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If I may speak ill of the dead:

she was 75 12 years ago and in TERRIBLE health. That's some massive arrogance the idea that no one could do the job as good as you. Or just the selfishness to keep the position and prestige. I dunno what her motivation was to stay on for eight years but it's indefensible and here we all are. Right where we all knew we'd be in Nov '16.

That's game folks. Supreme Court gave Trump his first squeaker, when he was a joke candidate without incumbency and before all his liabilities were fully normalized by the Chaits and Cillizzas of the world.

If you thought the Trumpers were turning out in droves to vote in a president who was running in a primary unopposed, wait till you see them brave a pandemic they ignore specifically to spite their enemies, to vote in their godhead over the antifa Biden, and secure a 6-3 majority, thereby invalidating any democratic initiative that any Lib president, congress, governor, or state or city legislature might try to enact for the next 30 years.

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Youre god damned right. The fucking bipartisan gerontocracy will kill us all. Ginsburg and Breyer both should have retired the day Obama got inaugurated to his first term of office.

Fucking dems out here still playing to civility and norms after Bush V Gore (and everythign in the decades preceding Bush v Gore).

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She should have retired when she got her first cancer diagnosis, in 1999, under Clinton. But nope.

Just talking about Bush V Gore with a friend. You could play what if all day, and the GOP would never have nominated someone who WASN'T a partisan hack. But Thomas was one vote of the 5-4 majority, and guess who we have to thank for Thomas, despite decent people's best attempt to stop him.

Anyway, real excited for another election that's squeaker close, in which counting the ballots will be a multi-month nightmare, allowing whichever side has the least scruples to hash it out in the court of public opinion before turning it over to a 6-3 Republican SC to decide.

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right, Thomas's role in bush v gore is particularly rich given who nominated him. Of course Thomas doesnt get on the court w/o Dem votes, iirc. Centrists gonna centrist!

I think youre being optimistic here in thinking this will last months. Trump will declare victory on election night, set loose the cops and the civilian white supremacists, there will be a few mass shootings and that will be that. He replaces Pence with Ivanka, Trump will then either retire/die, Ivanka pardons him, runs and "wins" in 2024 and the hereditary dynasty will be ensconced.

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Friend predicts that after a couple closed door sessions, Principled Moderate Republicans Murkowski, Collins and Romney all vote 'No' on ramming through an 11th hour replacement, to burnish their credentials.

And then Pence casting the tiebreaker of course to make it all moot.

(Though as a guy said below, why bother with politesse and kayfabe when they're one smash and grab from unaccountable power for at least a generation. And a one-vote majority didn't work so well repealing ACA either)

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saucier_v._Katz

Katz brought an action in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California against petitioner and other officials pursuant to Bivens v. Six Unknown Named Agents, alleging that defendants had violated his Fourth Amendment rights by using excessive force to arrest him.

The Supreme Court in an opinion delivered by Justice Kennedy held that Saucier was entitled to qualified immunity.[2]

The Supreme Court held that qualified immunity analysis must proceed in two steps. A court must first ask whether "the facts alleged show the officer’s conduct violated a constitutional right." Then, if a constitutional right was violated, the court would go on to determine whether the constitutional right was "clearly established."[3]

Majority Kennedy, joined by Rehnquist, O'Connor, Scalia, Thomas; Souter (parts I, II)

Concurrence Ginsburg, joined by Stevens, Breyer

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pearson_v._Callahan

The case focuses on "consent once removed," a theory espoused by some lower courts that acts as an exception to the search warrant requirement of the Fourth Amendment. Under the doctrine, if a suspect to a crime opens the door for an undercover police officer, the suspect unknowingly is also allowing further police officers to enter without a warrant.

Majority Alito, joined by unanimous

There's more but who the fuck can be bothered by looking up all of her fucking attacks on the fifth and fourth amendments.

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i'm so unbelievably tired of just the absolute worst shit in the world happening day after day. and i have no confidence in anyone in a position of power to stop what's going to happen.

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Every day somehow gets worse. It should be scientifically impossible but here we are.

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They absolutely won't and (Democrats) can't because they're incapable. Undoing any and all of this FUCKEDUPSHIT is the responsibility of me and you. Democracy doesn't only exist in the voting booth, and it rarely exists in Washington. BLM and the ACAB spring were the start, and we have to mobilize, organize, and take to the streets.

