Paul Revere by Cyrus Dallin, North End, Boston

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Friday, January 28, 2022

 BREAKING NEWS!



BREAKING: Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer will retire, giving President Biden a chance to nominate his replacement.

38 comments:

Dave Miller said...

Great News!

Dave Miller said...

Now let's get on it Biden. No moderates. The GOP had their chance for that with Garland, a candidate they themselves championed before he was nominated.

If Biden doesn't find a young liberal lion to replace Breyer, he's toast.

Anonymous@8something said...

Good news! Or will this be what amounts to another "freeze job" by republicans aided by Manchin and sidekick? At the very least it will likely prove to be what has become "the new normal".

Dave Miller said...

Names to replace Breyer.

Only one name in my opinion if Biden wants to make a statement, galvanize the base, get a legit Constitutional scholar and someone young enough to be there for years...

Barack Obama.

Shaw Kenawe said...

I'm guessing Ketanji Brown Jackson. President Biden said if a Supreme seat opens up while he's POTUS, he'd nominate a black woman.

Judge Jackson is eminently qualified. Look at her bio.

(I don't think Barack Obama would want the job.)

Shaw Kenawe said...

BTW, it was Judge Jackson who was quoted saying "Presidents are not kings." Read about it in her bio.

No Name Needed said...

I don't think Biden should have limited himself to only a black woman.
Obama would be my pick. Are we sure he would turn it down?
If the process goes past the midterm elections and Republicans win back majority, you can bet McConnell will stall Biden's nominee. Get it done NOW Joe!

Shaw Kenawe said...

I think the Obamas very much like the lives they have now, and would not want to be limited to the life of a Supreme. Besides, President Obama does not have the bona fides that Ketanji Brown Jackson has. She's a powerhouse!

Here's a little background on the "nuclear option" for Supreme Court nominees that THE REPUBLICANS instituted:

In 2013, Reid and Democrats lowered vote threshold on most nominees, but not for Supreme Court picks.

In 2013, Democrats held a majority in the Senate while President Barack Obama occupied the White House.

For four decades, a 60-vote supermajority had been required to advance all federal judicial nominees and executive-office appointments, per The Washington Post.

Then, Senate Republicans attempted to filibuster multiple Obama nominees to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, his pick for Defense secretary, and his choices to lead the National Labor Relations Board and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

In response, Reid orchestrated a move to lower the Senate vote threshold to 51 to confirm most presidential appointments — but not nominees to the Supreme Court.

Those nominees, and legislation, could still be filibustered.

The Democrat-controlled Senate voted 52-48 in favor of the change, which was dubbed the "nuclear option."

At the time, McConnell condemned the move.

“It’s a sad day in the history of the Senate,” he told reporters, calling it a “power grab" by Democrats.

In 2017, McConnell and Republicans lowered the threshold for nominees to the Supreme Court, too
By 2017, roles had reversed — Republicans held the majority in the Senate, and President Donald Trump sat in the Oval Office.

After Senate Democrats, now in the minority, filibustered the confirmation of Judge Neil Gorsuch — Trump's first nominee to the Supreme Court — McConnell engineered his own "nuclear option."

The Republican-controlled Senate voted 52-48 to reduce the vote threshold for confirming nominees to the Supreme Court from 60 to 51, per The New York Times.

(The need for a 60-vote supermajority still exists for legislation.)

Again, both sides played the blame game.

“This is the latest escalation in the left’s never-ending judicial war, the most audacious yet,” McConnell said, of Democratic efforts to filibuster the Gorsuch high court nomination.

Schumer, meanwhile, said that when "history weighs what happened," the responsibility will rest on McConnell and Republicans.

“They have had other choices,” he said. “They have chosen this one.”


SOURCE

Dave Miller said...

Shaw... yes, she's a great choice too. Whether Obama would take the seat is an open question and great for parlor games.

He's still my long shot guess for a SCOTUS seat.

It's sad that we've been reduced to filling seats in this way. It wasn't too long ago that each party understood that the opposition would pick a center right or center left justice and then, absent any terrible in their background, they would get approved.

