Category: Supreme Court

Categories
Abortion GOP Supreme Court U.S. Senate

Lindsey Graham: I Can’t Believe People Are Upset Kavanaugh Lied About Overturning Roe At His Confirmation

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said Sunday that he’s shocked some of his colleagues in the Senate are upset Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh lied about overturning Roe v. Wade during his confirmation hearings in 2018.

Fox host Bret Baier noted that Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) said this week she’s angry Kavanaugh told her he would likely not vote to overturn the landmark 1973 Roe ruling:

“Some senators are now openly questioning whether they were misled in the confirmation hearings.”

Graham replied:

“This has not been well-accepted by the public. The public has been divided since 1973. Ask your next guest, who is a good friend, does he want the court to reconsider [Citizens United] regarding campaign finance laws? Would he welcome a revisiting of the Heller decision where the court said the Second Amendment was a personal right?”

The public has been divided on the issue of a woman’s right to choose? Polls released just this week show otherwise, with a Washington Post-ABC News poll indicating that “54 percent of Americans think the 1973 Roe decision should be upheld while 28 percent believe it should be overturned — a roughly 2-to-1 margin.”

Graham continued:

“So my liberal friends don’t mind the court overturning decisions they don’t like. They very much are against overturning decisions that they agree with. So you can’t bargain your way into getting onto the court. So any senator who tries to bargain with a nominee — will you uphold the case I like or overturn the ones I don’t — is really doing a disservice to the court.”

Notice how Graham completely avoided saying if a justice should be punished for lying under oath during a confirmation hearing? Apparently the senator is fine with perjury as long as it’s done in the service of conservative ideals.

Categories
GOP Supreme Court U.S. Senate

Ted Cruz Haughtily Declares ‘I’m Not A Moron’ And Then Proves Otherwise

Even though he’s an arrogant asshat of a human being, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) wants us all to know that he’s “not a moron.”

Speaking with reporters on Capitol Hill, Cruz insisted that the draft Supreme Court opinion reversing the Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania vs. Casey decisions was leaked by a liberal law clerk working for one of the three progressive justices, though he’s also said he suspects someone in the office of Justice Sonia Sotomayor without providing a shred of evidence to support such a serious accusation.

“They wanted to put heat and they wanted to invoke politics to try to get them to change their vote. And by the way, if that left-wing law clerk succeeds, it would be the most grotesque politicization of the Supreme Court in the history of our nation.”

During a appearance on Fox Business, Cruz laid out his unsubstantiated conspiracy theory, telling host Stuart Varney:

But, when he was confronted by reporters and asked to provide substantiation for his claims, Cruz turned into a snotty little douchebag.

A reporter asked the senator:

“Senator, why do you think you know this was a liberal clerk who leaked this? Do you have information that suggests that?”

Cruz huffily replied:

“Because I’m not a moron. Because I live on planet earth. Because this is obviously an attempt from someone who is unhappy about the direction the Court is going, to put political pressure on the Justices to change their outcome. That is the only reason this gets leaked, and you know that. Come on, you’re a reporter in Washington DC.”

That led the reporter to inquire about the possibility that a conservative might have leaked the opinion because “they supported the original [Roe] decision and want to lock them [the Justices] back in. That’s a completely reasonable scenario, isn’t it?” 

Cruz:

“You know what, I, I, I, find that ludicrous. But if it’s the case, maybe you’ll win a Pulitzer for that.”

The reporter countered:

“Well you’re saying you have no evidence.”

That led Cruz to retort:

“I think it’s obvious what’s going on here. And, and, and, we’ve all seen leaks often enough in this town, just not at the Supreme Court. This has never happened in any case ever, and it is truly horrifying.”

 

Actually, it has indeed happened in another case. Ironically, the 1973 Roe v. Wade opinion which gave women the right to make their own reproductive choices was also leaked.

If indeed it can be proven that a conservative leaked the draft, someone needs to play today’s video for Cruz and get his reaction. He might just cry.

Oh, and Ted Cruz is indeed a moron. His own words indict him on that count.

 

Categories
Abortion Supreme Court Uncategorized

Reporter Thinks He’s Found Proof The Supreme Court Leak Came From A Conservative

 

Ever since a draft Supreme Court opinion in the case of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization was leaked to Politico, outrage from figures on the political right has been palpable, with Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) all but foaming at the mouth as he insisted that if the leaker can be found, he or she needs to be punished to the maximum extent of the law.

But what if the actual leaker was a conservative, perhaps even a conservative Supreme Court justice?

Jonathan Chait of New York magazine was a guest on MSNBC to discuss a column he wrote in which he laid out the case that someone on the right is the most likely suspect:

“I want to be clear that I have no idea who leaked this and it definitely could have come from the left. but I wrote this because so much of the commentary from the right simply assumed that the leaks that come from the left and ignored the fact that we have a smaller leak three days before from the Wall Street Journal that had the same effect they’re decrying, which is to put public pressure on the justices to rule in a certain way. That is the reason why they say this leak is so dangerous, because it subjects the justices to this kind of lobbying and that is exactly why the Wall Street Journal was leaked this early version, and they really had the inside scoop on the breakdown inside of the court.”

