As I write this, it’s May 23, with perhaps a month less in the Supreme Court’s season.
The court has taken no interest in the massive corruption scandal brewing around it, but, worse, a HUGE number of cases remain unresolved. 26 cases have been resolved, but 36 cases remain. We have never seen anything like this.
And given SCOTUS’ penchant for destroying the fabric of American society, this has to be troubling.
May 25: SCOTUS Guts clean water protections.
Supreme Court Limits E.P.A.’s Power to Address Water Pollution
Adam Liptak / New York Times — The justices ruled that discharges into some wetlands are not covered by the Clean Water Act. — Reporting from Washington — The Supreme Court on Thursday curtailed the Environmental Protection Agency’s authority …
So: 35 cases for SCOTUS to fundamentally transform American life as we know it.
The Roger Taney Court now has a serious challenger for crappiest SCOTUS of all time.
Thus far this century they have thrown one presidential election, gutted dark money provisions in campaign finance, wrecked affirmative action and racial gerrymandering provisions of the Voting Rights Act, misinterpreted the Second Amendment to make all guns available to everyone.
Overturned Roe. v. Wade and a thousand other depredations of what we considered our rights.
Sadly, like the proverbial frog boiling in the water, we don’t notice the incremental rise in temperature.
If and when civil war arrives, the Roberts Court will have more than a cameo role in its genesis.
Oh, and Clarence Thomas continues to be shielded from any meaningful oversight, as he takes literally millions of dollars of free gifts from his benefactor, who told the Senate Judiciary Committee that he didn’t feel any need to testify on the subject in a snotty oligarchic “Let Them East Cake” letter last week.
So, if you have any civil rights, you might want to exercise them in the next couple of weeks, because they may not exist by the end of June.
Courage.
Cross posted from his vorpal sword
A writer, published author, novelist, literary critic and political observer for a quarter of a quarter-century more than a quarter-century, Hart Williams has lived in the American West for his entire life. Having grown up in Wyoming, Kansas and New Mexico, a survivor of Texas and a veteran of Hollywood, Mr. Williams currently lives in Oregon, along with an astonishing amount of pollen. He has a lively blog, His Vorpal Sword (no spaces) dot com.