The Supreme Court Showdown

Justice Anthony Kennedy

Somebody needs to explain the difference between Democratic Socialism and Communism to Fox News. They seem to think that the Democratic voters of New York�s 14^th Congressional District nominated a Communist for Congress last Tuesday. Just because you see the word �socialism� in a phrase does not automatically mean it has everything to do with Communism. There are many aspects of Democratic Socialism already existent in our country: Social Security, law enforcement, public schools, and highways are some just to name a few. The word �socialism� is like a trigger for the commentators of Fox News. They hear the word and immediately have violent flashbacks to images of the Soviet Union and Josef Stalin. Then they turn around and defend Russia and Russia�s president, who is an ex-KGB spy.

If you are a Democrat, last week was pretty bad for you. This was mainly due to what happened in the Supreme Court. I am not only referring to Justice Kennedy announcing his retirement, but a series of decisions made by the court as their session comes to a close. The court recently upheld President Trump�s travel ban, gave a thumbs-up to �voter purging� in Ohio which allows the state to kick people off of the voting roll if they miss a certain number of elections, and hit public sector unions hard by ruling that nonmembers of a union cannot be required to pay fees that go to collective bargaining. Kennedy, who announced his retirement soon after these decisions were made, sided with the majority Conservative opinion in all of these cases. These rulings also would not have been possible without the conservative voice of Justice Gorsuch who was recently appointed by President Trump last year.

The Democrats are not too upset that Kennedy is retiring. He was nominated by President Reagan and has been a conservative voice on the court for decades, but notably siding with liberals on issues like gay marriage and reproductive rights. But more often than not, he has sided with conservatives which makes his recent votes pretty unsurprising. The Democrats are upset because this is another opportunity for Trump to nominate a hardline conservative Justice like Neil Gorsuch for the court. And since the position is life-long, this appointment could effect our nation for decades. Presidents are fortunate to have the opportunity to nominate one justice to the Supreme Court during their time in office. Obama had one (and should have had two) and now Trump will have two.

With a solid conservative majority in the nation�s highest court, Roe v. Wade and LGBT rights are genuinely threatened and a lot of progressives are fearful of what this could mean.

My focus is not on the potential ramifications of this development, but the reaction from both sides and the hypocrisy that I have seen. The biggest hypocrite in this situation is undoubtedly Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. When President Obama nominated Merrick Garland for the Supreme Court back in 2016, McConnell famously said, �The American people are perfectly capable of having their say on this issue, so let's give them a voice. Let's let the American people decide.�

He was referencing the presidential election that year and basically stating that nobody should be appointed until after the election was over. This was faulty logic at the time and it was pretty low, even for Mitch McConnell considering that the nomination was made by Obama in March and the election was not until November. The President has the power to nominate a Supreme Court justice when a seat is opened; that power is not withheld during an election year.

Before I get too worked up over that childish maneuver by McConnell, I would like to point out that last week he said that, �We will vote to confirm Justice Kennedy's successor this fall.� Considering that this is an election year, shouldn�t the American people get to decide, Mitch?

I am guessing that the answer is �no� because if the Republicans lose just one seat in the Senate this November, they will be unable to confirm a nominee without some Democratic support. Democrats are still pretty bitter about what happened in 2016 and McConnell�s snaky tactics so they will remember that when Senate Republicans ask for their support.

Right now, the only hope for Democrats is that a moderate like Senator Collins of Maine will oppose a nominee that is ultra-conservative. She said earlier this week that she would not support a justice who would roll back Roe v. Wade. That�s all for this week.