The editorial Chait referenced from the Wall Street Journal included this paragraph:

“If [Roberts] pulls another Justice to his side, he could write the plurality opinion that controls in a 6-3 decision. If he can’t, then Justice Thomas would assign the opinion and the vote could be 5-4. Our guess is that Justice Alito would then get the assignment.”

And that’s exactly what happened, as Chait noted in his article:

This turned out to be a good guess!

The editorial proceeded to craft an argument for why Kavanaugh and Barrett should stick with Alito rather than defecting to Roberts. Leaking internal deliberations in order to lobby the justices seems to be fine when conservatives are doing it.

Chait ends his article with this analogy:

If a bank employee stole a small amount of money from the safe and then, a few days later, there was a huge robbery from the same safe, who would be your first suspect?

As supporting evidence, Chait included these tweets from conservative Randy Barnett:

https://twitter.com/RandyEBarnett/status/1522160270017282051?s=20&t=Uy6MBIv2YEA8dgHtbTrlHg

Two hours later, Barnett tweeted:

https://twitter.com/RandyEBarnett/status/1522190059604164619?s=20&t=204-0wtIIxEQVe32ucSETA

It’ll be interesting to see what Ted Cruz and other conservatives have to say if Chait’s theory of a right-wing leak is proven to be true.

 

Categories
GOP Supreme Court WTF?!

Childish Lindsey Graham Disrespected Ketanji Brown Jackson Once Again Today

After acting like a spoiled child during the confirmation hearings for Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson by storming out of the Senate, South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham proved once again today that he isn’t fit to shine Justice Jackson’s shoes.

When the vote was held in the Senate this afternoon on Jackson’s nomination to the Supreme Court, Graham refused to actually show up on the floor of the Senate to cast his vote, according to multiple reports.

CNN’s John Harwood noted:

“Lindsey Graham didn’t wear a tie for the occasion of Ketanji Brown Jackson’s confirmation to become the 1st black woman on the Supreme Court. That meant he wasn’t allowed on the Senate floor and voted ‘no’ from the cloakroom.”

“All the more remarkable for the fact that Graham was wearing a tie at a press conference earlier in the day. He took it off.”

Yes, you read that correctly: Graham took off his tie so he wouldn’t be able to enter the Senate chamber and instead cast his vote from the cloakroom like a sniveling coward.

Of course, some might say it’s wholly appropriate that Graham cast his vote from a closet. And some on Twitter said exactly that, along with noting what a complete shit heel Lindsey’s been ever since he was reelected in 2020. Take a look at some of the comments:

https://twitter.com/PhillyF01934538/status/1512141035241185291?s=20&t=BEKKO0cd6xlUmEkjylWbZw

https://twitter.com/a_boss_sandwich/status/1512141440901599234?s=20&t=BEKKO0cd6xlUmEkjylWbZw
https://twitter.com/rondem1/status/1512143576205045777?s=20&t=BEKKO0cd6xlUmEkjylWbZw
 

Categories
GOP Supreme Court

GOP Senators Make Fools Of Themselves When The Question Is Turned On Them: ‘What’s A Woman?’

During the confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson last month in the Senate Judiciary Committee, Republicans wanted Judge Jackson to define what a “woman” is.

The question came first from Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), who sits on the committee even though she has never been an attorney and holds a degree in home economics. She inquired:

 “Can you define the word ‘woman’?”

Jackson replied:

“Can I provide a definition? No, I can’t. I’m not a biologist.”

That led Blackburn to snidely remark:

“The fact that you can’t give me a straight answer about something as fundamental as what a woman is underscores the dangers of the kind of progressive education that we are hearing about.”

The darker, more insidious purpose of the query, HuffPost notes, was to get Judge Jackson to wade into the issue of transgender rights:

The real aim of Blackburn’s question was almost certainly to try to corner Jackson on the issue of transgender women participating in women’s sports ― part of a broader, ugly GOP attack on LGBTQ people heading into the 2022 elections. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) is pushing for child abuse investigations of parents whose children seek gender-affirming medical care. Florida’s new “Don’t Say Gay” law prevents teachers from talking about sexual orientation or gender identity to students younger than fourth graders. The Human Rights Campaign, meanwhile, is tracking more than 300 anti-LGBTQ bills across the country.

But when the same question is turned on Republicans in the Senate, it turns out they’re not equal to the test, as proven by some of their responses:

“I don’t have anything for you on that.” Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA)

“I’m not going to indulge you.” Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX)

A spokesperson for Blackburn offered this, “Two X chromosomes.”

If that’s not pathetic enough for you, listen to what Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said:

“The birds and the bees stuff ― it’s been a while, but I think I remember the general gist of the differences. To have a hard time answering that question is kind of odd to me.”

And then there’s insurrection apologist Josh Hawley (R-MO), who replied thusly:

“Someone who can give birth to a child, a mother, is a woman. Someone who has a uterus is a woman. It doesn’t seem that complicated to me.”

So if a woman has a hysterectomy and her uterus is removed, is she still a woman, Sen. Hawley?

“Yeah. Well, I don’t know, would they?”

Hey, if you can’t answer the question more definitively than that, should you be attacking Judge Jackson? Or should you even be allowed on the judiciary committee?

Hypocrites. Every damn one of them.