Tuesday, July 10, 2018

SCOTUS















For anyone waiting:

1) In the days (pre-1973, if you were wondering) before they were the de facto rulers of the former republic, SCOTUS nominations were largely accorded the same attention given to undersecretary-of-state confirmation hearings in the pre-CSPAN era world: i.e. a small paragraph on page A23 in the corner, unless the personage were notable (as opposed to notorious, or someone's hunchbacked assistant). Presidents didn't send knuckleheads up for the jobs, because the Senate would box their ears from both sides of the aisle, but the world didn't hold its breath waiting for the announcement either.

2) Kavanaugh is a recently confirmed appellate jurist of good repute and mostly sterling jurisprudence, who will hopefully uphold the Constitution as written (Scalia, Thomas, et al) rather than as imagined (Sandra Day O'Communist, Satanmayor, Ginsburg, and their ilk). This also used to be common practice from all nominees, and something so un-notable as to not require mentioning, prior to the appearance of the communists appointed to the court from FDR onwards.

3) Now that Bitch McConjob has been dragged, albeit kicking and screaming, to common sense regarding Senate rules on confirmations, the Evil Party is left with nothing to do but bawl and soil themselves, and after a year and a half, the effects are and will be nil, and even the spectacle itself is about as spontaneous as a performance of Punch and Judy.
And although their feelings are clear, their hearts aren't in it, and one detects they have all the cheer and optimism about this pro forma astroturfed rabble-rousing against Nominee X equaled only by the enthusiasm of a kamikaze pilot looking forward to his second flight.

4) Even dedicated saboteurs like Susan Collins and John McCrazy have had their impact curtailed, and the likelihood is that if they manage to screw this pooch from President Trump now, it will become a pyrhhic victory if/when we pick up seats in the Senate in the midterms, and McCrazy is out forever (cue angelic chorus!). So the next nominee will be Andrew Napolitano or Ann Coulter. The lunatic backstabbing fringe knows this, and this isn't a hill they'll want to die on, but should they inexplicably decide to commit sepukku amidst a pool of flaming gasoline, I for one would like to welcome the January nomination and lead-pipe cinch confirmation hearings of Justice Coulter or Napolitano.

5) Kavanaugh, like Gorsuch, will probably issue rulings we like, and some we intensely despise. Kagan, Satanmayor, Breyer, and desperately clinging-to-life-waiting-for-2025 Ginsburg will be left with nothing to do but author increasingly unhinged dissents, provided we don't get another wobble-wagon like Kennedy, or anybody who can find trimesters surreptitiously sequestered in invisible ink among the folds of the four pages of the current US Constitution. We will slay those dragons as they appear.

If you needed a list, Roe, Kelo, NFIB v. Sebelius, the NFA of 1934 and GCA of 1968, and any "Patriot" Act ever signed, all need revisitation and reversal on the grounds of simple common sense, but we aren't getting our hopes up. Perhaps, now that the Court has re-discovered the Second Amendment, they can cement it firmly back in place along the lines suggested, and then turn their attentions to restoring the Fourth, Fifth, Ninth, and Tenth Amendments as well. But the mere prospect of the court using the Constitution as a rulebook for the next twenty years, rather than a script for improv riffs, let alone parchment toilet paper, is novel enough to engender some small spark of hope that all is not yet completely lost.

1 comment:

SiGraybeard said...

Kavanaugh, like Gorsuch, will probably issue rulings we like, and some we intensely despise. ... provided we don't get another wobble-wagon like Kennedy,

That's my guess on what Kavanaugh will turn out to be: another Kennedy. As an appellate court judge, he seemed to be willing to accept "stare decisis" and not rock the boat too much. Now that he's going to be in the position of handing down those decisions my guess is he'll end up being indecisive. At least for a while.

We know that the hysterical shrieking from the left is just for show (well, and for fund raising) and it seems particularly stupid to hear such wailing for replacing Justice Kennedy with Justice Kennedy.