Excellent read, as always, by Steve Vladeck, on the potential of creating a Supreme Court Inspector General:
Could the Legislature“rest the creation of a fifth Supreme Court office, an Article III Inspector General[?] It seems to me that the answer, at least as a matter of constitutional law, is clearly ‘yes.’”
Skop – who has called the supreme court’s overturning of #RoevWade “a victory in the battle but not the end of the #war” – has argued in favor of forcing #rape and #incest#victims as young as nine or 10 to carry #pregnancies to term.
As Chris Geidner reports, Washington Post knew three years ago about Alito's wife flying the insurrectionist flag of white Christian nationalism, and buried the story.
"As Alito provided an essential fifth vote hollowing out the Fourteenth Amendment’s bar to insurrectionists’ holding office, the Post sat silent."
"What are we to make of the fact that Trump can be re-elected, that the Supreme Court is full of reactionary fanatics, and Congress isn't acting on the will of the American people? For starters, we have a political system that acts like a dam, blocking the 'main stream' of where this country is today. …
"It serves people who want to keep living in what used to be the American mainstream. Our demographics are changing rapidly, but there was a time not that long ago when the vast majority of American society was white and Christian. There was a time when being LGBTQ+ was considered by a majority to be morally reprehensible. When it was okay to deny Black people the right to vote, or even freedom."
Our political system has been rigged by corporate lobbyists, lawmakers, and judges to hold public office hostage to big money—intentionally excluding the working-class majority from its rightful place at America’s policy table."
"Republican attorneys general in 19 states have asked the U.S. #SupremeCourt to block several Democratic-led states from pursuing #ClimateChange lawsuits against the oil and gas industry in their own state courts.
The unusual request comes as dozens of states and local governments have filed lawsuits alleging that #FossilFuel companies deceived the public about the risks of their products contributing to climate change."
As Heather Cox Richardson reports, the Supreme Court just signed off on a South Carolina congressional map that dilutes Black votes by gerrymandering.
And Samuel Alito wrote the majority opinion. She writes,
"Almost exactly 70 years after the Supreme Court unanimously decided Brown v. Board, it appears that the framed timbers designed to reverse the expansion of minority rights are falling into place."
"The conservative court on which Alito sits is largely the product of right-wing dark-money overlord Leonard Leo, and — wouldn’t you know it — Leo flew the same 'Appeal to Heaven' flag outside of his house in Maine.
Murray Ngoima, a Bar Harbor resident, provided Rolling Stone with a photo she took of the flag hanging outside of his house on Feb. 25."
"The reason the Alito flag stories (like the Thomas stories) are so important is not because they reveal the individuals in question to be extremist ideologues. It is because of the utter contempt for the history, ethics, and standing of the court on which they serve."
The #SupremeCourt on Thurs allowed the use of a #SC congressional map that a lower court said “exiled” thousands of #BlackVoters to carve out a district safer for a #WhiteRepublican incumbent.
The decision was a victory for #Republicans not only because it clears the way for a map that is favorable to the #GOP. It also sets a high bar for determining when a map can be considered a #RacialGerrymander, rather than a #partisan one. #SCOTUS has previously found the #Constitution bars racial #gerrymandering but that federal courts cannot police partisan gerrymandering.
U.S. Supreme Court approves South Carolina congressional map previously found to dilute Black voting power.
CNN reports the court rejected "the argument raised by civil rights groups that lawmakers impermissibly used race as a proxy to bolster the GOP’s chances. But the high court also said that the civil rights groups that challenged the maps could continue to pursue one part of their claim, a move that will likely delay the battle over the districts for months."
Another Provocative Flag Was Flown at Another Alito Home
The justice’s beach house displayed an “Appeal to Heaven” flag, a symbol carried on Jan. 6 and associated with a push for a more Christian-minded government.