.
Major Major Major Major
@Corner Stone: He only didn’t overturn Obamacare because he was worried about the court’s legacy/legitimacy/how history would view his tenure. And many of the landmark Roberts-era decisions are based on earlier, incremental Roberts-era decisions. Like the final VRA gutting.
HalfAssedHomesteader
John Roberts, Incrementalist. (◔_◔)
Corner Stone
@Major Major Major Major: Roberts gutted the ACA. He didn’t need to “overturn” it for optics sakes. And conveniently overlooking 100 years of precedent for Citizens Unites was real classy, also too.
Ryan
@Corner Stone: Move? Doesn’t he just call balls and strikes?
Mike R
My senators are Ben Sasse and Deb Fisher, will call but it would be as useful to scream out the window. They equal two senators from our past in usefulness. Carl Curtis and Roman Hruska.
J R in WV
Frankly, “Judge” K has already lied to Senators about that Quarter-Million Dollar credit card, which I have heard people say about that “It’s just a credit card bill ! ” but I’ve never had a quarter-million dollar credit card bill… if you think that’s “just a credit card bill” you must live differently from regular Americans.
Secondly, anyone who votes to confirm a Supreme Court Justice when his legal writing while working for the last Republican president is a STATE SEKRET (sic) is party to the treason going on in the White House right now.
germy
@HeleninEire:
I don’t understand either.
Is it the office of the president he’s claiming privilege over? Like if we wanted info about something that happened during the Eisenhower admin., and he said “no, that info can’t be released” ?
Villago Delenda Est
Neither Kavenaugh or Gorsuch, or any of Donald’s judicial appointments, are legitimate. All should be removed from the bench systematically after Donald is impeached, convicted, and imprisoned.
Major Major Major Major
@Corner Stone: A handful of abrupt decisions don’t reverse an overall trend.
germy
@J R in WV: How many tickets to baseball games does one need to buy to get that sort of debt?
Did he rent an entire stadium for a birthday party?
Luthe
@Cheryl Rofer: While I am sometimes suspicious of the motives of the senior Senator from my state, he is very good at interrogating the scumbags this administration keeps coughing up.
Corner Stone
@Major Major Major Major: Oh.
Immanentize
The pundits are all saying the Senators will focus on this issue of law or that. Having paid close attention to this process, I think the only winning game is to call B. Kavanaugh out as a liar and a dishonest and corrupt person. They already have him being quite dishonest in his first confirmation hearing. Then there is his debts (for tickets? Bribery? Gambling?) and then, as former Senator Franken pointed out, lying at his coming out press conference when he claimed he is the most vetted candidate ever.
I would like some Senator to bear down on the question: “Do you think giving false testimony at your confirmation hearing is grounds for impeachment?” He may get in now, but he doesn’t have to serve for life….
J R in WV
@J R in WV:
And third, anyone who runs up a QUARTER-MILLION Dollar credit card bill “on baseball tickets” is WAY too irresponsible to be any kind of judicial appointment. I wouldn’t hire the jerk as a farm-hand. And he wouldn’t pass the smell test for a security clearance with that kind of financial irresponsibility and gaping question of where did the hundreds of thousands of dollars to PAY OFF THE GIANT CREDIT CARD BILL COME FROM???
Nope, this guy, if confirmed by treasonous Russo-Republican conspirators, should be impeached the moment Democrats reach that level of control, hopefully with the help of non-treasonous Non-Russo Republicans more supportable of Country than Party.
There, not maybe I’m done with “Judge” Kavanaugh.
HeleninEire
@germy: And George Bush’s lawyers agreed to release the information. The whole point of Executive Privilege is to be sure that the President gets advice that they can be sure is not second guessed. That his or her advisors can speak freely.
WTF do GWB advisors have to do with Trump’s advisors?
J R in WV
@Immanentize:
This.
I don’t give a rat’s ass about his dumb-ass “Federalist” Corporatist legalistic theories.
He’s as crooked as a dog’s hind leg who has been hit by a car! And it’s obvious!!! How could even a Russo-Republican believe him qualified for a judgeship, let alone a Justice of the Supreme Court!!???!
