TAT readers,
Yesterday afternoon, I was planning on working on a writing project for a military organization I write for, when I received a provoking notification regarding the Supreme Court greenlighting Trump’s voter suppression executive order, designed to restrict mail-in ballots. Never mind that Trump voted by mail-in ballot just a week ago in Florida. It took me but a second to erupt with some choice language that I will not repeat here. Just know that my utterances were well-deserved and more than just blaming Trump and his corrupt party of Republicans. I also point a finger straight at our overtly corrupt and partisan SCOTUS. Some may call this the “straw that broke the camel’s back” but it’s more than that. I’ve been writing about my severe displease with the six far right-wing and demonstrably corrupt judges, that are overturning our constitution. Yes, I’m furious.
"A better understanding of early American constitutionalism might not be able to solve all the constitutional problems of today, but it can expose how faithless today’s Supreme Court originalists too often are to the history they claim is the lodestar of our law." - Why is the Supreme Court Obsessed with Originalism? - Yale University Press - Jonathan Gienapp - October 21st, 2024
For those interested in previous essays regarding SCOTUS, they are linked below.
Today’s essay will be me expressing my deep anger at and frustration with the un-American far-right members of what is supposed to be, “the highest court in the land.” I call bullsh$$ when it comes to Chief Justice John Roberts’ Court’s honor and commitment to our constitution. Their so-called “originalist” approach is also complete bullsh$$, and what countless legal scholars agree on, is “fake or severely misinterpreted “originalism.” The GOP justices have undermined our constitutional republic ever since Roberts’ Citizens United decision, and during both Trump/ MAGA GOP administrations, have undone some of the most basic rights enumerated so eloquently expressed in our constitution, and especially within our Bill of Rights. Now our disgraceful SCOTUS is once again attacking our most foundational right within the republic, to vote.
"Although originalists claim they are simply restoring the purity of the original constitution, the theory and practice of originalism at the Supreme Court suggest otherwise. The new and unprecedented originalist constitution being fashioned by the current court is a not rooted in history and has little connection to the historical text it purports to honor." - Originalism’s Historical Problems: The Supreme Court’s Embrace of a Controversial Theory - Ohio State University, OSU.EDU - By Saul Cornell
Quite frankly, I am well beyond incensed. To rub salt into our wounds, these same dishonest SCOTUS Justices also allowed their favorite fascist, to continue wasting hundreds of millions of our tax-dollars, on his vanity ballroom a few days ago. They must go. There are plenty to blame for this court but most fingers should point directly at Mitch McConnell and the American oligarchs that are benefitting from SCOTUS’ corruption.
I’ve been writing off and on about the US Supreme Court since I began this publication, four years ago next week. That writing and the sources within, clearly demonstrate how pervasively that AJ/ Associate Justices, Comey-Barrett, Alito, Kavanaugh, Thomas, Kavanaugh, Gorsuch have collectively turned our court, not the GOP’s, into the enabler of all things fascist. Before anyone objects to the use of my word fascist, please go look it up in a dictionary or encyclopedia. I don’t write words that I don’t understand and that our mainstream media is afraid to employ. For the record, our most prestigious founders wrote about making our constitution and the laws built onto it, so that every citizen could understand them. The Robert’s courts twists our laws into pretzels in order to accommodate the whims of a delusional old narcissist and nihilist, in order to enrich an oligarchical white class of Americans and at our expense. They must go or be made to heed an enforceable rule of ethics. The ongoing corruption by the 6 right-wing justices, is far from the ethics code the Supreme Court set for itself.
"It will be of little avail to the people that the laws are made by men of their own choice if the laws be so voluminous that they cannot be read, or so incoherent that they cannot be understood. - James Madison
"Laws are made for men of ordinary understanding and should, therefore, be construed by the ordinary rules of common sense. Their meaning is not to be sought for in metaphysical subtleties which may make anything mean everything or nothing at pleasure. - Thomas Jefferson
For a little look at some analysis of the 6-3 GOP dominated court (I refuse to call these six justices, “conservative,”), I’ll share in the quote below, what the State of New York Bar Association had to say about the court’s actions. Their fake originalism is nothing short of far-right extremism.
