A Monster on the Court

So, here is a little story that I just learned about in regard to our future Supreme Court Justice, Mr. Gorsuch.  First, here's a story from Business Insider:

"During Gorsuch's 14 months as principal deputy associate attorney general from 2005 to 2006, he was a crucial architect of the legal defenses for Bush's "War on Terror" policies following 9/11. 

Gorsuch articulated legal justifications of Bush's order to wiretap of Americans' international phone calls and emails without warrants, and of the administration's practice of suspending habeas corpus for some detainees, The New York Times reported last week. 

He also visited Guantanamo Bay, and praised the prison commander for implementing "standards and imposed a degree of professionalism that the nation can be proud of." 

After much debate within the administration, Bush issued a signing statement (a move Gorsuch supported) outlining how the executive branch would interpret the law banning torture, implying that he as Commander-in-Chief could ignore this provision if necessary for "protecting the American people from further terrorist attacks."

And a little more along the same lines, from the New York Times:

"During the negotiations with Congress over the Detainee Treatment Act, Judge Gorsuch helped persuade lawmakers to weaken a provision that permitted a civilian appeals court to review decisions by military tribunals.  

He was also part of teams that helped draft speeches on national security for Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales and an op-ed published by USA Today, under his supervisor’s byline, defending President Bush’s warrantless surveillance program and his use of a signing statement to claim a right to bypass the Detainee Treatment Act’s provision banning torture."

So let us be clear: we now know that this honorable man, of whom the Republicans are so proud, is in fact a torturer, and not just a torturer, but one of the key people who led the country into one of the most degrading episodes in our entire history.  And this is just what we have been allowed to discover about his involvement in this horrible episode; who knows how much more there is to know?

Anyway, this human monster belongs in prison, not on the Supreme Court.  If, after reading this, you think Gorsuch is anything but a viper that Republicans are trying to get us to clutch to our hearts, you are a fool.

And please do not forget that in the end, this story is not about Gorsuch; there are millions out there who will sell their souls for a little power.  It is about the Republican party and what really lies below the surface of their claims of patriotism and honor.  This is just one more step toward the vicious dictatorship for which they have hungered, for decades now.

And please remember how the country ended up with the lying racist Rehnquist on the Supreme Court.  Rehnquist was the third person appointed by Richard Nixon to replace the retiring justice John Marshall Harlan.  The first two appointees, named Haynesworth and Carswell, were open Southern racists, who the Democrats managed to turn down.  So Nixon went with Rehnquist, a person with a history of racist political behavior, but one who was from Arizona, rather than the South.  Rehnquist lied to the Senate about his history of hatred for Hispanic citizens, and the Democrats, worn down by their efforts to block the previous two maggots, gave in.  This is what will happen here.  If this miserable animal is somehow denied the opportunity to pollute the court, Trump will just nominate someone every bit as bad, and keep doing so until the Democrats give up.  And if we kick Trump out, Pence or Ryan will do the exact same thing.

The Republicans have been openly conspiring the last half century to pack the Federal courts with not Conservative ideologues, but corrupt corporate tools.  They are not going to give up now, and neither can we.

Comments

Jerry Critter said…
"...his honorable man, of whom the Republicans are so proud, is in fact a torturer..."

Definitely a Trump man!
Infidel753 said…
The Republicans always favor justifications for increasing the power of the state over the individual, from invasions of privacy to atrocities like torture.

Then they have the gall to accuse us liberals of being statists, and claim to be the side advocating "freedom".
Jacobs said…
"Rehnquist was the third person appointed by Richard Nixon to replace the retiring justice John Marshall Harlan. The first two appointees, named Haynesworth and Carswell, were open Southern racists, who the Democrats managed to turn down." - Green Eagle

You're confusing two different events.

After Abe Fortas resigned from SCOTUS in 1969, due to a history of ethics conflicts, Nixon named Haynesworth (1969) and Carswell (1970) to replace the former judge. Nixon's third choice, Harry Blackmun, would go on to write the Roe v. Wade decision.

John Marshall Harlan II died in 1971, and Rehnquist was Nixon's first choice to replace him.

Getting the chronology wrong is a problem.

绿鹰非常笨 (Don't make silly mistakes.)

-Տիգրան Հակոբյան
Green Eagle said…
Well, as they apparently believe, the best defense is a good lie.

What really concerns me is, as with Rehnquist, they have no shortage of loathsome subhumans willing to do their bidding. If one doesn't work, there is a whole line of others waiting for their chance. And we all know that Pence or Ryan (or any other Republican leader) might have the instinct for self-preservation not to constantly make asses of themselves, but in the end, what they do is going to be just as piggish as anything Trump could imagine. I see no salvation for the Republican party.

I've been reading a book about Eastern Europe after World War I, and am on the part about the civil war between the Bolsheviks and the White Russians. The Bolshevik takeover of Russia was, much like the overthrow of the French monarchy, accomplished with very little bloodshed, by world standards. The war against the White Russians, i.e. the remains of the upper class who refused to give up their status, however, resulted in three million deaths, even though looking back at things, the Whites had nothing to offer the people but jingoism and a return to a life of exploitation, while the Bolsheviks offered a break from hundreds of years of extreme exploitation. Of course, redbaiting historians saw to it that the three million deaths, which were largely a product of upper class intransigence, have come to be blamed on the Bolsheviks.

That is really all the Republicans have to offer the American people today: jingoism and suffering, as opposed to a party that is willing to at least make a stab at improving things. Unfortunately, jingoism and hatred are very powerful things.
Green Eagle said…
Sorry. I've been really busy at work on a (brain-dead) pilot, and I cranked this out in between other things. When I'm wrong, I'm wrong.
RussianBlueFan said…
" I've been really busy at work on a (brain-dead) pilot"

Is his name George W. Bush, by any chance?
Green Eagle said…
Good guess, RussianBlueFan, but even Green Eagle, who has worked on such celebrated American cultural artifacts as "Biodome" and "Dude, Where's My Car," has some jobs that are beneath him.
Green Eagle said…
And Jacobs, if you see this, usually if I've made an insignificant mistake I will correct it, but this one is big enough that I will leave it up for people to see.

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