Randomrando
Spitballing here, how about the Democrats start floating an equivalent to the 25 Amendment for SCOTUS justices…
Immanentize
Meanwhile, I am converting all my cds to compressed digital to FLAC onto a big 4TB external drive. I just copied “Death,” next is “Deltron 3030.” I am trying to do this when sitting at the home computer. Each CD takes about 5 minutes max to copy and compress. I will be at this for months.
Immanentize
@J R in WV: I think we all know how he will decide the major issues. So let’s (as Kay says) have the fight about corruption right now. We have to have this fight sometime. Might as well get into it.
Millard Filmore
@Roger Moore:
He will be the traitors’ Justice.
Immanentize
@HeleninEire:
This is probably a rhetorical question, but the privilege belongs to the President. And, there is only one President at a time….
Major Major Major Major
@Immanentize: Oh boy I hope you don’t have trouble with unicode and filenames.
J R in WV
Also, wife reminded me of a really funny episode which I will be adding to the funniest memories thread below… One Corinthians… no really!
When you’re getting old, there is more stuff that happened, plus also I’m awake now, and secondly, older guy’s memories are sometimes slow to recover from storage.
Immanentize
Not so far — I’m using EAC (Exact Audio Copy) and it has been amazingly robust and accurate. And it reaches out to find cover art, etc. Lyrics if you want, too, but I don’t (yet).
Immanentize
@Immanentize: I should add, if the Dems controlled the Senate, they could litigate the claim of privilege…. But we don’t.
J R in WV
@Major Major Major Major:
This. I rip CDs so I can put them aside as the achive, and sometimes this is a huge obstacle. Then I burn the MPEGs to CD so I can have a disc that will play all night long, restful music to drown out the tinnitus, and the snoring, me, the wife and the dogs all snore. The cat just purrs off and on.
Cheryl Rofer
@Luthe: Call and tell him that!
Roger Moore
@germy:
It’s not how many tickets, it’s which ones. Seats right behind home plate are several hundred dollars each. Multiply by 81 games per season, and you can spend tens of thousands of dollars on a season pass for one seat.
Roger Moore
@Immanentize:
Depending on how valuable your time is, you might want to consider getting an autoloader. They make ones specifically for ripping big stacks of CDs.
clay
@Immanentize: You alphabetized your CDs… by title?
Roger Moore
@Immanentize:
If the Democrats controlled the Senate, they wouldn’t have to litigate the claim. As Mitch McConnell proved, the Senate has no obligation to confirm anyone the President* nominates; they aren’t even required to give him a hearing. They could simply refuse to do anything further on the nomination until they get the documents the requested.
Immanentize
@Roger Moore: Hmmm. Thank you. I will look into that as — I have STACKS! My wife and I accumulated maybe 1000+ cds. And then who is going to convert our vinyl? My wife had about 12″ of a shelf dedicated strictly to Bowie including some very rare stuff. And both of us have some rare 70’s and 80’s stuff on vinyl. I’d like to be able to pull it up from time to time. I have a nice USB turntable, but TIME! maybe that can be my next sabbatical project. Or I could pay my friend’s son to sit around and rip.
Kay
I can’t follow this one because it’s too heartbreaking. These should have been our judges.
Our voters don’t care about judges and they need to care. They need to think about federal court judges when they vote for President. As far as I’m concerned that ALONE is reason enough to support the Dem nominee.
Lifetime. We’ll have a far Right court for decades. Everyone talks about Roe and other civil rights and those are important but my God, the pro-plutocrat SHIT that is going to come out of a far Right court! Jesus.
Roberts ALONE on that. He can’t hand out goodies to the rich and wealthy fast enough.
J R in WV
@Roger Moore:
But that would be, uh, confrontational, and non-bi-partisan, and un-Senatorial, wouldn’t it? Should we care about that? Nope!! They’ve already set the precedent, haven’t they? The RussoRepublicans I mean…
Immanentize
@clay: Sounds like Hi-Fidelity, the book. No, alphabetized by group or artist, Death the black metal group; but Deltron is sort of undefinable. Like Brand New Heavies (which I loved so much). Dessau next….
Immanentize
@Roger Moore: I should have added — the Republicans should be opposing this claim of privilege because the Senate is it’s own institution and should not fold like this. In past times, Senators would have been pissed, regardless of party, about such a move. Oh well…. It was a nice form of government while it lasted.
Kay
I will say one thing, though. All the elite lawyers who fawned all over this guy because of his supposed “brilliance” and “ethics”?
