by Pa Rock
Poetry Appreciator
US Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died just thirty-eight days ago, and while the United States Senate has managed to do almost no substantive business in nearly a year, that august body did set several land-sped records in getting the nomination of Amy Coney Barrett before the full Senate where it will be rubber-stamped by the GOP majority this evening.
This will be Donald Trump's third dump on the Supreme Court. He began his term by filling the seat of Justice Antonin Scalia who died early in Barack Obama's last year in office. Obama nominated a highly qualified replacement, Judge Merrick Garland, to replace Scalia, but Senate Majority Leader McConnell refused to act on the nomination for ten full months - holding it open so that the incoming President could name the replacement.
Trump's first nomination, that of Justice Neil Gorsuch, has been widely viewed as stolen from the Democratic Party.
Two year's into his presidency, Justice Anthony Kennedy surprised many by suddenly retiring from the Supreme Court. Interestingly, Kennedy's son was an officer with Deutsch Bank and had approved large loans for the Trump organization when no other banks would step forward to help the Trump family wade through their financial swamp. Some politicians and media analysts at the time questioned Kennedy's sudden decision to retire from the Court, and some speculated that the Trump family had information on the Justice's son that played into the retirement decision.
Trump's second nomination, that of Brett Kavanaugh, has been questioned as a bit too convenient and something which bears investigation. Justice Kavanaugh also had some substantial personal debt that seems to have disappeared as his nomination to the Court was announced.
And now the third nomination is in play, the one to replace Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg who passed away on September 18th. McConnell had stalled on filling Scalia's open seat for more than ten months with the reasoning the the incoming President should be the one to name the new Justice. He and Trump quickly dropped that pretense when Justice Ginsburg died, and they moved quickly to fill it. Trump, in fact, nominated Amy Coney Barrett to take Ginsburg's seat before the deceased Justice was even buried.
Amy Coney Barrett is a strong conservative voice whose past opinions in her very short tenure as a federal judge (three years) seem to be rooted in her strong Catholic background. Her views that are known are in stark contrast to the much more progressive leanings of Justice Ginsburg. Judge Barrett, in fact, went on record when Justice Scalia died and McConnell refused to move on an Obama nomination as saying that when the new justice would alter the balance of power in the court, it should be made by the incoming President.
But that was then, and this is now. Those old standards of behavior are irrelevant when the shoe is safely on the other foot.
So as of today more than sixty million Americans have already voted, and the official Election Day itself is in eight days - but the US Senate - which unbelievably "worked" this past weekend on Saturday and Sunday to speed Barrett's nomination toward a final vote, will meet in special session tonight and narrowly approve Amy Coney Barrett to take Ruth Bader Ginsburg's seat on the Supreme Court.
Trump's third nomination was another steal - from the president who will be elected next week.
Justice Stephen Breyer drafted this short poem regarding his good friend, Ruth Bader Ginsburg:
I heard of Ruth's death while I was reciting the Mourrner's Kaddish at the Rosh Hashanah service. I thought:
a great Justice;
a woman of valor,
a rock of righteousness;
and my good, good friend.
The world is a better place for her having lived in it.
And so is her family;
her friends;
the legal community;
and the nation.
Judge Barrett has some mighty big shoes to fill. Let us hope and pray that she has the ability and the willingness to look past her personal beliefs and practices and stand up for the rights of all Americans.
1 comment:
I suspect Barrett will sink into the history of the United States Supreme Court to a level adjacent to John Rutledge. Barrett will be a full throated judicial supporter of the Black Lives Matter movement, until of course those lives pass through the birth canals of their mothers. Then all bets are off.
Rutledge also thought it was a good idea to divide American society into classes for representation. One can only imagine the contortions Barrett would bend the law to justify that non-egalitarian view.
Fortunately the size of the United States Supreme Court is not set by the Constitution and has been expanded and shrunk several times during the nation's history. The new Congress can expand the Court. The new Congress can also investigate Justice Kavanaugh for the many untruths told under oath during his confirmation hearing. Impeachment and removal is appropriate for Kavanaugh because one is simply not permitted to lie one's way onto the Court.
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