Cross-posted from And The Horse You Rode In On
Like the deranged administration that created it, the right wing majority on the Supreme Court is losing touch with American ideas and ideals.
Most Americans don’t try to parse the abstractions of constitutional law, but they know they don’t want a king. And they don’t want a pope.
Especially not a pope with taxing power who takes their money under pain of imprisonment, then hands it out to churches and religious proselytizers of whom he approves.
Nor do Americans want an arrogant chief executive who lies to them in his State of the Union address, who encourages the torture of prisoners who have not even been charged, and who shows contempt for Congress and the Supreme Court by adding 750 “signing statements” to laws he doesn’t intend to uphold if he (rather than the courts) regards them as unconstitutional.
Yet we already know from statements on the public record that Justices Roberts, Alito, Scalia, and Thomas favor a strong-executive interpretation of the Constitution and tend to deny mere citizens any standing to dispute such high-handed actions. As for Justice Kennedy, he has sided with the right-wingers 80% of the time on 5-4 decisions, including those favoring prosecutors, federal spending on religious activists, and limitations of free speech.
Why is the following so obvious from the outside and apparently so obscure from inside the hallowed chambers:
One day they will awaken to find that the all-powerful executive they have so heavily armed in the White House is no longer a Republican.
And by that time, Congress may have a mighty majority of new members who actually reflect American convictions – especially those of the rising generations of younger Americans — and who are ready to pass whatever laws are needed to neutralize or nullify the fossilized fascists left over on the Court from the embarrassing days of Bush & Co.