Neil Gorsuch
- Watched a robbery taking place and did nothing to stop it.
- Participated in the robbery (hearings)
- Took possession of the stolen goods (confirmation)
- Cannot be seen as legitimate member of SCOTUS since he is took part in the theft and is directly benefiting from these ill gotten gains. His tenure is “tainted right off the bat.”
Nothing coming out of the court can now be seen as non-partisan because of how the process was corrupted. Dahlia Lithwick is right that SCOTUS lost its legitimacy with criminal master mind Mitch McConnell’s successful machinations. It will be hard if not impossible for it to get it back. Republicans will want to normalize Gorsuch to try and get back to viewing the SCOTUS as non-partisan as quickly as possible. But it’s not business as usual, they blew that up way back in March 2016 — and we can’t let them normalize it for themselves or him or us. For they will do it again.
The court’s institutional integrity completely rests on public confidence in the court. It’s not like other positions. The court, if it is under a cloud, under a shadow of some sort, there’s nothing the court can do to get that back. And so this is a different institution from other institutions of government in so far as all of these questions about the legitimacy, this stolen seat now being filled by a stolen presidency. The rest of the Republic can recover from this. You know what doesn’t recover, the court. The court really does institutionally suffer when public judgment about the court’s legitimacy is in doubt. It’s different from other institutions and that really up the stakes here in a way that is beyond fatuously quoting Ted Cruz. It really hurts the court. — Dahlia Lithwick, The Rachel Maddow Show, 3/21/2017
Asterisks are not enough. They do not and will not tell the story Republicans are desperate that Americans forget, as they apparently have. Especially in the soundbite pithy format that is necessary to not only remember, but to make a point. So we must. And we must remind Republicans in every way, every day why we are angry and why their crime will not be passed by.
Thief Justice Neil Gorsuch
Circling back to our coverage from December, I tend to think of this story as a scandal that’s never really fully been appreciated as one. Just after the election, Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) told MSNBC’s Chris Hayes that Senate Republicans’ treatment of a qualified, moderate jurist was effectively a political crime. A Supreme Court seat, the Oregon senator argued, was “stolen from the Obama administration and the construct of our Constitution. And it’s being delivered to an administration that has no right to fill it.” The American people, Merkley added, need to “understand that this is the theft of the court.” — Steve Bennen
Even if they nominate Merrick Garland for the next vacancy it will not erase this theft. Thief Justice Neil Gorsuch is who he is now and forever. Throwing Dems the bone of Garland next time will not ever change this.
Thief Justice Neil Gorsuch