Welcome to DU! The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards. Join the community: Create a free account Support DU (and get rid of ads!): Become a Star Member All Forums Issue Forums Culture Forums Alliance Forums Region Forums Support Forums Help & Search

Nevilledog

(50,682 posts)
Thu Sep 29, 2022, 05:29 PM Sep 2022

Elie Mystal: The Supreme Court Returns on Monday, Stronger and More Terrible Than Ever



Tweet text:

The Nation
@thenation
·
Follow
With the new Supreme Court term, which begins Monday, SCOTUS will cement its grip over American life, revealing what it really means to live in a juristocracy: a system in which unelected judges rule us from on high. Here, @ElieNYC lays out what to expect.

thenation.com
The Supreme Court Returns on Monday, Stronger and More Terrible Than Ever
This term, the high court will cement its grip on political life in America, overturning affirmative action and other critical protections along the way.
2:03 PM · Sep 29, 2022


https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/the-supreme-court-returns-new-term/

No paywall
https://archive.ph/qt0jq

The Supreme Court will return to work on the first Monday of October, after a three-month summer break, with all the determination of a Renaissance-era explorer looking for new lands to conquer. Last term, the court’s conservative supermajority showed it was willing to ignore precedent (overturning Roe v. Wade), reality (issuing rulings that will lead to more gun violence and climate pollution), and facts (making up evidence in the praying-football-coach case) to arrive at its preferred judicial outcomes.

In the process of revoking abortion rights, Justice Samuel Alito dismissed the rights of people the white men who wrote the Constitution didn’t bother to include. This term, the court’s conservatives will continue to apply their racist, misogynist logic to other groups yearning to progress beyond what white men allowed in the 1850s.

The greatest improvement we’ve made to the founders’ plan for a Western apartheid state was the institution of universal suffrage. Naturally, that simple idea of one person, one vote is under threat from this Supreme Court. Even before the midterm elections take place in November, we know that the results in some of those elections will be challenged in court—especially if Republican candidates are on the losing side. The conservative Supreme Court has been willing to suppress the vote or let Republican-controlled state legislatures gerrymander district maps to the point where the popular vote is all but meaningless, but so far, the court has been unwilling to throw away enough votes after the fact to change the outcome of an election. We’ll see if there’s a first time for everything.

While we don’t yet know what election-specific cases will make their way to the Supreme Court, it may be that the court itself doesn’t have to dirty its hands by ending democratic self-government this term the way it ended equality for women last term. The court could just let Republican-controlled state legislatures do it themselves. The most important case on the upcoming docket is one that tests the “independent state legislature” theory, which is a fancy way of saying that state legislatures, not the voters, get to choose the state’s representatives in Congress.

*snip*

3 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight: NoneDon't highlight anything 5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
Elie Mystal: The Supreme Court Returns on Monday, Stronger and More Terrible Than Ever (Original Post) Nevilledog Sep 2022 OP
Kick and recommend. Must read. bronxiteforever Sep 2022 #1
None of our lives or property is secure with that court in session. Chainfire Sep 2022 #2
Our only hope is bluestarone Sep 2022 #3
Latest Discussions»General Discussion»Elie Mystal: The Supreme ...