Justice for All

 

The oath that a Supreme Court Justice must take is defined by law and has changed a bit over time. (A justice must take a Constitutional oath and a Judicial oath or a combination.) The combined oath for the office of Supreme Court Justice is the following:  “I, ___”name”______, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will administer justice without respect to persons, and do equal right to the poor and to the rich, and that I will faithfully and impartially discharge and perform all the duties incumbent upon me as­­­­­­­­­­______ ­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­under the Constitution and laws of the United States; and that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will w ell and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So, help me God.”

Judge Amy Coney Barrett was nominated by the president yesterday for the Supreme Court vacancy left by the death of Justice Ginsburg. She is expected to receive a swift approval by the Republican led Senate which is demonstrating that its’ oath of office means little and power and hypocrisy mean a lot. As judges go, she is young and relatively inexperienced and, if confirmed, will be the youngest ever seated on the court. She had been a law clerk for Justice Antonin Scalia and is loved by those in the Conservative movement; she graduated at the top of her class at Notre Dame Law School. So far,her decisions as a judge on the 7^th Circuit of the Court of Appeals and journaled legal opinion articles have demonstrated that she is against abortion, for second amendment rights and not supportive of immigrant rights, the death penalty and the Affordable Care Act. She is a member of a fringe charismatic religious group, (which some have called a cult), that supports covenant marriage and the domination of the husband in that marriage and supports conversion therapy for gay persons. One can only hope that, if selected, Judge Barrett believes the words of her stated oath and leaves her personal opinions aside when deciding cases. The Affordable Care Act termination case being brought by the Republican States Attorneys General is due to be heard the week after the election. If her appointment is rushed through, it is hoped by the Administration that she can be sworn in in time to hear oral arguments, since she is known to have spoken out against the law. With any luck, her appointment can be delayed a bit.

It appears that no choice could have been further from the beliefs and actions of the late Justice Ginsburg. When the president paid respects at her viewing at the Supreme Court, he was booed by spectators and many chanted “Vote him out.” I so hope that this happens. If Barrett is chosen, as seems inevitable, her choice will leave the court with a 6-3 right vs. left makeup. In the 2019-20 court session, of the 63 petitions in which decisions were made - only 19 were unanimous and 17 were decided by a 7-2 or 8-1 decision.

I had planned to write about the damage being done to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) this week, but events have pushed those subjects back a bit. In my opinion these are two agencies, staffed by career professionals, scientists, physicians and statisticians whose positions on issues should not be politicized.

Instead, let’s take a look at the extraordinary assault on the electoral process being waged by the president and the attorney general. The Atlantic Magazine felt that this information was so important that it published this article by Barton Gellman early so that it could be read before the election.  His reporting indicates that the president is counting on Republicans voting in person and giving him the lead on election night, while he expects Democrats to vote by mail and intends to challenge these votes.  A strategy, he reported, has been mapped out to challenge signatures and look minutely at the voting processes.  Instead of hanging chads as was seen in Florida in 2000, now reviewing postmarks could be the new way to invalidate a ballot as postmarks are not always clear. (However, attempts at hobbling the postal services were not successful; a Federal judge has also blocked the post office from any slow down or further decommissioning of equipment before the election.) Should those measures fail, some states with Republican legislatures and governors are being primed to invalidate the selected electors and appoint new ones who would choose the president – so he could then win the electoral college and serve another term.  

Academic scholars, according to Gellman, are indicating that unless there is an overwhelming win by Biden that the country could face a serious Constitutional crisis. As the returns in 2018 on election night changed as more mailed in ballots were counted in succeeding days, the president called for a stop to the counting after election night; this is something he will try to claim again is necessary. The Biden campaign and ordinary voters cannot allow him to do this. The president is already saying that if he does not win, that will mean that the election is fraudulent and so he would not have to leave office; at times he has even said that he thinks three terms might be nice – has he ever read the two-term limit in the constitution? And eventually, it is said, he will challenge the results in state after state and turn to “his” Republican majority on the Supreme Court to rule in his favor. As has been mentioned before here, the Republican Party is working to suppress the Black vote, especially in swing states; that is also why they have been working to get the troubled rapper Kanye West on the ballot and so far, according to Politico, have succeeded in seven states. There are also reliable reports that the party is working to have voter intimidation and physical challenges to vote counting in several states. Last week in Northern Virginia, supporters of the president harassed voters standing in long lines for early voting.

According to the potential scenario laid out in the Atlantic the president will never concede: “All of which is to say that there is no version of the Interregnum in which Trump congratulates Biden on his victory. He has told us so. “The only way they can take this election away from us is if this is a rigged election,” Trump said at the Republican National Convention on August 24. Unless he wins a bona fide victory in the Electoral College, Trump’s refusal to concede—his mere denial of defeat—will have cascading effects.”

As a counter to some of these threatening actions, Gellman suggests voting in person - in early voting if possible - stationing police at polling places and at Boards of Elections to protect voters and secure the ballots and setting up preparations to address possible armed intimidators. Does this all sound alarming to you, it does to me!  One of the best things about modern America has always been our democratic freedom to vote and to subsequently have a peaceful transition and orderly inauguration. The fact that this president can call into question the legitimacy of these processes is, to me, appalling.  But then, he has done so much to take down the norms of our usually effective governmental systems, that I guess this too, should not be a surprise.  However, it is definitely a disappointment, no that is not a strong enough word – it is a disavowal of his oath of office to protect and defend this democracy and the Constitution of this country. Please read the article linked above for Barton Gellman’s full discussion.

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Over this last week we have hit two negative milestones – more than 7 million cases and over 200,000 deaths. According to Dr. Fauci we have flattened the curve somewhat, but at far too high a level (over 40,000 daily cases) as we approach flu season.

According to the NY Times: COVID stats nationally as of 9/26/20

Total cases: 7,138,000. Total new cases: 42,761. Total deaths: 204,500. Total new deaths: 759.

Maryland stats (State of MD) Total cases: 122,972. Total new cases 613. Total deaths 3,925. Total new deaths: 8.

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In other dismal news this week, the Grand Jury in Kentucky has returned no charges against the officers involved in the shooting death of Breonna Taylor. One officer was dismissed for shooting into the next-door apartment and charged with wanton endangerment in that shooting. The officers who shot Taylor were not charged but were said to have been justified in returning fire as her boy-friend fired a shot after the apartment door was rammed open. This is apparently in regard to the law of self-defense. (The facts about the warrant having little merit apparently did not get reviewed.) The family lawyers felt that the prosecutor did not present an adequate case and demanded to see the Grand Jury transcript.  Several days of protests have followed this decision in Louisville and other cities. Earlier the City of Louisville had settled a civil suit by the family and agreed to some police department reforms, neighborhood policing and other changes, some of which looked at stopping no knock warrants.

Several hundred armed so-called “proud boys” – right wing agitators - held a demonstration in Portland, Oregon, but they were smaller in numbers than anticipated and did not get the counter-response from the left that they had expected. Whew!

The NY Times has just reported that for several years before his election, the president paid either taxes of $750.00 or 0 dollars. Quite a bombshell -more to come for sure!

‘Til next week- peace.