There's one service the Republican blockade of new Supreme Court justices is providing—the overall state of the judiciary is getting more scrutiny, like this story in The New York Times, and in state after state it's looking grim. Not surprisingly, you can find one organization responsible for much of the havoc, and of course that organization is backed by the Kochs.
Here's Kansas, as an example.
Gov. Sam Brownback and other conservative Republicans have expressed outrage over State Supreme Court decisions that overturned death penalty verdicts, blocked anti-abortion laws and hampered Mr. Brownback’s efforts to slash taxes and spending, and they are seeking to reshape a body they call unaccountable to the right-tilting public.
At one point, the Legislature threatened to suspend all funding for the courts. The Supreme Court, in turn, ruled in February that the state’s public schools must shut down altogether if poorer districts do not get more money by June 30. […]
In March, in the latest salvo, the Republican-controlled Senate passed a bill to authorize impeachment of justices if their decisions “usurp” the power of other branches. But the climactic battle is expected in the November elections, when conservatives hope to remake the seven-member Supreme Court in a flash, by unseating four justices regarded as moderate or liberal.
Of course it's not just Kansas. It's also Arkansas and Wisconsin and Oklahoma and Georgia and all over the country. What these state fights have in common with the federal Supreme Court fight, of course, is the interference of the Judicial Crisis Network, a "social interest" non-profit which used to be the Judicial Confirmation network, back when there was a Republican president.
Since Barack Obama won election in 2008, the "JCN has emerged as a pipeline for secret money to other, better-known dark money groups like the Wisconsin Club for Growth and the American Future Fund which, in turn, have spent big bucks in state Supreme Court and AG races." It has spent millions in the states to get the conservative outcomes it wants from the courts.
And where did it come from? "JCN has increasingly relied on funding—to the tune of nearly $4 million, according to IRS documents—from another non-disclosing group, the Wellspring Committee [which] was founded seven years ago with the help of conservative donors in the network led by billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch." Because what other vast dark money network would want to buy the judiciary.
The Supreme Court fight is just the tip of the very extreme iceberg of the Kochs' and their allies' plans to radically transform American government and society.
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