For forty years - Ruth Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor excepted - every new member of the Supreme Court has taken a seat held by someone to the left of the new justice. Just in case you're wondering - start with Thurgood Marshall being replaced by Clarence Thomas, and end with Notorious RBG herself replaced by her antonym Amy Coney Barrett, a Handmaid in the cultish Catholic movement People of Praise .
So what is the Agenda of the right wing Catholic and conservative supermajority on the court? Voting rights, environmental regulations, gun control, and the right to terminate a pregnancy are all on the chopping block. Chief Justice Roberts - who is responsible for neutering the Voting Rights Act is the most moderate member of the conservative group.
The obvious remedy - enlarging the Supreme Court so as to outvote the reactionaries - appears to be beyond reach. Some damage can be repaired in the 18 month window til the next federal election, such as by loading a must pass bill with riders reversing bad decisions reached on non-Constitutional grounds. But conservative judges have long abandoned the "least dangerous branch" ethos and aggressively pursue their agenda which further entrenches white, rural, and business interests.
Ian Millhiser spells it out in conversation with Irin Carmon of New York Magazine, in a Strand Bookstore talk about his new book The Agenda: How a Republican Supreme Court Is Reshaping America.
- GWC
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