Biden Unveils Commission To Study SCOTUS Reform | Talking Points Memo

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#76

If this committee is even able to produce a report prior to the end of the term, it will have less impact that the Mueller Report which at least had statutes to grapple with rather than esoteric constitutional and legal principles and still ended up there making not a bit of difference.

I really like Biden but this is the one area that I think is just a total blunder. The administration is attempting to protect the constitutional order by protecting the court’s “majesty” through delay but the court lost the thing they were attempting to protect decades ago when the right created the Federalist Society and started grooming the personification of cancer in law schools and eventually in district and appellate level judges. The Roberts Court is the return on that investment, not the leading indicator of decay. If you delay dealing with cancer it doesn’t get better.

#77

Jerry Rubin would approve.

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#78

And also, back then, any little infection could end up killing you. Not to mention agricultural, fishing, and forest accidents, wars, shipwrecks, yellow fever, cholera, typhus, smallpox, etc.!

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#79

This is true. The 20th century really was an age of medical miracles.

#80

You think that Manchin would support packing the court?

Biden can count votes, as long as we don’t have them, pointless to pursue legislation, especially as this sort of thing would be a one-time shot-- fail, it’s not coming back around for another couple of decades.

But can take moves that help move the ball along, which is what the study will do.

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#81

Two croissants? What’s wrong with a sloppy joe, or a hot dog (no relish of course)?

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#82

I lost my appetite until after Thanksgiving.

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#83

Elitists eat different.

But on the other hand, croissants served via Zoom taste exactly like sloppy joes and hot dogs served via Zoom – so there’s that.

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#84

No I don’t think Manchin would support it, I just don’t agree that this move the ball down the court. It feels more like taking the ball off the court if we are using references referring to balls.

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#85

If you don’t have the votes, you can either choose to sit on your hands, or do something that’s at least performative. Biden’s choosing the latter, at least tees up the ball.

The 9/11 Commission Report did end up changing things.

Reports and all that may be wonky and boring stuff for many folks, but they provide the underpinnings of a lot of legislation which comes after.

#86

OT, but Gaetz just lost another staffer.

" A source directly connected to Murphy said he left the job, not specifically because of Gaetz’s legal troubles, but because the “media circus” surrounding the Republican made it difficult to accomplish “meaningful congressional work.”

Who knew Gaetz planned to one day do “meaningful congressional work?”

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#87

hahahahahaha yeah that’s a good one.

#88

If the justices trusted the oligarchs’ word, it could be paid out after they did retire during the term of a rat-wing president. The agreement could be kept secret.

Also, I wonder if it couldn’t be hidden through a trust arrangement that again, might be benign-looking, or at least opaqueish, until the trustees distribute it. Probably not, but go know what a brilliant shyster could come up with.

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#89

“A source directly connected to Murphy” knew, apparently, although this sounds kinda painful in itself.

#90

Hmm, illegal promise of more bribe money later if I stay on the bench until age 86 and still risk going to prison for bribery, or fuck off to the south of France forever with $30 milion cash today? Tough choice.

And I’ve thought of an alternative “pension” plan to encourage retirements instead of the outright one-time congressional bribery of my original proposal. Make all Supreme Court justices eligible for a $10 million cash pension that they can claim whenever they would like to retire.

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#91

Well if the GOP hates this, they’re just freaking about the gun EO, I bet! It has come to the attention of the press, that Wayne LaPierre doesn’t know how or is even uncomfortable with handling firearms. C’mon! I’m a Liberal and even I’ve handled a rifle and pistol or 3. Plinking and a little hunting, is just what you take up, when you’re growing up rural!

#92

Check the numbers: our right-wing oligarchs can outbid the US taxpayers to buy a Justice’s retirement or continuation, thanks to the oligarchs’ influence on the tax laws.

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#93

“Here’s my Thinking Long And Hard Commission; it even has a couple of your guys on it, to make sure we think thoroughly. You can be sure that, when they’re done, the resulting bill will carry more weight than if I had sent a SCOTUS And Courts Expansion bill to Congress my first week.”

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#94

… because the media found Murphy hired Gaetz’s underage sloppy seconds as an “aide” who might be “a source directly connected to Murphy”, perhaps? Connected at the hips, so to speak? (That’s a WaR post, not a documented datum; it would make sense.)

#95

“Yeah, we’re still reeling from the decision to drop the powdered wigs, can you imagine the drama if we change mascara at this point!?!”

What? Oh, I see. Never mind…

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