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TM99

(8,352 posts)
Fri Jan 22, 2016, 03:50 PM Jan 2016

Hillary Clinton Has No Idea How the Supreme Court Works

It is really disturbing that someone who is a Yale trained lawyer and has been in public office in one shape or form since the 1980's has no idea how the Supreme Court works.

Hillary Clinton told a group of her top fundraisers Thursday that if she is elected president, her nominees to the Supreme Court will have to share her belief that the court's 2010 Citizens United decision must be overturned, according to people who heard her remarks.

Clinton's emphatic opposition to the ruling, which allowed corporations and unions to spend unlimited sums on independent political activity, garnered the strongest applause of the afternoon from the more than 200 party financiers gathered in Brooklyn for a closed-door briefing from the Democratic candidate and her senior aides, according to some of those present.

"She got major applause when she said would not name anybody to the Supreme Court unless she has assurances that they would overturn" the decision, said one attendee, who, like others, requested anonymity to describe the private session.


https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2015/05/14/hillary-clintons-litmus-test-for-supreme-court-nominees-a-pledge-to-overturn-citizens-united/

What a nice sentiment for the liberal base. The problem with these comments, however, are that they either reflect a profound misunderstanding of how the Supreme Court works (which is tragic given her Yale law degree) —or it reveals that Clinton is not above intentionally spouting claptrap.

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Hillary Clinton Has No Idea How the Supreme Court Works (Original Post) TM99 Jan 2016 OP
....and yet Sanders has said the same thing? n/t JonLeibowitz Jan 2016 #1
Well I guess they TM99 Jan 2016 #2
Is the air from that whoosh coming through your ears? OilemFirchen Jan 2016 #16
I think they are both saying the same thing Proserpina Jan 2016 #7
Yeah, this is a response to the ridiculous attack on Sanders JackRiddler Jan 2016 #9
Ah, got it. Thanks. n/t JonLeibowitz Jan 2016 #12
As a member of the Supreme Court bar, I'm curious what "profound misunderstanding" onenote Jan 2016 #3
You might understand this thread if you read this one. TM99 Jan 2016 #5
Okay. Makes more sense now. onenote Jan 2016 #14
His comments were recently clarified. TM99 Jan 2016 #15
Again, the SCOTUS gets to review prior decisions in new cases presented to the court Gothmog Jan 2016 #24
This was posted in response to an earlier post DefenseLawyer Jan 2016 #8
correct JackRiddler Jan 2016 #10
Thank you. TM99 Jan 2016 #11
I think she knows HassleCat Jan 2016 #4
yeah that horror story of a conservative Ginsburg dsc Jan 2016 #30
Politicians pander. Color me as not surprised. DemocratSinceBirth Jan 2016 #6
"all" -- SCOTUS is pretty conservative when it comes to overturning their own decisions. n/t JonLeibowitz Jan 2016 #25
I was speaking to the mechanism by which it could be overturned, not the difficulty./nt DemocratSinceBirth Jan 2016 #26
Ah, gotcha. carry on. n/t JonLeibowitz Jan 2016 #27
I wish DU had "like" buttons on OP responses as well! dae Jan 2016 #13
yes, please tell me your understanding of the court? i thought the President nominates someone MariaThinks Jan 2016 #17
Whoosh! TM99 Jan 2016 #18
that's the sound i'm hearing from you. Feel the hatred much? MariaThinks Jan 2016 #19
Post removed Post removed Jan 2016 #20
Your analysis is totally wrong and sad. Gothmog Jan 2016 #23
Control over the SCOTUS is a key issue and I doubt that Sanders is viable in the general election Gothmog Jan 2016 #22
This was a 5 to 4 decision that is very controversial. Gothmog Jan 2016 #21
Excellent Kalidurga Jan 2016 #28
Ok. n/t zappaman Jan 2016 #29
kick! in_cog_ni_to Jan 2016 #31
 

TM99

(8,352 posts)
2. Well I guess they
Fri Jan 22, 2016, 03:53 PM
Jan 2016

both are totally ignorant or spouting claptrap, eh?!

Pay attention to that whooshing sound above your head.

OilemFirchen

(7,143 posts)
16. Is the air from that whoosh coming through your ears?
Fri Jan 22, 2016, 04:22 PM
Jan 2016

Gotta be the funniest post today.