He’s hiding his record to get thru confirmation and he’s doing it in a sleazy, back room way. Tell me again how great and ethical he is, by all means. His first fucking ACT is to hide things from the public. He is his actions. I don’t care how many car pools he ran. He is what he does in his professional life and this is what he’s doing.
They’re poor judges of character. They value the wrong things. They admire low quality people.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
One of the reasons McConnell refused to even hold hearings was he thought Garland would come across as sane and reasonable and then the obstruction, either not having a vote or voting against him, would blow back. In a similar way, I’m counting on the power of television to backfire on them. Using unfamiliar terms like “executive privilege” is not a great look when you’re asked why you don’t want the American people to know about your work in the White House. McConnell wants to rush this because he knows there’s a chance, however slim, that he may be swapping offices with Schumer in a few month. Voting on an already unpopular, weaselly judge might just make those odds less slim
I live in hope.
Nora
@Corner Stone: The Justice responsible for Citizens United? Incremental steps? In what universe?
donnah
I’ve emailed my Senator, Sherrod Brown, and just tweeted his account as well. I know it’s a long shot, but if we can swing just a few Republicans and keep all of the Dems, it could happen.
McConnell should burn in hell for pushing this nomination through. I loathe that toad.
Miss Bianca
@Immanentize: You mean, the Band Called Death? : )
jayjaybear
@Mike R: Isn’t Hruska the senator who noted that even mediocre people deserve a mediocre SCOTUS justice to represent them?
Immanentize
@Miss Bianca: That is the movie. :-)
Mai Naem mobile
Fuck this guy. Fuck the GOP. This Supreme Court pick is so completely unfair and unjust. These motherfukers should not get this opportunity to appoint this guy to the court. I hope the Dems impeach this assshole when they have the votes haha because we know that’s going to happen right? I honestly don’t care what they impeach him on but he needs to be taken off the Supreme Court if he gets on.
Raven Onthill
Now, one of my Senator’s staffers hung up on me when I suggested that the Senator try procedural methods to delay the confirmation. Senator Murray is part of the Senate leadership.
I think the Democrats are going to roll over again, and lose the country.
While morally there is little worse than supporting torture, politically there are worse things, and I suspect Kavanaugh has done them, which is why the documents are being concealed. Hopefully, they will leak before his confirmation.
HeleninEire
@Immanentize: Oh my God. I’d this is real we are dead as a country.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@Kay:
Not necessarily. A spoonful of sugar helps the polonium tea go down.
Raven Onthill
@Immanentize: “there is only one President at a time”
Only one hand can wear the ring.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@Raven Onthill:
WTF, the staffer hung up on you? How fucking dare they hang up on a constituent. Did they even give an explanation on why the Senator wouldn’t do what you suggested or they just straight up disconnected? If so, you should call the office up again on a different number and get in contact with someone who can reprimand that staffer and give you an answer.
MomSense
I enjoyed finding out that Senator Collins, faux moderate from Maine, pretended to be considering Kavanaugh when she actually pre-approved him before he was nominated.
She also said that she hasn’t seen the level of interest in Kavanaugh compared to the ACA. It’s pretty tough to assess the level of interest when all calls go to voicemail and the voicemail box is always full.
I email her just about every day but it feels like a futile effort.
And thanks a lot W for asserting executive privilege over his papers. Note to the resistance- never assume good intentions from a Bush.
eemom
@Kay:
Ditto to this and everything else you said.
Not getting my hopes up that the balls challenged Senate Dems are gonna make it happen, but the confirmation of this creature needs to be stopped by literally ANY means possible. No exceptions. None. 0.
His confirmation would be a catastrophe that dwarfs the election of trump and everything that’s happened since.
And don’t kid yourselves — no matter what happens to trump, the day that any modern Congress impeaches a Supreme Court justice will be the day that pigs fly the sky.
burnspbesq
@Corner Stone:
Your opinion on this matter is worth exactly as much as every other evidence-free opinion you feel so entitled to put forth.
clay
@Immanentize: Ah, that makes sense. Your use of quotes around the artist names threw me.
Dorothy A. Winsor
.
I assume he’s talking about Hunter and whoever the other crook was. Apparently voters didn’t need to know this. And how far ahead does justice have to be set aside?