"The Death Penalty The court – more specifically, The Six – has shown little patience for the claims of death inmates. Indeed, they seem exasperated with the appeals, collateral challenges and emergency petitions that regularly delay the implementation of death sentences." Constitutional Causes of Action "The six-to-three majority has narrowed the rights of victims of constitutional violations to bring claims against their government offenders. The constitutionally based Miranda protections were among those diluted as a result." Church and State "In a series of religious liberty decisions, a majority of the current court has rejected efforts to keep church and state separate and, instead, has invalidated such efforts for their disparate treatment of religion.[33] In Carson v. Makin,[34] for example, Chief Justice Roberts’s majority opinion, speaking for The Six, viewed Maine’s restriction on its tuition assistance program to “nonsectarian” schools as an impermissible discrimination against religion. The state’s interest in keeping church and state separate, according to the six-to-three majority, “does not justify enactments that exclude some members of the community from an otherwise generally available public benefit because of their religious exercise.”[35]" "Guns, the Environment, Immigration, Financial Relief The conservative super-majority flexed its muscle to render consequential rulings in so many other areas of the law – far too many to review here. But a few cannot go unmentioned even in a brief assessment of the court’s six-to-three impact." - 6 to 3: The Impact of the Supreme Court’s Conservative Super-Majority - New York State Bar Association - By Vincent M. Bonventre - October 31, 2023
Above the front entrance to the Supreme Court, hangs a quote that begins by saying; “Equal Justice Under the Law.” Apparently John Roberts and his other GOP mercenaries on the court, use the back entrance to avoid being reminded, that all Americans are equal before the law. Because Roberts’ ruling granting Trump immunity before the 2024 election for trying to overturn the 2020 election, sure as hell violates this sacred American, legal principle. Now, Roberts and his fellow far-right justices, are attacking the very essence of our republic, the right to vote. Racial gerrymandering, the Save Act, voting restrictions, coercive pressure from the White House and Republican congress as well as the hundreds of new restrictive laws passed by red-states in the past decade or so, render the party Seditious at best, treasonous at worst.
Never mind that our right to vote dates all the way back to our constitution, but then we have the 14th, and 15th amendments that reinforce this right. Thomas Jefferson is famously quotes as saying, ““The influence over government must be shared among all the people.” He was making it clear that we all have responsibility to vote but also to ensure there are no hurdles to all of us voting. It would appear that Trump, his administration and the Republican Party do not share Jefferson’s vision. At this time in American history, Republicans and their toadies on the SCOTUS bench, do all possible to violate not only the law, but our founders’ intentions.
For all the fuss about our election laws, they are not all that difficult to understand. States make the rules about how voting is undertaken and if congress feels that something needs changed, can overrule states. In ArtI.S4.C1.2.1 of our constitution is the Elections Clause, which makes it quite clear that the purpose of the clause, is not to allow any state to deny voters equal opportunity to vote, nor does it allow for wielding this statute for achieving a specific outcome of an election. The following quote is the last sentence in the Election Clause. “The Framers understood the Elections Clause as a grant of authority to issue procedural regulations, and not as a source of power to dictate electoral outcomes, to favor or disfavor a class of candidates, or to evade important constitutional restraints.”
"Amendment Fifteen to the Constitution – the last of the Reconstruction Amendments – was ratified on February 3, 1870. It grants the right to vote for all male citizens regardless of their ethnicity or prior slave status. The official text is written as such: The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude. The Congress shall have the power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation." - Constitutional Amendments – Amendment 15 – “The Right to Vote” - Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum
The map below shows where access to voting rights have either expanded or been restricted by state legislatures since 2020 alone. Preceding years saw the GOP brutally restrict voting rights in red-states as well. There is an absence of honesty from the GOP, about how aggressive they’ve been in restricting voting rights for minorities or Democratic Americans over the years. Their claim to being patriotic is easily disproved, with this fact alone. You cannot live in either a democracy or a republic freely, unless everyone’s voting rights and access to them, are equal.
Furthermore, it’s up to the states, not the Federal Government to manage elections, especially not the White House. Former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Earl Warren once wrote, “This won’t be easy, but there is no more important fight.” As Chief Justice, Earl Warren also penned; “The right to vote freely for the candidate of one’s choice is of the essence of a democratic society, and any restriction on that right strikes at the heart of representative government.” It would appear that Chief Justice Robbery (because he steals our rights) Roberts, doesn’t give a damn about precedent, from one of the most esteemed Chief Justices in the history of our Supreme Court. Again, Roberts “originalist” bs is depriving hard-working Americans of their sacred right to elect the leaders of their choice.
"After Warren arrived in 1953, he relentlessly sought to persuade his colleagues to join a unanimous decision against school segregation. With Warren’s arrival the outcome of the case was no longer in question, but a divided Court could make it easier for Southern states to resist the Court’s orders. In conference with the other justices, Warren framed the question as one of attributing racial inferiority to blacks. He eventually won over the justices who thought the decision might be interpreted as a political move. In the end Warren achieved unanimity and authored the most celebrated decision of the 20th century. Warren maintained this unity in the string of desegregation cases that followed, and for this (as well as other accomplishments) he is rightly regarded as one of the greatest leaders the Court has ever had.21 Second, Warren is believed to be one of the greatest statesmen in the history of the Court, second only perhaps to John Marshall. Bernard Schwartz writes that on the Supreme Court, “the judge must be even more the statesman than the lawyer,”22 and argues that Warren clearly met this standard. A judicial statesman takes a broad view of history and politics and has a keen appreciation for how the decisions of the Court will be received in both law and in society. A judicial statesman not only keeps pace with social change but seeks to influence its direction. A judicial statesman perceives the institutional possibilities for using the power, and deftly pursues those possibilities in the name of justice and the common good." - Judicial Excellence after Earl Warren - Judicature, PUBLISHED BY: Bolch Judicial Institute Duke Law School - by Daniel Frost - Vol. 101 No. 1 (2017)
Finally, I will address one last point although this essay could easily become a book if I were to include all of the scholarly, legal, historical evidence that supports my perspective in this essay. That evidence shows that the six far-right justices sitting on the nation’s highest bench, are willing to overturn our constitution, law and historical national values, at the direction of Trump and the oligarchs who purchased them in the first place.
