Rehnquist Dead; Nation F*cked
rootlesscosmo
12,848 Posts
Chief Justice William Rehnquist Has Died, Supreme Court Spokeswoman Says.I was saying the relatively moderate O'Connor replacement was just to feel out the opposition. Sensing none (or little), the Right's probably bold now on the judicial front. Get ready for a real hardliner this time.
Comments
Goddamn.
Checkmate. Serious long term bad shit to come.
Bush is still waiting to spend all that political capital he so proudly earned, though. Daddy has to be proud soon, right? Right?
dude may have had views differing from yours but he still deserves an r.i.p..
I've always thought "Rest In Peace" was a pretty hollow statement... I mean, what's the alternative? An eternity of tossin' and turnin'?
And does just dying entitle you to a rest in peace? I'm not necessarily speaking on Rhenquist, but I think some people dying deserve a good riddance.
Peace...
FNM
Apparently Pat Robertson & Gerry Falwell were praying for this to happen. Now we're gonna get a strict constructionist Chief.
Since Sandra Day O'Connor has officially said she'll retire, I think that rules her out of the job. So Scalia it is then?
I respect that perspective, but from his work in preventing people of color from exercising their constitutional right to vote early in his career to his jurisprudence, which in my view is more ideological and intellectually dishonest than that of any member of the current Supreme Court, it's difficult to respect his legacy.
or we're all fucked.
1)Now that Rehnquist's death is the top of the headlines people will soon forget how poorly the Bush administration responded to the Katrina disaster.
2) Bush gets to appoint another Scalia.
Thus we see that Bush is the one who benifits from Rehnquist death. So it is safe to say that Bush had Rehnquist killed. Of course Bush is just a puppet of the Fathers Of Zion who are controled by the lizard people who are actually aliens.
Dan
look for a quick move for him
to be the next chief justice
Archaic taps into Laserwolf's account?
But hey, it's only like 25-30-40-50 years or so.
co-sign. see you at the next judeolizardoid council? your turn to bring the chips.
When ever I hear that the Jews own all the banks, and control all the money, I always ask; Where is my share? I aint no Rothschild, and Morgan Stanley aint no Jew.
Dan
PS: Anyone know that calypso song by Blind Blake; My name is Morgan, but it aint JP, I don't own no railroad company.
RIP
I don't believe in that bullshit at all. If somebody earned my condemnation when they were alive, their death changes nothing.
But really, dudes, this is not that big a deal--everybody knew Rhenquist's health wouldn't allow him to come back for this term; it's just the death itself that's sudden. And it's just one conservative seat for another--it would be infinitely more disturbing to learn that Ginsburg or Stevens were suddenly being forced to retire for health reasons.
ugh, the mind reels
too true....
Alan Dershowitz
Mon Sep 5, 1:16 AM ET
My mother always told me that when a person dies, one should not say
anything bad about him. My mother was wrong. History requires truth, not
puffery or silence, especially about powerful governmental figures. And
obituaries are a first draft of history. So here's the truth about
Chief Justice Rehnquist you won't hear on Fox News or from politicians.
Chief Justice William Rehnquist set back liberty, equality, and human
rights perhaps more than any American judge of this generation. His rise to
power speaks volumes about the current state of American values.
Let's begin at the beginning. Rehnquist bragged about being first in
his class at Stanford Law School. Today Stanford is a great law school
with a diverse student body, but in the late 1940s and early 1950s, it
discriminated against Jews and other minorities, both in the admission of
students and in the selection of faculty. Justice Stephen Breyer
recalled an earlier period of Stanford's history: "When my father was at
Stanford, he could not join any of the social organizations because he was
Jewish, and those organizations, at that time, did not accept Jews."
Rehnquist not only benefited in his class ranking from this
discrimination; he was also part of that bigotry. When he was nominated to be an
associate justice in 1971, I learned from several sources who had known
him as a student that he had outraged Jewish classmates by goose-stepping
and heil-Hitlering with brown-shirted friends in front of a dormitory
that housed the school's few Jewish students. He also was infamous for
telling racist and anti-Semitic jokes.
As a law clerk, Rehnquist wrote a memorandum for Justice Jackson while
the court was considering several school desegregation cases, including
Brown v. Board of Education. Rehnquist's memo, entitled "A Random
Thought on the Segregation Cases," defended the separate-but-equal doctrine
embodied in the 1896 Supreme Court case of Plessy v. Ferguson.
Rehnquist concluded the Plessy "was right and should be reaffirmed." When
questioned about the memos by the Senate Judiciary Committee in both 1971
and 1986, Rehnquist blamed his defense of segregation on the dead
Justice, stating * under oath * that his memo was meant to reflect the views
of Justice Jackson. But Justice Jackson voted in Brown, along with a
unanimous Court, to strike down school segregation. According to historian
Mark Tushnet, Justice Jackson's longtime legal secretary called
Rehnquist's Senate testimony an attempt to "smear[] the reputation of a great
justice." Rehnquist later admitted to defending Plessy in arguments
with fellow law clerks. He did not acknowledge that he committed perjury
in front of the Judiciary Committee to get his job.
The young Rehnquist began his legal career as a Republican functionary
by obstructing African-American and Hispanic voting at Phoenix polling
locations ("Operation Eagle Eye"). As Richard Cohen of The Washington
Post wrote, "[H]e helped challenge the voting qualifications of Arizona
blacks and Hispanics. He was entitled to do so. But even if he did not
personally harass potential voters, as witnesses allege, he clearly was
a brass-knuckle partisan, someone who would deny the ballot to fellow
citizens for trivial political reasons -- and who made his selection on
the basis of race or ethnicity." In a word, he started out his
political career as a Republican thug.