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@eemom:
Everything is impossible until it’s not. There’s a first time for everything and the current political environment is unlike anything we’ve seen before in our history.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@burnspbesq:
Not that I’m won to defend Corner Stone, but what’s wrong with what he said? I agree.
burnspbesq
@Villago Delenda Est:
I’m eager to see where you think the 67 votes in the Senate are going to come from.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@burnspbesq:
Blackmail?
Platonailedit
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
The traitorous thug attacks his equally traitorous ag. Can’t wait for the carnage. No honor among thieves indeed.
burnspbesq
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??:
Evidence is a useful thing to have.
Kavanaugh is a miserable piece of shit who is unqualified to serve on any court anywhere. But he’s going to be confirmed, because the only thing that matters are votes in the Senate, and McConnell has them.
HeleninEire
@Corner Stone: How’s your son? Is he still quietly kicking the political hell out of your in-laws at dinner?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
I’m hoping, again, that the Dems are smart enough to make this into a question that will embarrass Kavanagh and piss off The Beast. I think they should also throw his fawning speech at his rose ceremony back at him.
Platonailedit
@burnspbesq:
That 67 vote is a constitutional requirement? Or is it just senate rules? If it is later, then the dems can jst shitcan that rule just like mcturtle did with filibuster?
clay
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Well… at least he’s admitting that he cares more about winning elections than about corruption. NIce to have that on the record.
JPL
@Dorothy A. Winsor: His supporters think it is normal for the president to want to protect his friends, and punish his enemies. I know Mueller is working on his own time line, but I hope he gets this guy out of office soon.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@burnspbesq:
What if the records get leaked and something horrible is revealed? Or Kavanaugh and McConnell get relentlessly tormented and harassed, causing the confirmation hearings to be called off? I admit the last one is especially outlandish and legally grey, but the first might happen.
Major Major Major Major
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??: OT: how’s your novel coming? ?
burnspbesq
@Platonailedit:
Article I, Section 3.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??: the only thing that’s going to stop Kavanaugh is if Susan Collins and at least one other R up in 2020 think confirmation would threaten their reelection
chasing Mitch McConnell out of a restaurant isn’t gong to do anything.
burnspbesq
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??:
Totally cool. That’s how the process is supposed to work (FWIW, I think the Administration’s claim of executive privilege is specious). Short of Kavanaugh selling porn videos of his own children, or a complete paper trail leading all the way from Moscow to his account, I don’t think Republican minds can be changed. They are assholes, but they understand what is at stake here.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
It will if his life is made absolutely, continuously unbearable until he either stops the hearings, resigns from the Senate; the decision is his. Lives are on the line and the America we have known for most of the 20th century is at stake.
Adam has described McConnnell in the past as something like an insurgent. Perhaps it’s high time liberals began upping the ante and used similar tactics against the R’s. They don’t give a damn about decency or justice but perhaps they will when their lives are a living hell. It’s only fitting since they make the lives of millions here and abroad hell
Corner Stone
@HeleninEire: He’s doing great, thanks! He’ll be 14 in a few weeks and is a full on teenager, with all the sarcasm and scorn that one may imagine. He and I still discuss political goings on but I take it from his references that his grandma has stopped bringing it up. She is impossible to embarrass or shame so I think she saves it for when she’s around one of her sisters.
Grandpa has recently retired so they do a lot of “projects” in the garage or backyard. He still somehow thinks his taxes are too high but that’s just racism.
Geoboy
@burnspbesq: If he lies under oath during his hearings (which he will), then its perjury. Put him in prison for perjury and fill the vacancy.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
he thinks this advances his case that the FBI is out to get him?
SiubhanDuinne
@J R in WV:
In fairness, he also bought a nacho platter and a couple of beers.
Major Major Major Major
@SiubhanDuinne: that’s how they getcha.
Yarrow
Is it possible that are any of the documents in question can be leaked?
debbie
@Immanentize:
I’m with you. Expose the Smarm at every opportunity until they drown in it.
oatler.
Chuck Shumer pull up your blunderbuss and shoot that cocksucker. Wait, is there a six-figure salary involved?
debbie
@donnah:
Portman’s who you need to contact, though he’s never taken a principled stand on anything.
eemom
As y’all footballers say, what we need is a Hail Mary pass.
