Big news day

First the Senate Republicans, as promised, destroyed years of Senate traditions in order to place another conservative vote onto the Supreme Court, a long-term goal of theirs. It started with Bush v. Gore, when five conservative justices abruptly halted the recount of Florida’s ballots in the 2000 election and made George W. Bush president. [snip] …

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Gorsuch is a radical

The narrative about Democrats’ opposition to Judge Gorsuch’s appointment to the Supreme Court is simple: it’s payback for the Republicans’ refusal to even give President Obama’s nominee Merrick Garland a hearing last year on spurious grounds. “No SCOTUS appointments in the last year of a President’s term,” they shouted. For reasons I still don’t understand, …

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Can Trump do all that immediately?

He made a bunch of promises to reverse the Obama Administration’s actions and things that happened during those eight years. How many of them can he fulfill? David Lauter of the Los Angeles Times answers that question: He can’t reverse Roe v. Wade immediately. It would take a court case getting up to the Supreme …

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Supreme Court appointments are important, people

North Carolina’s Republican-held legislature clearly tried to discriminate against African-American voters when it passed what it laughingly called voting rights legislation back in 2013. The federal appeals court unanimously ruled that way, writing “The record makes clear that the historical origin of the challenged provisions in this statute is not the innocuous back-and-forth of routine …

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Three wins for voting rights today!

In Wisconsin: Laws that limited in-person absentee voting to one location, limited early voting hours and eliminated weekend voting are unconstitutional, Peterson ruled. The 2013 law limiting hours for in-person absentee voting “intentionally discriminates on the basis of race,” Peterson wrote in a 119-page decision. “I reach this conclusion because I am persuaded that this …

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Justice Ginsburg and the talking yam

Maybe the Notorious RBG did speak out of turn when she expressed her opinion of Donald Trump, but it seems to me Justices get to have opinions just like the rest of us. I used to agree with Glenn Greenwald a lot more than I have in the last few years, but when he says …

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Senate stupidity on display

This is Obama Derangement Syndrome at its finest. Should Merrick Garland be nominated again by the next president, I would be happy to carefully consider his nomination… #SCOTUS — Senator Pat Toomey (@SenToomey) March 16, 2016 So lemme get this straight. If Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders wins and nominates Judge Garland, you’d give him …

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Republican misdefinitions

From the Merriam-Webster dictionary: Full Definition of lame duck 1: one that is weak or that falls behind in ability or achievement; especially chiefly British : an ailing company 2: an elected official or group continuing to hold political office during the period between the election and the inauguration of a successor 3: one whose …

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