alito is playing in our faces because he knows there’s nothing we can do about it and he has total contempt for the idea that he might be accountable for anything he does
Basically. The Constitution was written to make sure the three branches could check each other but not run roughshod over each other. They somehow didn't anticipate a system where an entire faction has enough power to just jam all the wheels and proceed to laugh about it.
Impeachment starts in the House, so that's right out, at the moment. However, the Senate Judiciary could hold hearings. Use them as a means to move public opinion and raise the salience of this issue.
They've ruled out expanding the court, which is the only realistic way to reduce the conservative power, so the worst they can do are public scoldings.
i need people to understand that expanding the court is such a heavy political lift that it basically has not been done since the civil war when there was literally no opposition to it in congress.
It is a heavy lift, incredibly heavy. But work has to be put in first. Speeches about how the court has not always been 9 and how there were 9 circuits when 9 was settled on and we now have 13. An argument has to be advanced. Without that prep work though, no chance in hell.
right. it’s the only fix and the only way it will happen is if the issue is so top of mind for the electorate that the idea is filibuster-proof
so if we want to pack the courts later, what we should ask for NOW is for dems to kick up a big stink
People will yell at Democrats for not doing things with the slimmest majorities then commit to never voting in order to change those majorities because "it doesn't matter"
They never want power, they just want to endlessly critique it
When you say a heavy lift, are you referring to other politicians or voters?
I think you’re correct with the former, but not the latter.
If Democrats expanded the court next February, I doubt it would be an issue in the next election for anyone other than extreme partisans.
But unicorns! Thanks. I get so freaking tired of “just expand the court,” as if it’s about as difficult as getting a perm or opting for a double-breasted blazer.
What I'd like people to understand is that expanding the court is solving the wrong problem. Packing the court with Democrats only removes Republican influence over the Court until the Republicans can re-pack the Court for themselves. The deeper problem is political partisanship on the bench.
Which is why they won't actually do public hearings. If this issue becomes salient, it begs the question: what would Ds do (when they had the power to do it). And the answer is: nothing.
So they make mouth noises about an ethics code for SCOTUS and then get back to their fundraising calls.
Ds need 51 non-Manchin, non-Sinema seats in the Senate and a willingness to abolish the filibuster. (Of course, that's ignoring the other probably at-least-half-dozen Senate Ds that are waiting in the wings to assume Manchin's and Sinema's mantle)
And the other stuff, too.
They can hold public hearings. They could subpoena the justices. They could be out on the capital steps holding press conferences to educate non political junkies. But we get crickets.
Several SC watchers have suggested that Alito and Thomas are likely to ignore subpoenas; and any attempt to hold them in contempt of court would quickly become a judicial crisis, so…
There are, in fact, in the political realm, a whole host of actions they could do around and with this obvious corruption, but the learned helplessness of "we can't get a conviction so why bother even commenting on it" is going to be the death of Democracy in this country.