Chyron HR
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
No, see, the FAILING New York Times said it wasn’t a witch hunt, which means the opposite must be true.
MisterForkbeard
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: “The FBI was already looking into Russians before I became President, therefore everything they find that has to do with me is fake” is… novel.
debbie
@MomSense:
Bush released them. Trump has asserted privilege.
debbie
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
First they need to call bullshit on his “evolving” belief that a sitting president can’t be indicted. I would like to see them end with questioning whether this belief is tied to a promise from Trump to disappear his credit card debt.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@Major Major Major Major:
Haven’t started since I don’t have the time atm. Between work and school I’m way too busy.
But I have a rough idea in my head what I want it to be. Most of the basic elements have stayed the same. I still feel conflicted on when time period I should put it in. I’ve considered the 2000s, since I’m more familiar with the culture of that era. (Yes, I know that sounds weird coming from a 23 y/o but I really don’t get modern social networks).
The type of story I want to tell would also dovetail pretty nicely with that time period, since it’s a tale that deals with abuse of power and whether power is legitimately being wielded, among other things. I think it would be very interesting to show how a society that has just recovered from 9/11 would react to a magic-user(s) suddenly appearing and wrecking havoc in a major metropolitan area and what the government’s response would be.
In my mind, the government would do in everything in their power to capture/neutralize the threat as it would potentially constitute a national security problem. But even beyond that, magic would be a threat to the status quo, to the government’s power itself, not just the general American public, so it would be sort of self-serving as well.
Haven’t decided yet who the protag would be. Can it be shared? One of them would be from a fantasy Earth based on Arthurian legend, accidentally sent to our Earth, which would lead to all sorts of funny culture-shock schannigans. Probably an adventurer, shonen-type hero or something. Hint: both universes were one in the same, hence the legends in our world.
The other would be a seemingly normal girl who gets caught up in the mess and finds out she can use the same abilities somehow. The aunt would be the same and the corrupt corporate executive guy (I’m leaning more towards a mixture of Lex Luthor, Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg now. Think I should name the character Jeremy something. It sounds white-tech-broey) would still seek ultimate power, would still be a closet fascist/xenophobe/white supremacist and would now rail (secretly) about the evils of “identity poltics” and how everything would be better if he ruled humanity. Basically, what would happen if a normal, real-life human with malevolent intentions gained omnipotence.
The plot would mainly consist of avoiding the federal government and corrupt corporate dude, using magical powers to help people (like superheroes would in comics) and find a way home while seeking the all-powerful magical mcguffin before it falls into the wrong hands. The ideals of the male protag meeting the harsh realities of our world, where evil can often triumph over good, will also be important, considering the era especially. Have also considered Merlin popping up as an immortal forced to walk the Earth who has been captured by the corporation/US government as records and surveillance have become more complex over the last century.
Gelfling 545
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Collins. He seems to like Chris Collins. Someone should tell him that even if we don’t indicte allegedly “popular” criminals, it won’t help him in the slightest.
Bill Arnold
@Yarrow:
A bunch of news organizations run securedrop sites where documents can be leaked anonymously, along with instructions for avoiding things like per-instance invisible watermarks. There are other tech ways as well, and also traditional ways to leak documents. So yes. If there’s a will, there are plenty of ways.
And there would be will (more than one :) ) if the administration attempted to shut down the Meuller investigation. Terabytes of leak. Would destroy the Republican party, probably, with a lot of collateral damage.
SecureDrop directory
J R in WV
@MomSense:
Actually, I’m pretty sure Bush released the claim to the papers, and Trump invoked executive privilege. An Ex-president can’t invoke executive privilege, as he won’t be receiving executive advice from his aides, they just help him with his painting. A sitting president needs to keep secrets, in order not to be indicted.
Steeplejack
@SiubhanDuinne:
Probably goes for the big tub of popcorn at the movies.
Mike R
@jayjaybear: Yes he is.
J R in WV
@Platonailedit:
It would be an constitutional requirement, IIRC. Civics was a long time ago, and Nixon’s battle nearly as long ago. But still, that’s my recollection.
J R in WV
@SiubhanDuinne:
Haven’t been to a MLB ballpark… when did they raise the price of a Bud Light to $1,000.11???? That would do it, right?
westyny
@SiubhanDuinne: Those garlic fries aren’t going to eat themselves!