But it's early.

 

Proserpina

(2,352 posts)
7. I think they are both saying the same thing
Fri Jan 22, 2016, 03:58 PM
Jan 2016

That there's a theory about the Supreme Court, and then, there's the Reality.

We saw this with Bork. We saw this with that dippy woman...Harriet Miers.

The Nixon twins: Clement Haynsworth and G. Harrold Carswell.

The President can nominate a ham sandwich if he wants, but Congress gets the say....

 

JackRiddler

(24,979 posts)
9. Yeah, this is a response to the ridiculous attack on Sanders
Fri Jan 22, 2016, 03:58 PM
Jan 2016

in Slate, for saying the exact same thing.

onenote

(42,748 posts)
3. As a member of the Supreme Court bar, I'm curious what "profound misunderstanding"
Fri Jan 22, 2016, 03:54 PM
Jan 2016

is reflected in the comments of Clinton (and Sanders) indicating they want to see CU overturned?

onenote

(42,748 posts)
14. Okay. Makes more sense now.
Fri Jan 22, 2016, 04:16 PM
Jan 2016

Although Bernie (whom I support) probably shouldn't have said overturning CU would be one of the first decisions of any SCOTUS justice he nominated. Obviously, that's just hyperbole (not a misunderstanding of how the court works).

 

TM99

(8,352 posts)
15. His comments were recently clarified.
Fri Jan 22, 2016, 04:22 PM
Jan 2016

"Update: Sanders campaign spokeswoman Symone Sanders sent the following note explaining the tweet: "That tweet was worded oddly. The senator often speaks about appointing justices that believe in overturning citizens united and who would do so if the opportunity arose. That is what this was referring to.""

http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2016/01/bernie-sanders-promise-citizens-united-supreme-court

Gothmog

(145,489 posts)
24. Again, the SCOTUS gets to review prior decisions in new cases presented to the court
Fri Jan 22, 2016, 05:39 PM
Jan 2016

Sanders made some stupid statements about revisiting the Citizens United case which can not be done. What can be done is to accept new cases where the effects of Citizens United could be limited. The SCOTUS has not reverse Roe v. Wade but has limited that opinion a great deal over the years. On another board, I counted a dozen or so cases that were sent to the SCOTUS but denied cert where Citizens United could have been limited or ideally overturned.

I see one or two cases a month on Prof. Hasen's blog that could be suitable vehicles for the SCOTUS to revisit or limit Citizens

Hillary Clinton has promised to only appoint SCOTUS justices who will vote to overturn Citizens United http://thevotingnews.com/the-future-of-campaign-finance-rests-with-the-next-supreme-court-appointments-lawrence-nordenthe-atlantic/

For the last 10 years, the Supreme Court has engaged in a systematic effort to transform American democracy. Steered by Chief Justice John Roberts, the Court loosened restrictions on political advertising by corporations and unions, gutted a key provision of the Voting Rights Act, upheld the rights of states to enact restrictive voting laws, and, in the words of Justice Stephen Breyer, “eviscerate[d] our Nation’s campaign-finance laws.” This year, the Court will decide a voting and redistricting case that could change the lines of virtually every state legislative district in the country. There is no area of the law the Roberts Court has more thoroughly transformed. Almost all of the Court’s major election cases were decided by a 5-4 vote. Of course, on the Court, the majority rules. But it would not take a constitutional amendment or a revolution in legal scholarship to bring this string of decisions to an end. It is extremely likely that the next president will have the opportunity to replace at least one (and very likely more than one) Supreme Court justice, as the previous five presidents have done. One new justice on the Court might be enough to push the law in the opposite direction.

Today, super PACs enable the very wealthiest to spend unlimited amounts on campaigns. It’s hard to remember that they didn’t even exist before 2010. That year, the top 100 donors spent less than one third as much as the total contributions of all small donors to federal candidates. By 2014, that drastically changed. The top 100 super PAC donors spent almost as much as the combined total contributed to candidates by all small donors.

Super PACs are a legacy of the Roberts Court’s 5-4 decision in the Citizens United case. At the heart of that ruling was the assumption that independent election spending does “not give rise to corruption or the appearance of corruption.” Three months later, in SpeechNow, a lower court made the logical inference that if independent spending does not corrupt, there is no reason to limit contributions to independent spending groups. Thus “independent-expenditure-only PACs,” soon to be called super PACs, were born.

