The US Supreme Court has been taken over by the extreme right and corrupted to the core.
American oligarchy provides Gifts and generosity worth millions On right-wing judges. conservative supremacy of the court hands down extremely unpopular decision take away long established rights, concentrate power Apply more oil to yourself and your friends election rail For his party.
Sometimes, a rebel flag flies in front of a judge’s house.
now a legal system era With black money assets of Leonard Leo and led to humiliation John Roberts has received a condemning verdict from the American people. according to a new gallup poll, Americans have a historic lack of trust in the courts. In an era of low trust in institutions, trust in the judiciary has fallen fastest and steepest during 2020.
This places America in uncharted territory – with dictatorships, banana republics, and military juntas. Judicial confidence has declined over the past four years, as has been the case throughout modern international history. can be compared Lost trust in Syria between 2009 and 2013, with the military takeover of Myanmar between 2018 and 2022, and turmoil in Venezuela from 2012 to 2016.
numbers are shocking and historicOnly 35% of Americans trust the courts. This is a record low. This resonant number should transcend party boundaries; While Gallup does not measure partisanship here, it is the first time that trust in the judiciary has fallen between those who approve and those who disapprove of the country’s leadership.
It is not surprising that Americans have lost all faith in something so undemocratic as an unelected body (with a majority appointed by presidents who lose the popular vote) to have the final say on the actions of the elected branches for a lifetime. Given fiefdoms, without any accountability or, for example, ethical codes that might prevent them from taking luxury vacations paid for by billionaire beneficiaries.
What is very disappointing is that Democrats refused to make the case for reform to a captured court, even in the face of widespread unpopularity and even during a close and bitterly contested race for the White House. Which probably sealed the right-wing dominance of the Supreme Court into the 2060s, if not the 2060s. Ahead.
It is easy to see in hindsight the numerous strategic mistakes of Kamala Harris’s campaign. Yet despite all the post-election autopsies, no one has focused on this: Democrats were gifted an issue on which many Americans agreed, including the hugely popular first step — Term limits for Supreme Court judges and a binding code of conduct – which has the support of about 70% of all Americans, Democrats and Republicans. They ruined it.
Harris supported these reforms in July. She campaigned to restore reproductive rights that were reduced by the court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade., But neither the nominee nor anyone else in the party has ever prosecuted the bigger issue that Americans have come to understand: that our courts are no longer really courts. While the Chief Justice pretends to be a polite umpire who calls balls and strikes, he actually presides over an unelected super-legislature that has become the source of Republican political power. It is the courts that have pushed policy to the right on guns, voting rights, abortion, the environment, and basic protections provided by the regulatory state that most Americans disagree with, making possible the gerrymandered capture of many state legislatures. Who are still doing the same. The affair spread across the country, paving the way for Donald Trump’s return to the White House.
The Democratic Party’s failure here goes far beyond this most recent campaign. The Democrats had the trifecta in Washington after the 2020 election and made no serious effort at judicial reform. The Judiciary Committee, led by Senator Dick Durbin, thwarted every opportunity to hold a hearing and demand accountability following revelations about vacations and other gifts given to conservative judges. In 2016, Democrats nominated milquetoast Merrick Garland to fill the vacancy caused by Antonin Scalia’s death, then didn’t bother to fight for their nominee in the face of Mitch McConnell’s unprecedented blockade.
And while conservatives spent five decades building their own alternative legal establishment – complete with the Federalist Society as its credentialing factory, and a president who agreed to outsource Supreme Court and other judicial appointments to extreme right-wing activists – Democrats blindly and foolishly trusted the rule of law. and the strength of institutional norms. He produced very little of his own. They failed to raise the alarm. He never bothered to build a mandate for popular reforms.
Now the bill is due. Leonard Leo, the Koch family, the Heritage Foundation and the Federalist Society will play the tune. His leading groups will pursue plaintiffs and cases, even if the claims are false and no damages were caused. They will subpoena for a jurist elected to a friendly jurisdiction in Texas or elsewhere in the Fifth Circuit, as they have done in cases involving the abortion pill, immigration and fossil fuels. And then it will be launched on a speedway to the US Supreme Court, where front groups use amicus briefs, which they finance, to send signals to justices who have credentials and confirmation that they have also bought in and Payment has also been made.
The Roberts court has given Trump unprecedented power in his second term thanks to its ruling in his immunity case. Those new powers will come with virtually no accountability. But all this focus on Trump has obscured the source of this power. After all, Trump will have to leave office in four years. However, the right’s almost complete capture of the federal judiciary has ensured that it will remain in charge for decades to come, no matter who occupies the White House.
The new Gallup poll confirms that Americans fully understand that the anti-democratic courts have achieved this disproportionate supremacy. I wish Americans had a political party ready and willing to fight on their behalf.