Rehnquist later bought a home in Vermont with a restrictive covenant
that barred sale of the property to ''any member of the Hebrew race."
Rehnquist's judicial philosophy was result-oriented, activist, and
authoritarian. He sometimes moderated his views for prudential or pragmatic
reasons, but his vote could almost always be predicted based on who the
parties were, not what the legal issues happened to be. He generally
opposed the rights of gays, women, blacks, aliens, and religious
minorities. He was a friend of corporations, polluters, right wing Republicans,
religious fundamentalists, homophobes, and other bigots.
Rehnquist served on the Supreme Court for thirty-three years and as
chief justice for nineteen. Yet no opinion comes to mind which will be
remembered as brilliant, innovative, or memorable. He will be remembered
not for the quality of his opinions but rather for the outcomes decided
by his votes, especially Bush v. Gore, in which he accepted an Equal
Protection claim that was totally inconsistent with his prior views on
that clause. He will also be remembered as a Chief Justice who fought for
the independence and authority of the judiciary. This is his only
positive contribution to an otherwise regressive career.
Within moments of Rehnquist's death, Fox News called and asked for my
comments, presumably aware that I was a longtime critic of the late
Chief Justice. After making several of these points to Alan Colmes (who was
supposed to be interviewing me), Sean Hannity intruded, and when he
didn't like my answers, he cut me off and terminated the interview. Only
after I was off the air and could not respond did the attack against me
begin, which is typical of Hannity's bullying ambush style. He is
afraid to attack when there's someone there to respond. Since the interview,
I've received dozens of e-mail hate messages, some of which are overtly
anti-Semitic. One writer called me "a jew prick that takes it in the
a** from ruth ginzburg [sic]." Another said I am "an ignorant socialist
left-wing political hack *. You're like a little Heinrich Himmler! (even
the resemblance is uncanny!)." Yet another informed me that I
"personally make us all lament the defeat of the Nazis!" A more restrained
viewer found me to be "a disgrace to the Law, to Harvard, and to humanity."
All this, for refusing to put a deceptive gloss on a man who made his
career undermining the rights and liberties of American citizens.
My mother would want me to remain silent, but I think my father would
have wanted me to tell the truth. My father was right.
or Breyer G*d forbid. you right.
*Republicans do their best to sneak Roberts in while everybody else is (justly) concerned with NOLA.
*Democrats ask to actually, ya know, learn something about the guy Bush is trying to sneak in as chief justice of the fucking Supreme Court.
*Republicans howl how "obstructionist" Democrats are.
*Democrats meekly shrug and look at their feet, muttering, "I'm just askin' is all. But if it's gonna be such a big deal...."
*Justice Sunday 3 in 3-D! James Dobson claims anybody opposing Roberts is a hom'sek-shul. Pat Robertson calls for the posthumous assassination of Liberace. Zell Miller blames the lack of mandatory prayer in schools for all deaths in Iraq and blames the extreme deviance of the porno he just watched backstage on non-Biblical science. A giant shark bursts through the church's crystal roof and eats Lou Gosset Jr.
*Good-hearted Americans across the country say, "Fuck it, with all the death and destruction we've seen, we just can't muster up the energy to be outraged over some douchebag in a suit. You all suck. Argue amongst yourselves while we try to scrounge up $6.50 for a gallon of gas and try to figure out a way to help Katrina victims."
*Meanwhile, hardline Republicans are outraged that Bush only gets to appoint two Supreme Court Justices--if you don't think he should get to nominate an entire new Court, then you are unpatriotic! And by the way, what is it you unpatriotic assholes who oppose Bush hate the most about America? Is it the freedom?
*Karl Rove's new push poll question: "If you found out that if John Roberts isn't confirmed within 72 hours, Ted Kennedy will personally give you cancer, AIDS, lupus, and gingivitis, would that make you more likely or less likely to mindlessly parrot the phrase 'up or down vote?'"
*Confirmation hearing time! John Roberts hires Koko the Monkey Who Knows Sign Language to sign the words, "I choose not to answer that question because I don't think I should be subjected to a litmus test" in response to every question. Roberts himself kicks his feet up on the desk and browses strictconstructionistbabes.com on his laptop.
*Harry Reid gives a fiery speech on the steps of the Capitol building announcing this travesty must not be allowed to continue as it makes a mockery of the entire confirmation process, not to mention your more intelligent apes.
*As soon as Reid shouts his last syllable, Roberts gets confirmed; nation gets fucked. (NOTE: fucking of the nation does not apply to rich white males--the only TRUE Americans in a strict constructionist sense.)
Yup, I initially wrote it as a response to a message from a political jokester friend of mine, but I kinda liked the Jaws 3-D reference and figured I'd post it up here as well. Feel free to spread it around liberally (har!).
Well, like I've been saying, putting Roberts in Rhenquist's seat doesn't itself make a big difference. However, it will bring W's likely tally for the term to: 1 as yet unnamed hard right justice replacing an occasional swing vote in O'Connor's seat + a really young and conservative dude as Chief who's likely to be with us for three or more decades. This gives the conservatives a really solid four-vote minority, something that they haven't had in a long time and, if W gets to appoint as many as two more justices, which is certainly possible, we would be looking at a conservative majority of six, which could very quickly roll back much of the social progress of the Warren Court era that we now take for granted.