Dahlia Lithwick: Trump Kept the Quiet Part Quiet About Amy Coney Barrett

[babylonsister]

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/09/trump-amy-coney-barrett-introduced-election-minority-rule.html


Trump Kept the Quiet Part Quiet About Amy Coney Barrett
The president introduced his Supreme Court pick—but stayed mum about the real reason he needs her.
By Dahlia Lithwick
Sept 26, 2020
7:48 PM


President Donald Trump nominated federal appeals court judge Amy Coney Barrett to fill Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s Supreme Court seat on Saturday in Washington, where—as Barrett noted in her remarks—flags around the capital still fly at half-mast, because Ginsburg has not yet been buried.

The reason the plan to fill Ginsburg’s seat was announced the same night as her death was never a mystery: The president explained several times over the last week that the new justice’s nomination and confirmation needed to happen in the same amount of time Barack Obama allowed the nation to mourn before even naming a replacement for Justice Antonin Scalia in 2016 because Trump needs her to weigh in on any election-related controversy on his behalf. As he put it to reporters on Monday: “We need nine justices,” he said. “You need that. With the unsolicited millions of ballots that they’re sending.” He explained that because of his (farcical, proofless) claim that mail-in ballots will be a source of rampant fraud, this ninth justice must be seated before an election challenge is mounted. That pronouncement came just prior to his claim that he could not commit to a peaceful transfer of power should he lose the election. Again: The reason a ninth justice is needed to be seated in advance of the election in which voting is already taking place is to decide whatever lawsuit is coming in his favor. Perhaps unsurprisingly, then, on Saturday Trump did not overtly ask Barrett to rule in his favor next month while detailing her biography on the White House lawn.

snip//

Trump forget to mention, in his tribute to an “independent judiciary” on Saturday, that he has devoted his presidency to bullying and insulting any judge who has ruled independently from him, and also that it’s very hard to say that your judicial nominee is independent when you have already tied her to striking down reproductive rights and access to affordable health care and to interceding in your upcoming vote-fraud claims in any election litigation. He did mention three other areas in which Barrett will support his view of constitutional freedom: broader gun rights, broader religious liberty rights, and a commitment to greater “public safety.” On these promises too, the judge’s record is clear.

The reason the president forgot to mention that (a) his judges cannot be permitted to be independent; and (b) that his judges tend to be wildly out of step with public opinion on so many of the topics he holds dear is that it would highlight what minority rule looks like, and why he cannot, in fact “let the people” decide with their votes in his upcoming election. A court determined to impose minority rule is in fact the playbook. It benefits big business, it benefits secret donors with considerable war chests, it benefits white supremacy, and it benefits Trump’s trailing electoral campaign. Quite simply, locking in the power of a minority through the courts is the political project of Trump and the Republican Senators who are equally eager to jam this nominee through before the election.

As has been noted many times over this past week, the GOP has lost the popular vote in six of the last seven elections and yet appointed 15 out of the last 19 justices. Barrett would make that 16 out of 20 seats. And that is why the people most assuredly cannot be allowed to decide the future of reproductive freedom, the future of health care, or even whether and how their own ballots will be counted in just over a month. Trump cannot talk about those things because they will further harm his own polling and will also reflect badly on GOP senators who pledged to vote for the nominee before they even knew whom she would be. They cannot talk about those things because minority rule doesn’t poll as well in the U.S. as it does in, say, Hungary or medieval France. But minority rule is on the ballot. It may well be the only thing on the ballot. Because if, as the president promises, his independent justice needs to be seated to decide whose ballots count, this isn’t merely a commitment to entrench unpopular, dangerous, and partisan policies into constitutional law. It’s also a commitment to commandeering the high court itself into deciding whether and how to count votes, in an election in which a sitting president has already pledged that only some voters will be allowed to pick the winner.

[niyad]

1. KNR

[benfranklin1776]

2. Spot on undeniable truth.

The question of whether we remain a democracy or become a Putinesque repressive dictatorship blessed by the Supreme Court is exactly what’s on the ballot.

[liberalla]

14. + 100

[N_E_1 for Tennis]

3. KnR...nt

[bucolic_frolic]

4. Steve Schmidt told us, 'American cannot endure four more years of this'

Last edited Sun Sep 27, 2020, 11:43 AM - Edit history (1)

If Trump isn't booted from office, the 53% Americans will close their wallets.

Even COVID is causing contraction. After the initial boost in spending from health care for those afflicted and their assets if they have any to their heirs, there is a contraction. Comparing to monetary creation by the Fed, it's like a reverse multiplier. 200,000 dead. What did they spend? $15k each per year? That's 15,000 x 200,000 = 3,000,000,000 in reduced spending. Now that people that depended on that spending for income also have less to spend. So when it all shakes out, 10 levels down, it's like 30,000,000,000 less spending. Add to that the job reductions, people who can't pay their bills, mortgages, rents, car payments. That's why the Fed keeps printing.

Add Trump to that? Depression. Absolute Depression. The Greatest Depression because the economy has so far to fall.

[ancianita]

5. Notice the pride he takes in patriarchy's groomed tool.

His and the patriarchal mafia's message to women: "See how we beat you down through rule of law."

[liberalla]

15. Wow - that photo and your comment are so in sync... and I feel so gross and repulsed

Yeck...

[Pepsidog]

6. Thank you. Very insightful post. I think the press needs to discuss the fact that there are

thousands of different ballots throughout the country all different. Ballots are not uniform, we do not vote with one national ballot that can be easily reproduced as Trump suggests. There are thousands of ballots all different sizes with different fonts and security features all counted by a wide variety of counting machines. Therefore, the imaginary stuffing of the ballot box an absurdity on a national scale.

[radius777]

7. Repubs have intended this long before Trump.

The GOP and the conservative movement has long desired hard-right courts as a means to bypass democracy and establish minortarian rule. It's why even the 'respectable Repubs' were on board with blocking Garland and were so quick to flip flop in ramming this nominee through this time.

[Lonestarblue]

8. Thank God we're getting close to having this national nightmare over.

I don’t think I can take much more from the Idiot-in-Chief. I hate that smug grin on his ugly face as he listens to his new fixer on the SC and imagines becoming president for life.

[JohnnyRingo]

9. I still have faith in the court.

I don't think they'll decide to keep Trump in office based on flimsy conspiracies and assumed loyalty to him.

I also doubt any of them feel they owe Donald Trump anything. Members of the Supreme have egos beyond imagination and believe they're there on merits alone, including Kavanaugh.

[oldsoftie]

10. Very simple; make the defeat so large that there is no chance of lawsuit victory.

In 2000, the margin of victory was tiny. And the odd thing is, if the count had been allowed to proceed as Al Gore wanted, he would have lost anyway. And if the count had proceeded in the manner that Bush wanted, HE would have lost.

[rickyhall]

11. He has the majority now but he doesn't trust the Chief Justice, I think.

Plus "tired of winning" has come up short.

[SayItLoud]

12. tRUMP's ONE question interview with ACB:

tRUMP: Will you be loyal to me?

ACB: for this gig...fuckin A I will!

tRUMP: You're approved and I'm nominating you. You can get off your knees.

(Imagine why she was on them at your own level of decency, or honesty).

[NotASurfer]

13. Are any House investigations into White House extortion and bribery still active?

Might invite this nominee in for a chat about the interview process and whatever quid quo pro Clarice had to give President Lecter in exchange for the nomination