But that all changed with Pres Reagan's nomination of Robert Bork. Depending on your political stripe, he nominated a justice outside of the mainstream, or Bork was terribly judged by the Dem's opposition. Either way, the well was poisoned from there.

The GOP feeling like it is their right to do exact revenge and the Dems pretending to be pure as the driven snow.

-FJ the Dangerous and Extreme MAGA Jew said...

Sounds like no one will be attacking Manchin or Sinema in the Senate before 2022 now... :)

Dave Miller said...

-FJ... you're probably correct, but as those two have voted in lockstep on every other judicial nominee from Biden, I don't expect any issues.

But... it would be a good time for Ron Klain to eat some crow and make nice.

Unknown said...

Reminder: Republicans can no longer filibuster Supreme Court nominees because McConnell nuked the SCOTUS filibuster in 2017 to stack the court with 3 right-wing extremists. Thanks, Mitch!

skudrunner said...

It is pitiful that the decision for a justice is which party they support and not pick someone without bias. Biden will get his choice as he should. It seems that his handlers would like to kick cruilla to the curb but, like saint obama, she is not qualified. It does not come to look for the best candidate but are they liberal or conservative and in this case it has to be a black women which shows this is pure political. She will get grilled by the republicans but I doubt it will be the circus like Kavanaugh.

Shaw Kenawe said...

skudrunner: "It is pitiful that the decision for a justice is which party they support and not pick someone without bias."

You mean like Trump did with Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, and Barrett? No one, and I mean NO ONE, would ever put those three justices in the LIBERAL column. The Federalist Society gave Trump the names of the judges they wanted on the SCOTUS, and Trump put them there. It is the prerogative of every POTUS to do just what Presidents Trump and Biden did, except the Righties get their knickers in a bunch when the Democrats do exactly what they did!

You dislike for VP Harris is duly noted, as is your constant whining about former President Obama. I wonder why you ALWAYS pick on those particular pols? Hmmmmm.

skud: "...in this case it has to be a black women which shows this is pure political."


Wrong. President Biden made a promise. What happened to "Promises made; promises kept?"

Throughout the history of the SCOTUS, only 6 of them have NOT been white men. It's about time the Court reflected our diverse country. There are hundreds of qualified women of color who would make an excellent justice.

And Ketanji Brown Jackson is just one of them. She eminently qualified in every way. Google her. She's very impressive.

It is you and others who are making this political.

George H.W. Bush placed Clarence Thomas on the Court to fill Thurgood Marshall's seat. Or did you forget that history? Bush, Sr. placed a conservative Black judge on the Court to replace a liberal Black justice.

Dave Miller said...

Shaw... and Skud... Where was all the outcry from conservatives when candidate Reagan promised to name a woman, the first woman to the SCOTUS? And then did, nominating Sandra Day O'Conner.

Did you and your conservative cronies complain that Reagan was a quota guy, not looking for the best qualified judge? Of course not.

And everyone knew it was a naked political stunt designed to curry favor with women who were trending towards Carter in the polls.

Your current howling today is duly as what it is, political claptrap chagrin only expressed when it isn't "your guy" doing it.

Shaw Kenawe said...

Dave

Thanks for reminding me of Reagan's choice of Sandra Day O'Connor to curry favor with the female voters. (She was an excellent Supreme, IMO.)

Now we have Sen. Susan Collins saying Pres. Biden should "slow down" and not rush into confirming another justice. What?

Dear Gawd! Trump got Amy Coney Barrett nominated, interviewed, and confirmed IN 27 DAYS! WHILE PEOPLE WERE VOTING AND HAD VOTED!!! Remember when McConnell wouldn't allow Merrick Garland's name to even come to the Senate floor because it was an election year and President Obama proposed Garland IN FEBRUARY??!!!

The complaints, whining, and fake outrage over what is President Biden's Constitutional right is sickening, especially coming from the people who said nothing when Mitch McConnell denied President Obama his Constitutional right. Nnow those same whiners are telling President Biden he should slow down the process and not make it "political?"

