Daily Broadside | A Spot Opens on the Supreme Court and We Already Know Who Will Fill It

Daily Verse | Exodus 23:2
Do not follow the crowd in doing wrong.

Thursday’s Reading: Exodus 25-28

Thursday and the big news is that Brandon will get to appoint a justice to the Supreme Court. Justice Stephen Breyer is stepping down at the end of the current Supreme Court term.

Breyer, who is 83, has been the subject of rampant speculation about his retirement. Liberal activists were calling for the justice to retire soon after Biden was inaugurated. Sources close to Breyer, however, said the justice made the decision on his own terms and was not forced out. 

Breyer is a consistently liberal justice, so any pick by Brandon won’t change the make-up of the court. Observers currently assess the court as 6-3 conservative leaning, although with some of the more recent decisions, you could’ve fooled me (looking at you, Chief Justice Roberts).

Brandon promised to nominate a black woman to the court to secure Rep. Jim Clyburn’s, (D-S.C.), endorsement during the 2020 South Carolina primary.

“In the wake of Justice Breyer’s retirement, I want to voice my support for President Biden in his pledge to nominate the first Black woman to the Supreme Court. The Court should reflect the diversity of our country, and it is unacceptable that we have never in our nation’s history had a Black woman sit on the Supreme Court of the United States,” [Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash.,] said. 

We’re now at that stage in our country’s dissolution when superficial characteristics, like skin tone, are a priority when choosing someone to fill a powerful and enduring role. Like VP (Virtue Pick) Kamala Harris, so this one will be. Rather than focusing on the person’s ability to objectively and impartially interpret the U.S. Constitution, identity politics has taken over and progressives will relentlessly push a radical who will give them what they want that they can’t get otherwise through the legislative process.

In other words, the person won’t earn the position based on merit.

Instead of a political appointment, what we need are ORIGINALISTS who interpret the constitution as it was written, not reading new “rights” into it like Roe v. Wade or Obergefell v. Hodges. Nor do we need picks who simply fulfill some aggrieved constituency’s demands, like Sen. Murray and Rep. Clyburn are demanding.

Speaking of Virtue Picks, Justice Sotomayor just wrote a scathing dissent over S.B. 8, “the six-week ban that allows virtually anyone to sue providers and their ‘abettors.'”

As she did during each previous encounter with S.B. 8, Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote a seething dissent from her colleagues’ refusal to provide relief. Her latest opinion reaches a new level of bruising, eloquent fury. It also conveys the very strong impression that the Republican-appointed justices are on the brink of overturning Roe outright, and there is nothing she can do but denounce its imminent downfall.

What did the “wise Latina” write?

I dissented in Whole Woman’s Health II because the Court’s dismissal of the most important portions of the petitioners’ claims, beyond being unfaithful to our precedents, left all manner of constitutional rights vulnerable to nullification. I explained that the Court had “clear[ed] the way for States to reprise and perfect Texas’ scheme in the future” in order to target this and other rights with impunity.

Today’s decision shows that any hope that Whole Woman’s Health II might protect the Constitution’s guarantees in this case was illusory. As it turns out, Texas did not even have to amend its law to sidestep the minimal relief this court left available. Instead, Texas wagered that this court did not mean what little it said in Whole Woman’s Health II or, at least, that this Court would not stand behind those words, meager as they were. That bet has paid off. Despite this Court’s protestations over the “extraordinary solicitude” it gave this case and the narrowness of any dispute, it accepts yet another dilatory tactic by Texas. As a result, the District Court will remain powerless to address S. B. 8’s unconstitutional chill on abortion care, likely for months to come.

This case is a disaster for the rule of law and a grave disservice to women in Texas, who have a right to control their own bodies. I will not stand by silently as a state continues to nullify this constitutional guarantee. I dissent. 

That doesn’t sound like a reasoned opinion. It sounds like a tantrum—a tantrum thrown by a liberal.

Chief Justice John Roberts, who is very concerned with the perception of the Supreme Court, once rebuked president Trump when he complained about decisions the court had made. “We do not have Obama judges or Trump judges, Bush judges or Clinton judges. What we have is an extraordinary group of dedicated judges doing their level best to do equal right to those appearing before them … That independent judiciary is something we should all be thankful for.” He also once said, “We don’t work as Democrats or Republicans.”

That sounds noble and there’s probably some truth to it, but the greater truth is that the justices work as Liberals and Conservatives and sometimes as Swing Votes. Everybody knows it. Every pick is made with an eye on the nominee’s politics and judicial philosophy.

Breyer, 83, has served on the court since 1994, after he was appointed by President Bill Clinton to replace the liberal icon Harry Blackmun. One of the body’s most prominent liberals, Breyer consistently found himself at odds with the court’s conservative majority, and even more so during Donald Trump’s White House tenure after the Senate confirmed Justices Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett.

So don’t believe that SCOTUS is an impartial body. They’re not. And the Democrats will nominate as radical a pick as they think they can get through the Senate, with Virtue Pick Kamala Harris being the deciding vote.

If you want a peek at the list of Brandon’s nominees, look what The Babylon Bee found: Exclusive: The Babylon Bee Has Obtained Biden’s List Of Possible SCOTUS Nominees.

Don’t write me letters.