GOP IS ALMOST THERE:  TO CONTROL ALL THE U.S. COURTS FOR DECADES

 

…Does Speaker Pelosi really have a way to stop McConnell and the Senate?

 

If McConnell pulls this off, the Dems will be in deep-doo doo for decades

 

Whether Biden and the Democrats can stop Republicans from confirming Trump’s forthcoming nominee remains an open question for the dearth of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.  I thought that the process to stop the president received a boost on Sunday when the Alaska GOP Senator, Lisa Murkowski joined the Republican Senator, Susan Collins of Maine, in opposition to taking up a nominee so close to the election.  

Under that balance of the Senate, Republicans could then afford only one more defection, assuming the entire Democratic caucus stays unified in opposition.  But even though these two GOP Senators said they were in opposition, doesn’t mean they won’t go ahead and vote for a conservative justice, if McConnell put one up for a vote.

And it is looking like that unless Speaker Pelosi really has one of those arrows in her quiver, that she keeps referring to, these Republican Senators are making sounds like they may go ahead and confirm a new Supreme Court nominee from President Trump.

The hope was that perhaps Republican Senators Mitt Romney of Utah and Chuck Grassley of Nebraska, who have said they are against voting for a new Supreme Court Justice so close to a presidential election were to decide to abstain form voting.  But the latest reporting is saying that all the GOP Senators are ready to vote for Trump’s nominee, no matter who he picks..

One area where the Joe Biden team believes the vacancy could be helpful is among women under 40, who have been slow to rally behind to his candidacy. The galvanizing issue for many of these voters is the possibility of losing abortion rights if Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 case guaranteeing the right to decide for an abortion, is overturned.

Outside the campaign, some Democratic-aligned groups plan to focus more intently on the court fight over the next few weeks. Leaders of women's groups and liberal organizations immediately began discussing a 50-state march intended to echo both the 2016 Women’s March and the demonstrations in 2018 after Brett Kavanaugh was added to the court.  

Personally, I believe they would need a giant meeting at the Washington DC Mall, such as the Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I have A Dream” march on Washington, in order to make the appropriate demonstration.

“A real uprising, that has got to be [Ginsburg’s] legacy,” said Hilary Rosen, a Democratic strategist close to the Biden campaign and the co-founder of Times Up Legal Defense Fund, which is an organization to help survivors of sexual harassment.  “The demonstrations will be geared toward motivating voter turnout and might be organized as marches to the polls,” Rosen said.

Ginsburg’s death, and the resulting vacancy, has already had an enormous impact on the party’s fundraising. ActBlue, a clearinghouse for Democratic donations, announced Sunday it had raised $100 million from small-dollar donors since news broke Friday night of Ginsburg’s death.

There is no doubt from the thousands that came to the Supreme Court to acknowledge the passing of Ginsberg as soon as it was announced, the giant crowd demonstrated just how important many Americans respected the justice and her position and legacy on the court.

Joe Biden immediately sought to derail the push by President Trump to swiftly install a new Supreme Court justice, making an unusually personal appeal to Senate Republicans to “cool the flames”.  Biden wanted McConnell to sidestep calls from many in his own party for dramatic retaliatory measures such as expanding the size of the Supreme Court if Trump presses ahead.  But so far, since Biden has no real authority, he is unable to officially do anything.

Seeking to present himself as a president who would defuse the political battles coming in the nomination process, Biden said that if he wins the November election he should be the one to fill the vacancy created by the death of Justice, whom Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) have vowed to quickly replace.

With Sunday’s comments, he turned the Supreme Court vacancy into an early test of his philosophy that Democrats should reach out to receptive Republicans rather than match the GOP’s belligerence with their own.  This is an approach that is rejected by many in the party’s liberal wing.

During his speech at the National Constitution Center, the former vice president stressed repeatedly that voting had already begun, saying that would make the rush to confirm a new justice an affront to democracy.

He offered a simple proposition: “If Trump wins, the Senate ought to consider his pick. But if Biden wins, Trump needs to withdraw his nominee.”

