THE NAIL IN THE COFFIN
Final Score - Right-wing: 500, Moderates/Liberals: 0, Kobe Bryant: 150
Welcome to the death of the moderate judicial branch.
I'm happy to go on the record with this statement: the most perdurable impact of the Bush Administration will undoubtedly be the nominations of Judge Alito and Judge Roberts to the Supreme Court.
Oh, I'm not ignorant of how many lives have been snuffed out by the war in Iraq, how badly the world's image of the United States has deteriorated, how many environment regulations have been gutted, and how much the war on terror has drained our resources and decimated civil liberties.
Say what you will about the current Supreme Court, but it has, over the last 40 years, managed to serve as an important check on authoritarian presidents and reactionary laws, while preserving important rights for women, people of color, immigrants, the disabled, the young, the poor, and, to some extent, gays and lesbians.
In the last twelve years, the Court abolished juvenile executions, upheld the right of universities to use affirmative action, preserved the right to an abortion especially to protect a woman's health, struck down indefinite detentions of immigrants, and mandated that government remain neutral in the arena of religion.
In my opinion, neither the current legislative nor the executive branch had the spine/balls/courage/compassion to make these decisions.
But most significantly, all of the above opinions were decided 5 to 4 with Sandra Day O'Connor in the majority. She was the pragmatic, pivotal fifth vote in an otherwise split octet.
Which is to say, Judge Alito's eventual confirmation and takeover of Justice O'Connor's seat will truly fundamentally alter the landscape of our rights and liberties. Mos mos mos mos def. (The Roberts/Rehnquist substitution didn't really alter the balance much.)
If you think the Court is conservative now, you ain't seen nothing yet. We're about to see cans of whoop ass on a Costco-size Super-Sized Super Big Gulp level.
Normally, I'd try to give new justices the benefit of the doubt. After all, some of the most progressive justices -- Earl Warren, William Brennan, David Souter -- were appointed by Republican presidents. But let's be real. Alito has a reactionary track record as long, consistent, unwavering, and ominous as a steel Dirk Diggler strap-on.
From broadening police powers to protecting large corporations, Alito represents the promised land for the far and religious right in America. U. Chicago Professor Cass Sunstein described Alito's record of dissents as "stunning" given that 91% of his dissents "take positions more conservative than his colleagues ... including colleagues appointed by Presidents Bush and Reagan."
Unlike Judge Roberts, he has made personal statements -- not in the capacity of a client's attorney or a government employee -- that Roe v. Wade should be overturned.
Unthinkably, he defended Nixon's illegal wiretaps, which make it easy to predict how he'd rule on Bush's illegal wiretaps.
Worst of all, he once touted his membership in CAP, the extremist group of Princeton grads that opposed the increasing presence of women and people of color on campus, despised gays and lesbians, and defended the interests of rich, white male alumni and their sons.
Perhaps Bush's Supreme Court nominations weren't/aren't high on the radar of most Americans because there are so many other evil deeds worthy of alarm and pants-soiling.
But Bush isn't going to be nominating his clueless friends to emergency management positions after January 2009.
Judge -- make that, Justice -- Alito and Chief Justice Roberts, on the other hand, will join forces with the other conservative justices until they die, which may not happen for a few more decades.
If you, like me, imagine Alito as an Optimus Prime who is about to merge with the other Autobots to transform into a giant Death Star after a Jedi holocaust, let's work on our dated mixed metaphors together while the right-wing celebrate their sweep of all three branches and kill us slowly.
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