Paul Krugman recently talked with Lisa Graves, the author of the profoundly depressing book “Without Precedent.” The book charted the decline–okay, let’s be accurate, the corruption–of the Supreme Court under John Roberts.
Graves asserts that the decline in Supreme Court intellectual honesty started with the political decision in Bush v. Gore. Her analysis was that the result in that case, in which five Republicans on the Court voted to stop the 2000 Florida recount, was a precursor to what came next. The effect of that decision was to hand over the presidency to George W. Bush, along with the power to remake the courts, the Supreme Court in particular.
Graves’ research into that case turned up information of which most of us were unaware. It turned out that, at that time, Ginny Thomas–Clarence Thomas’s wife–was working for the Heritage Foundation on the predecessor to Project 2025 and screening people for positions in the potential George W. Bush administration. That obvious conflict didn’t cause Clarence Thomas to recuse himself from the case. Had he done so, that five-four decision would have been four-four. As Graves noted, “The count would have been allowed to proceed. And the count that actually occurred with news organizations after the fact, after Bush was sworn in, showed that Gore would have won Florida and would have become the president of the United States.”
After the vote, Ginni Thomas was given a lucrative promotion…
Two vacancies came up early in Bush’s tenure–one for O’Connor’s seat and one for Rehnquist’s. John Roberts became chief justice, and Samuel Alito joined the Court, appointments that help explain Citizens United. Citizens United was–once again– a 5-to-4 decision, and once again, Clarence Thomas provided the fifth vote, failing to recuse himself “even though a billionaire named Harlan Crowe had staked his wife Ginni Thomas with $500,000 to launch a group to take advantage of the decision to come in Citizens United, to allow these so-called C4 groups under the IRS code to spend unlimited money to influence elections.” (Not only did Thomas not recuse himself, as Graves notes, he “even had the audacity to write a concurring opinion saying that disclosure of money being spent by these groups — who the sources are — would chill speech.”
As readers of this blog know, among other incredibly negative consequences, Citizens United spawned the super-PACS that spend unlimited and untraceable amounts of money. The linked conversation goes into extensive detail about the ways in which that decision has distorted the political process, enriched the already obscenely wealthy, and benefitted fossil fuel companies. (The transcript also provides fascinating detail about Trump’s corruption.)
When the conversation gets to John Roberts, Graves reminds us that it was Roberts who orchestrated the destruction of Sections 4 and 5 of the Voting Rights Act. (She predicts that he’s likely to do the same to Section 2 in a pending case.)
But what people don’t realize is that John Roberts cut his teeth on trying to block the extension of the Voting Rights Act, trying to block the repair of the Voting Rights Act after his mentor, Bill Rehnquist, helped destroy a significant component of that act, which was designed to prevent the dilution of Black votes.
Graves says that Roberts was chosen for the Supreme Court “not because they thought he would be fair, but because they thought he would be a ringer.” As a Reagan revolutionary atop the Justice Department, he’d tried to block renewal of the Voting Rights Act, and during his time in the White House counsel’s office, he tried to block civil rights enforcement.
With Roberts and Souter joining Thomas, Republicans secured a court that is aiding Donald Trump and the Republican Party at almost every turn. Roberts orchestrated the decision giving Trump unprecedented immunity from criminal prosecution. Add to that the 24 “shadow docket” rulings last year that allowed Trump to continue with unconstitutional assertions of presidential power that lower courts had temporarily enjoined until the cases were finally resolved.
The transcript is lengthy, but I recommend its explanations for those who–like yours truly–have been appalled by the political takeover of the nation’s high court. Graves has been exploring various reforms, including term limits and court expansion, and especially binding ethics reforms. As she notes, “having a billionaire or a billionaire-funded group on the right funding a spouse, fueling a spouse’s income that feathers the nest of the justice. That’s outrageous and wrong.”
Read her book.
