Originally published at: How John Roberts Won Over the Bush White House and Remade the Supreme Court
Twenty years ago this week, John Roberts became the Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court and embarked on a campaign to dismantle vital legal precedents and landmark laws, like the Voting Rights Act. During the hearings on his nomination, Roberts used his skills in oral advocacy to paint a picture of himself as an…
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A big bucket of cold water for all the bedwetting nitwits who keep looking for saviors so they never have to leave the safety of their keyboards. Sorry ladies, no one is coming to save you. Not Roberts, Melania, Ivanka, the courts, the media, the “adults in the room,” no one. If you want to save your democracy, get off your asses. And don’t ask me again what you should be doing. I’ve laid out a dozen things we can and should be doing and I only ever see traces of it happening. Abusive marriages drag on until one person decides he or she has had enough. It’s obvious far too few people in this stupid country have had anywhere near enough of this shit.
As I watched his confirmation hearing 20 years ago, a sense of dread overwhelmed me. To me, I was witnessing a right wing radical lying to the Senate, his true intent, which was to overturn “settled law” he didn’t agree with. I didn’t buy the so-called balls and strikes he put forth as his role. My worst fears have come true. He is the worst chief justice in our country’s history by far. He should be impeached.
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His approach was to instruct her on “how a nominee could deflect senators’ questions while appearing to answer them.”
A key principle in the Sermon on the Mount.
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Lisa Graves is a national treasure! Thanks, TPM, for publishing this. I just bought the book on Tuesday and am 3/4 of the way through. It is informative about all things Judiciary, all things John Roberts, all things about how we got into this mess and how we might get out of it. If you care about our Democracy and believe in the rule of law, please read this book!
PS. Josh had a really good post about reforming the court on September 29th. Check it out!
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From her book…
The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress.
–Frederick Douglas, 1857
Nice!
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In 2011, Jane Roberts was listed as its historian when it published a pamphlet with excerpts from past sermons, like this one from 1989 assailing abortion, divorce, and the U.S. Supreme Court’s legal precedents on the separation of church and state: “This separation will necessarily lead to moral decay. Indeed, it already has, as evidenced by the number of abortions, divorces, and teenage pregnancies. Church and state should engage in a dialogue to rediscover those moral values founded on the Judeo-Christian tradition and on the natural law, specifically those values which defend the dignity and value of every human being, that are embodied in the Constitution.”
With the current court consisting of six Catholics led by Roberts, it is not surprising they would seek to overturn Roe and blur the line between church and state. But their rulings on voting rights, giving favor to corporations, removing affirmative action and worker rights, upholding capital punishment are contrary to Catholic teaching.
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Dethroning Taney from that unlofty perch wasn’t easy, but Roberts has proved himself up to the task.
Welcome to our little hive, by the way.
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And I’m sure they’re quite outraged by Pope Leo pointing that contradiction out.
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