New York Times obtains 2016 exchanges between Supreme Court justices on quick rulings
The Supreme Court’s “shadow docket” was once a sleepy procedural backwater—used for last-minute technical rulings, often in death penalty cases, and typically without much attention.
But according to a New York Times deep dive into internal court memos, that began to change over the course of five days in 2016, when the justices took the unusual step of blocking an Obama-era climate rule before lower courts had finished weighing in.
Behind the scenes, the documents show, the move was anything but routine—an early signal that the court was willing to act faster, and more aggressively, than tradition might suggest.
Do the leaked memos reveal how many luxury Winnebagos and vacation trips Clarence Thomas was gifted by his good Nazi friend Harlan Crow?
I checked the document and the line item is just a bold YES.
It’s not a gift, gifts would be unethical! It’s a gratuity. See the difference?
No tax on, uh… luxury jets from Qatar!
Fucking American tip-culture is getting out of hand.
Well, it certainly is gratuitous.
So, when will the general public come to realize the Supreme Court is just as corrupted as everything else in politics? The next Democratic presidential candidate better campaign on complete overhaul, pack the courts, remove lifetime appointments, etc.
the Supreme Court is just as corrupted
I would say far MORE corrupted, because they have knowingly and openly been rolling back our rights, or protections, and explicitly any and all laws related to money in elections since the 70s, relying on obscurity and the general disinterest of the average layman in arcane legal matters to do it in open daylight, and throwing out the same kind of legalese bullshit to cover it even if it was noticed at the time.
And once John Roberts, who went from mere attorney to Chief Justice of SCOTUS in just five years courtesy of his work on Bush v. Gore in 2000 (tell me how that’s even possible in any kind of meritocracy) was in place, and Mitch McConnell did his part to deny Obama his presidential right to fill his own vacant seat, and then the handmaiden of Leonard Leo was rolled in on a similarly manipulative expedited appointment (you know the rest) the selling of the US went on speedrun.
MORE corrupt, not as corrupt. The only difference is that now they’re not even trying to hide it.
“I’m sorry, the best we can do is campaigning on status quo, everything is fine, at least I’m not Trump. What are you going to do, vote for a third party and throw your vote away?”
The response to that (at least the one that I’m willing to type online) is to join your local chapters of RankTheVote or other RCV advocacy groups. If we removed FPTP in every state, and also push for local state implementations of “The Montana Plan” (Transparent Election Initiative) which is a way around overturning Citzens United. Check it out.
There is also a constitutional amendment underway to do the same, called American Promise: The For Our Freedom Amendment. It does NOT require a Constitutional Convention to be ratified (a proposed amendment becomes an operative part of the Constitution as soon as it is ratified by three-fourths of the States, currently 38 of the 50 states. No additional action by Congress or anyone else after ratification is required).
This is the text of the proposed amendment:
Section 1. We the People have compelling sovereign interests in the freedom of speech, representative self-government, federalism, the integrity of the electoral process, and the political equality of natural persons.
Section 2. Nothing in this Constitution shall be construed to forbid Congress or the States, within their respective jurisdictions, from reasonably regulating and limiting contributions and spending in campaigns, elections, or ballot measures.
Section 3. Congress and the States shall have the power to implement and enforce this article by appropriate legislation and may distinguish between natural persons and artificial entities, including by prohibiting artificial entities from raising and spending money in campaigns, elections, or ballot measures.
If passed, it takes the power over campaign spending away from the corrupt SCOTUS and gives it back to the states as intended all along, and nullifies corrupt rulings like Citizens United. It’s already about halfway to ratification.
Everybody should be aware of it, but mainstream media DOES NOT talk about it, probably because it has the power to undo all those hard years of right-wing graft in eroding our rights and protections in election funding. I personally heard about it from a Heather Cox Richardson interview, linked below:
The For Our Freedom Amendment website:
https://americanpromise.net/The Heather Cox Richardson episode where I learned about it and its author answers questions, including how and why it needs no Constitutional Convention to get passed:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWhSVDCKIfcThat’s fantastic and the first time I’ve even heard about it, and I’m generally pretty informed on these matters.
However… this is never passing lol
I was amazed myself that I’d never heard of it before now. But yeah, it will pass in time, if we have that time: the only ones who don’t like it are the ones pouring the dark cash into elections. Did you see the map on their website? 25 of 50 states have already passed it or are in the actual process of advancing it. They only need 38.
If you get a chance, listen to Richardson’s interview (or read the transcript) because one of the surprising effects moving this amendment through state legislatures is that representatives who do not have major corporate donors see it as a win for a more equivalent playing field: if they can get it passed, they don’t have to spend all that time and money in races fighting grey money pouring in from undisclosed sources at their opponents.
Didn’t you know, basic economics is a woke lib worldwide conspiracy.
And he used the excuse that it would be expensive to stop coal - literally the worst of energy production methods, which the industry already started to phase out BECAUSE IT ISN’T WORTH IT AND BUILDING OUT RENEWABLES IS CHEAPER THAN OPERATING COAL PLANTS
It’s cowardice, a desire to be unaccountable, and probably laziness, as well.