I was living in New Port Richey, Florida, during that astounding recount…with George W Bush’s younger brother Florida Gov. Jeb Bush overseeing the questionable Florida political system at the time. Voters and news reports, media and written, were waiting for the announcement of Gore’s win as we watched and listened to the daily count reports adding up. The discounting of a closet filled with “suddenly found” boxes of mail-in ballots received before election day is the issue that has stuck with me. The claim that they weren’t received in time to be counted was blatantly obviously a lie that only a Bush and Republicans could get away with. Could that be the root of Trump’s determined efforts to end all mail-in ballots…after his mail-in ballots are counted? Were those boxes of ballots counted? We will never have an answer to that question or to the questions voiced daily about how our current federal government could so quickly become Fascist based.
The NY Times story about a 2016 SCOTUS shadow docket decision on an Obama era environmental rule shows the detailed, inside story of the partisan thinking at work in the Robert’s court. The entrenched conservative core of the court is corrupted beyond redemption.
Sickening. SCOTUS couldn’t be much further from the FF intent than it is today. Thanks for the event timeline; John Roberts is more like a wolf in sheep’s clothing than anything else. His stance on ACA seems to be the only plus I can think of. Without Precedent looks like a must read.
It makes me want to vomit. When I was still a kid I held the Supreme Court in reverence. I wanted to be the first woman SC justice. Sandra beat me to it. I hope we survive to reclaim it and the rest of our government.
Not surprising. When the Federalist Society/Heritage Foundation touches anything, it destroys benefits for working people. This is our “Tsarist” court. It’s the kind of corruption and express funneling of wealth to the “elite” (In income only. Morally, these people are sewer rats.).
The runaway capitalists aren’t smart enough to recognize when they have killed their golden goose and will be subject to the same “final ruling” by the people that the Tsars of Russia experienced. The runaway capitalists/fascists think their joyride will last forever. It won’t.
I’m glad I’m old.
When I think of reading the book Sheila referenced, I quickly think of not reading it, I do not need more depressing information, which will not change anything.
I have, all along, probably with all, or many, of you, believed that the 2000 vote “count” in Florida was cut short for nefarious reasons.
Thomas had no legitimate claim on that SCOTUS seat in the first place, given the largely ignored claim of his sexual misconduct. But, what the hell, it was “just” a woman’s voice.
I’m also glad I’m old.
President Gore!!!!!!! OMG!!!!!!!!!!!!
Was he coerced into dropping any further action on the count? Did he, perhaps, think he was doing the country a favor by thusly avoiding some possible, by today’s standards, little chaos?
“Public Citizen on Tuesday unveiled a copy of the funding agreement the Trump administration has used for the ballroom project after months of legal wrangling that forced the group to file a lawsuit to compel enforcement of a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request it made last year.
As summarized by The Washington Post, the ballroom contract’s provisions “allow wealthy donors with business before the federal government to contribute anonymously to a sitting president’s pet project, while exempting the White House from key conflict of interest safeguards and limiting scrutiny by Congress and the public.”
This comes from AlterNet, and while small potatoes compared to all else that this bastard is doing, is depressing all by itself; makes me wish for the disbarment of whatever lawyers (presumably) created the provisions.
The scheming, grifting, and scamming never stops.
At this age in my life, having read enough history and listened to enough experts, I know that the current direction of our country is bringing our republic to an end. There will be no “going back to how it once was” or a “restoration” as it were. What is coming like a freight train is a revolution of some kind, maybe peaceful but probably not.
The principles of democracy are not dead, but the system our founders put into place to govern by them has been battered and beaten. Will the generations behind me rise to the occasion? I can only hope.
Yes, Theresa;; and at our age we have lived through it as well as reading about and listening to it. Never, in my almost 89 years, did I even consider a possibility of what this nation has become in only one decade. I am dreading what will be put before us on July 4th to represent the 250 year history as seen by the Fascist administration now ruling.
Sad to say, I really didn’t see anything new here. Over the last twenty five years everything that Ms. Graves details has been written about, some of it in multiple publications. I don’t know why the Democrats couldn’t see just how important it was to have a say about who is on the Court. Republicans have been running on it for decades. That’s how we got here.
As much as I would like to expand the Court, I’d regret doing it if it just gives Republicans an opportunity to appoint more hacks. If we can’t expand the Court, we should, at the very least, impeach both Thomas and Alito for corruption.
Peggy: Amen on the impeachments!