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I really appreciated this take on things - especially as a European who works at the intersection of tech and politics and recently moved to the USA. I'm realising just how a lot of what is deemed 'normal' in American politics is everything but that from an outsider's perspective.

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As an American I say welcome to our country. As a human being I say GET OUT WHILE YOU STILL CAN (Can you still get out? Us American passport holders can't go much of anywhere right now.)

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I've certainly not taken the US nationality and America certainly doesn't give out passports like that so I'm all safe there. But sadly I have a UK passport which isn't much better right now. Thanks for the welcome and we will be watching the elections closely and will take it from there.

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A few points I figure that I’d add:

First let’s point the obvious: Obama did fuck up in not getting Ginsburg and Breyer out of there and get two Sotomayors to replace them. Basic politicking was not done.

Second: it’s times like these where we need to use the Constitution as a guide. First, forget the fucking President for a minute and work our asses off to control the Senate. Article II Section II states that the Senate is the ultimate decider of appointees (paraphrase). If the Dems control the Senate regardless of who’s in the Oval Office, we got a chance (slim but at least something).

Finally, let’s borrow a page from Andrew Jackson aka “The Proto Trump“ playbook and tell the Supreme Court to fuck off on their rulings. They only “interpret” the laws which is just fancy talk for letting their political biases fly! Also they have no enforcement body to enact their decisions. It’s like looking at Fredo and saying he’s Don Corleone. If we can’t outright remove it at least treat it like the low level institution that it is.

TL;DR: vote for progressive Senators and stop deifying the Supreme Court they way we do and we might have a chance to get out of this somewhat intact

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The first thing I said after the news broke was that if McConnell and his crew disregard the precedent they established a mere four years ago, and thus try to ram through a confirmation in less than two months, we have reached “drag them into the streets and burn it to the ground” territory.

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If the ensuing enshrining (couldn't resist) of Justice Cruz, Cotton or Rao doesn't serve to radicalize the squishy, wet, centrist milquetoast Democrats, then nothing will and they deserve to be consigned to the trash bin of history.

Of course, the rest of us don't, but here we are.

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I mean Justices Cruz or Cotton would be quite something, but Neomi Rao? It's already an enormous insult to the legal community that she became a Federal Judge, let alone a judge on the 2nd most powerful court in the country. That woman is stupid as hell.

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I Don't Want To Hear Another Fucking Word About Collins, Murkowski, Grassley, or Graham Unless They Die Or Actually Do Something Useful For Once

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Also, gonna say, I don't know what it's looking like in the Senate, but if I was Mitch McConnel, I might let this one ride. It's gonna juice GOP turnout like nothing else, and the guy who rammed through Clarence Thomas is definitely gonna make some noise about picking a bipartisan choice to heal the division (if he hasn't already) which is only gonna suppress democratic turnout.

You get a boost to your odds of keeping the presidency, and downballot including the senate, as well as taking the supremes with a 6-3 supermajority for a generation as well as however many 20 year old "Cicero Plutius Maximus" blogger lunatics you can get Schumer to rubberstamp.

Then again the temptation to lock in the 6-3 supermajority and roll the dice on the rest is the safe bet. Who knows!

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Republicans can basically guarantee everything they want for the next three or four decades, and probably beyond, by ramming through a pick now, giving them an enduring 6-3 majority. Why would they pass on that opportunity because it *might* help them win this election? They will be underdogs regardless. This is the culmination of decades of Republican strategy. If they take the court now, they won’t need to win an election for decades to implement the policy they want.

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I needed to read this this morning.

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Are there good points here? Sure! Thanks, genius - all of this has been known. She fucking died like three hours ago, maybe shut the fuck up for one day before being the "well, actually" guy.

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Name two good points to a centrist SC justice dying a month and a half out from an election where the outcome of the last one was driven by exactly this scenario.

About the only difference between 2016 and 2020 was the lack of an SC vacancy due to a surprise death, but please. Lets hear from the Sunny-side up Karen brigade who's sick of all the grousing, during the final ascension of a fascist state.

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What difference does it make? She’s dead.

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packing the court is like that episode of father ted where he's trying to get the dent out of the car

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