Could super PACs be banned if Citizens United and SpeechNow were reversed? In a word, yes. In fact, the first court to hear SpeechNow held to what had been the standard before Citizens United, noting that the Supreme Court “ha[d] never held that, by definition, independent expenditures pose no threat of corruption,” and that a group’s legal “independence” does not prevent it from forming close ties with officeholders that could lead to corruption. If a new Court were to accept this reasoning, it could restore the ban on super PACs by upholding the $5,000 limit on donations to political committees; Congress or the Federal Election Commission (FEC) could do the same if the Court overruled Citizens United.
 

DefenseLawyer

(11,101 posts)
8. This was posted in response to an earlier post
Fri Jan 22, 2016, 03:58 PM
Jan 2016

by a Clinton supporter claiming that Sanders "didn't know how the Supreme Court works". No one really thinks she doesn't know how the Court works, it's just pointing out the stupidity of the other post.

 

HassleCat

(6,409 posts)
4. I think she knows
Fri Jan 22, 2016, 03:55 PM
Jan 2016

Litmus tests are not allowed, and justices are not bound by any promises. I guess she means she would nominate judges whose records show, conclusively, they would overturn Citizens United. The problem with that, of course, is she would be nominating very progressive judges, and they would face enormous opposition in the Senate. So, it's probably an empty promise for two reasons: (1) She doesn't want to nominate judges who are that progressive, and (2) she knows the Senate would block the effort. It's just campaign rhetoric.

dsc

(52,166 posts)
30. yeah that horror story of a conservative Ginsburg
Fri Jan 22, 2016, 09:32 PM
Jan 2016

is so awful. Can't imagine having another one of those on the court.

DemocratSinceBirth

(99,711 posts)
6. Politicians pander. Color me as not surprised.
Fri Jan 22, 2016, 03:57 PM
Jan 2016

BTW, all it would take for Citizens United to be reversed is for a litigant who has been injured by it to challenge it, four members of SCOTUS agree to hear it, and then five vote to overturn it.

MariaThinks

(2,495 posts)
17. yes, please tell me your understanding of the court? i thought the President nominates someone
Fri Jan 22, 2016, 04:26 PM
Jan 2016

and then the approval process begins. The nomination, I think, allows the President, a lot of influence in the makeup of who gets nominated.

but I guess the fact that Obama's appointees are leftish while bush's appointees are generally asswipes is just coincidence.

 

TM99

(8,352 posts)
18. Whoosh!
Fri Jan 22, 2016, 04:28 PM
Jan 2016

That sound that is made when the point flies over someone's head.

But please do go on. You were saying about the Supreme Court and nominations. And that it is important to have a Democrat like Sanders instead of a Republican like Trump? Do please go on.

Response to MariaThinks (Reply #19)

Gothmog

(145,489 posts)
23. Your analysis is totally wrong and sad.
Fri Jan 22, 2016, 05:25 PM
Jan 2016

I am not sure that you understand how the SCOTUS works.

Thank you for the laughs

Gothmog

(145,489 posts)
22. Control over the SCOTUS is a key issue and I doubt that Sanders is viable in the general election
Fri Jan 22, 2016, 05:24 PM
Jan 2016

I am living with the consequences of Nader's stupidity in Texas due to the gutting of the Voting Rights Act. I am not comfortable supporting Sanders because he is not viable in the general election and I do not want the GOP to control the SCOTUS for the next generation.

Gothmog

(145,489 posts)
21. This was a 5 to 4 decision that is very controversial.
Fri Jan 22, 2016, 05:21 PM
Jan 2016

Why do you think that the court would not be able to reverse or limit this decision with a new court makeup. Last term there were ten or fifteen cases that were sent to the SCOTUS that involved aspects of Citizens United that the SCOTUS could accept cert on.

Kalidurga

(14,177 posts)
28. Excellent
Fri Jan 22, 2016, 07:33 PM
Jan 2016

Now you have some Hillary supporters that agree that Bernie didn't say that because he doesn't understand. He said it because it's very difficult to explain a very long process of overturning a law via the Supreme Court in a tweet.

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