The Fun Continues

 

So, now we have yet another SCOTUS opening about to appear.  Justice Stephen Breyer will retire at the age of 83. He may offer President Biden his only opportunity to affect the Court, as none of the other justices are at or near retirement.

The essential question here is whether Biden will be allowed to appoint a new Justice to replace Breyer. It seems clear that McConnell and his republican allies will do everything they can to interfere with or outright prevent Biden from making such an appointment.

The fact that McConnell prevented Obama from making an appointment with nearly a full year left in his term, whereas he allowed Trump to make an appointment within months of the end of his term suggests that McConnell has no ethics and knows only power, of the sort that the fascists of the Land practice.  Given that McConnell oversaw three Trump appointees, each immeasurably worse than the last, it seems clear that there will be a fight.

And so it may come down once again to Manchin and Sinema. In fact this may be the last test of that wannabee Democratic duo. Should they fail this final test, they can expect no further support from the Democratic Party, and will slink into the gutter of republican politics forever.

It is widely rumored that Biden will nominate a Black Woman to the SCOTUS post. Who are the possibilities? The following candidates are at least high on the list:

Political pundits suggest that Ketanji Brown Jackson is a potential front-runner, if there is a SCOTUS vacancy during Biden's presidency. Biden appointed Jackson last spring to serve as a federal appeals court judge in an effort to leave his legacy on the courts after former president Donald Trump appointed white men as judges at the highest rate in decades.  Jackson was also on president Barack Obama's Supreme Court shortlist in 2016. 

 

Among the other names being circulated as potential nominees are California Supreme Court Justice Leondra Kruger, prominent civil rights lawyer Sherrilyn Ifill and U.S. District Judge Michelle Childs, whom Biden has nominated to be an appeals court judge.  Childs is a favorite of Rep. James Clyburn, D-S.C., who made a crucial endorsement of Biden just before South Carolina's presidential primary in 2020.

 

Oddly perhaps, Kamala Harris is also on the list of potential candidates. And yes, it is apparently possible to appoint a sitting Vice President to the Court, and she certainly fills the “Black Woman” criterion. But here, the question is Why? Why would Biden appoint Harris who is at least nominally in line to become President should he die in office from aging or simply retirement.  The rumors apparently at least suggest that Biden and Harris are less than the “perfect couple” in the White House.

 

So Harris??? That would be odd, at best from my perspective. Harris is a pretty fair candidate to run for the Presidency in 2004 or 2008, so I assume she might prefer to place her bets there.

I actually wondered about Obama as a SCOTUS candidate. But again, he is a retired President and can still claim the public’s attention whenever he chooses. Oh and there’s that “Black Woman” thing. Since Obama is a Black Man from Kenya, he probably won’t make the cut  (hahahahahahaha).

 

It’s really interesting how American politics has changed over the very long period of my lifetime. While it has always been the case that conservative (Republican) presidents largely have appointed conservative justices and more liberal presidents  the opposite, there used to be vocal arguments, but, until Obama, at least civil behavior by the Senate. But a Black President, coupled with the Power-mad hunger of the McConnell crowd of near fascists combined to reverse the apparent course of history. It is no longer the case that civility continues to prevail. Mitch McConnell now assures that rabid discourse will forever govern American politics in our Capitol. When he refused to allow Obama’s appointee, Merrick Garland to move forward, while accelerating Trump’s appointees (think hard about McConnell pressing forward with someone as awful as Brett Kavanaugh), suggests that no ethics exists within the McConnell court.

And so it comes down, once more sadly, to Manchin and Sinema. If they cannot even support this action by Biden, they surely do not deserve any further support from the Democratic Party.  And so we will see how far down to the path to our demise America will move with this process.  That old Doomsday Clock is ticking guys, and there ain’t much time left.