This is not the first time Biden has faced calls from the resurgent left of the Democratic Party to adopt a far-reaching position — from “Medicare-for-all” to “Defund the police.” Each time, he has quickly disavowed those positions, while promising to take strong action of his own.

His comments were notable for urging Republicans to disregard the position of their party leaders, Trump and McConnell. “The last thing we need is to add a constitutional crisis that plunges us deeper into the abyss, deeper into the darkness,” he said.

Some on Biden’s team have been aggravated by the calls on the left to expand the court, expressing particular annoyance with Sen. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) for urging Democrats to abolish the filibuster and add more justices if Senate Republicans move to fill the vacancy.

“The notion of “court packing” has suffered from a bad reputation since President Franklin D. Roosevelt tried and failed in 1937 to expand the Supreme Court, frustrated that the current justices were rejecting many of his New Deal programs. But the Constitution does not specify a particular number of justices; there have been as few as five and as many as 10 over the nation’s history.

Outside pressure has been building for Biden to do and say more, especially about the kind of justice he would nominate. “He has to,” said Shaunna Thomas, the co-founder of UltraViolet, a women’s group are determined not to bow to forces urging them to change their approach. They have long been content focusing voter attention on Trump’s widely criticized handling of the coronavirus pandemic, and are reluctant to get enmeshed in a fight that could alienate centrist voters. On Sunday, Biden aimed to draw a direct connection between the court battle and the virus, citing the threats a more conservative panel would pose to the ACA.

“If Donald Trump has his way, the complications from covid-19 . . . like lung scarring and heart damage, could become the next deniable preexisting condition,” Biden said.

Democrats fear a new conservative justice succeeding the liberal Ginsburg could tilt the court to the right and tip the outcome on high-profile cases for decades to come. Biden said the environment and the rights of voters, immigrants and women were also at stake. But he avoided specific mention of some divisive topics such as guns and only briefly made a reference to abortion rights.

Although Biden’s advisers believe that the court vacancy could energize voters concerned about issues like health care and women’s rights, they do not plan to make the court a primary part of their campaign message.

“It highlights the importance of the role of the president,” said Rep. Cedric L. Richmond (D-La.), co-chairman of Biden’s campaign. “This will double down on the seriousness of this election. If the 200,000 covid deaths didn’t do it, this will do it.”

This tempered view of how to handle the vacancy is partly due to polling reviewed by the Biden team showing that most voters are not familiar with the Supreme Court’s activities. “You can expect it to come up in a way that reinforces the core message, but we’re not going to reorient our campaign around a set of talking points that only resonates with D.C. insiders and court watchers,” said one Biden adviser.

One area where the Biden team believes the vacancy could be helpful is among women under 40, who have been slow to rally behind to his candidacy. The galvanizing issue for many of these voters is the possibility of losing abortion rights if Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 case guaranteeing the right to an abortion, is overturned.

Outside the campaign, some Democratic-aligned groups plan to focus more intently on the court fight over the next few weeks. Leaders of women's groups and liberal organizations immediately began discussing a 50-state march intended to echo both the 2016 Women’s March and the demonstrations in 2018 after Kavanaugh joined the court.

“A real uprising, that has got to be [Ginsburg’s] legacy,” said Hilary Rosen, a Democratic strategist close to the Biden campaign and the co-founder of Times Up Legal Defense Fund, an organization to help survivors of sexual harassment.

“The demonstrations will be geared toward motivating voter turnout and might be organized as marches to the polls,” Rosen said.

Ginsburg’s death, and the resulting vacancy, has already had an enormous impact on the party’s fundraising. ActBlue, a clearinghouse for Democratic donations, announced Sunday it had raised $100 million from small-dollar donors since news broke Friday night of Ginsburg’s death.

But the real threat to the liberals in the Democratic party is that the big money in the GOP is to go after ALL the U.S. Courts.  McConnell and Trump have done just that so far, and this latest move with a possible new Supreme Court nominee at the last moment, this is perfect for their long-term desires.  Their goal is to own the U.S. courts for decades to come, no matter who has the Congress or the presidency, and they are almost there.

Copyright G. Ater 2020