"Article I, Section 4, Clause 1: The Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections for Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof; but the Congress may at any time by Law make or alter such Regulations, except as to the Places of chusing Senators. - ArtI.S4.C1.2.1 States and Elections Clause - US Constitution - Congress.gov
I’m dangerously close to turning this essay into the book I warned you about, so allow me to close with just a couple of thoughts. Considering the original sources for the critical legal and constitutional points I’ve discussed and that our laws were designed for us rank-in-file citizens to understand, I find it impossible to swallow or accept, the aberrant and un-American decisions of the Roberts Supreme Court.
Nearly 1.4 million service members have died in conflicts since 1775. Their ultimate sacrifices were fought to secure the very rights that Robbery Roberts is stealing from us, the American people. The painful irony of all of this is that the oligarch class now has greatly expanded its rights. Not official rights mind you, but when the law is only intended for working Americans, the elite wealth folks stand protected and corruptly enriched. Trump’s pardons are indicative of the types of criminals he likes and his absence of morality. Rapists, pedophiles, oligarchs, violent criminals and most certainly, anyone willing to write him an enormous check. To date, his pardons have cost the US roughly two billion dollars. Yes, you read that right… Trump and DOJ have wiped out a couple of billion dollars in debt owed to the US by drug dealers, frauds, crypto scammers and lots of others who don’t belong in American society. Tragically, anyone with enough money can buy a pardon from this administration.
I will tell all of you this, the American people have had enough. The outcome should the administration attempt to steal our midterms, I fear will raise the alarm of civil war. One thing I am confident of is that the GOP will test us with countless provocations, with the intent to provoke us into a situation where Trump feels he can initiate some form of Martial Law. This won’t be tolerated by the overwhelming majority of Americans who stand by our republic and the constitution it’s built on. There is no point in writing to your congressman any longer. The congressional GOP has long ago decided that they will bear the anger from constituents because they are too damned afraid of being targeted by the White House. Expect nothing and you won’t be disappointed.
In 1776, our second president and primary founder, John Adams, penned his “Thoughts on Government” where he is quoted as saying; “The very definition of a Republic, is “an Empire of Laws, and not of Men.” Well, this administration along with their allies, have refuted this austere and foundational principle of American governance. They will not stop unless we stop them. No one is coming to the rescue, so the burden of sustaining our republic, falls to we-the-people. If we don’t, things will worsen dramatically. Our economy wasn’t built for this level of corruption and refusal to follow the law. It will eventually fail without a massive win in November. We will have to fight to have our elections altogether and even if they are held, the Republicans will not abide by the results. There is no evidence to the contrary that they will not sellout all of us again, and again and again. There isn’t one complete spine between every Republican in office, nor the administration.
It is so hard to fathom that 30% of America is still so brainwashed that they will support this administration to its bitter end, and believe me, it’s coming. There will be accountability for government officials who have been bootlicking Trump and his overlords, for years. Many Republicans are already abandoning the ship due to their disgust and embarrassment for submissively supporting Trump and the GOP. Jumping ship won’t help them. After years of bootlicking Trump, their shame won’t wash off for years. There will not be real accountability though, unless we can do something about this SCOTUS.
If it were up to me, I would recommend that everyone of us, march on the Supreme Court in the loudest and most peaceful protest in American history. How about we hang them in effigy too? One thing that I fantasize about, is the dream of being the writer of history for this dark period in American history. The Roberts SCOTUS will be pilloried, along with every member of the administration, along with the GOP voters, who didn’t have the courage to think for themselves or open a dictionary, encyclopedia or history book. They set themselves up to be “sheep to the slaughter” and they intend on taking us all down with them.
There are plenty of villains and there will be plenty of open cells for them at one of their detention centers when this is all over. Like all of you, I’m bone-tired from fighting these fake-patriots and thieves for over a decade. I think when we’ve seen the last of them, I’ll sleep for a month… but not before. Our forefathers never quit and they were up against extraordinary odds during our War for Independence. They froze, starved, died and were wounded, but they never quit. That blood runs through the veins of every true American and there’s more of us than there are of them. We will not quit either.
Back later in the week and all my best,
Paul