You are correct, Dave, this is typical Trumpublican "political claptrap chagrin only expressed when it isn't 'your guy' doing it.

Stunning hypocrites!

skudrunner said...

Should not be surprised by both of your outrage over my statement that it should be made based on qualifications not political beliefs. This is true of what side is in office but shouldn't be. This also applies to Ms Shaw's comment about promises kept. Has he said we will choose the most qualified, no he said we will choose a black female. Who ever his handlers choose will not be the best qualified but will be politically left. trump chose those who are politically right but actually have differing opinions than just right, unlike sotomayor who votes left regardless of the case.

Now we have biden currying the favor of blacks,
Stunning hypocrite

Shaw Kenawe said...



One of the women being considered is Ketanji Brown Jackson, and is eminently qualified. I'm sure you didn't read about her, otherwise you wouldn't have said Pres. Biden would not choose the "best qualified..." Judge Jackson is as qualified as any of the other judges were when they were nominated. Period.

You see this ONLY through the lens of politics. That's your problem, not mine, not President Biden's, nor anyone else who has checked out Judge Jackson's qualifications. She just happens to be a Black woman.

Sherrilyn Ifill is also eminently qualified:

Sherrilyn Ifill is an American lawyer. She is a law professor and president and director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. She is the Legal Defense Fund's seventh president since Thurgood Marshall founded the organization in 1940. Ifill is also a nationally recognized expert on voting rights and judicial selection. In 2021, Time named her one of the 100 most influential people in the world on its annual Time 100 list.

She graduated from Hillcrest High School Ifill has a B.A. from Vassar College and a J.D. from New York University School of Law.

Another is Associate Justice of the California Supreme Court, Leondra Kruger:

From 2007 to 2013, she served in the Department as an Assistant to the Solicitor General and as Acting Deputy Solicitor General. During her tenure in the Office of the Solicitor General, she argued 12 cases in the United States Supreme Court on behalf of the federal government. In 2013 and in 2014, she received the Attorney General’s Award for Exceptional Service, the Department’s highest award for employee performance.

Justice Kruger had previously been in private practice, where she specialized in appellate and Supreme Court litigation, and taught as a visiting assistant professor at the University of Chicago Law School.

A native of the Los Angeles area, Justice Kruger attended high school in Pasadena. She received her bachelor’s degree with high honors from Harvard College, where she was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. She received her J.D. from Yale Law School, where she served as Editor-in-Chief of the Yale Law Journal. Following graduation, she served as a law clerk to Judge David S. Tatel of the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, and to Justice John Paul Stevens of the United States Supreme Court.

These women are super-achievers in their careers as jurists and lawyer. All are more than qualified to be a Supreme.

Your problem is you see this only through a political lens. When only white men were nominated to the SCOTUS, you never looked at that as political, since you and many others took it for granted that ONLY WHITE MEN were qualified for the job and ONLY WHITE MEN represented the American population.

That doesn't work anymore. We are a diverse country, and our courts should reflect that truth.






Grey One talks sass said...

Wow. Leave it to skud to conflate equal representation with 'currying favor'. What makes you think Biden's nomination won't be able to do the job skud? The color of their skin? Their gender?

I'm going out on a limb here to assert the best people in line to become a SCOTUS justice are not limited by gender, race, or sexual orientation and that historically people of color and women have been under represented when it comes to the Judicial Branch. Choosing a Black Woman isn't special treatment, it's their turn. Fair is fair after all.

skud's animosity against anyone of color and specifically women in positions of power is well known to me and they do not disappoint in their comments here. I'd like them to do better but one has to admit they have a problem before they can get better.

Dave Miller said...

Skud... Candidate Reagan never said he would choose the "most qualified" person. He simply said he would choose woman.

You guys screaming for some sort of political purity only seem to call for it when it's the other guys.

If you're so fixated on the most qualified nominees, ask yourself this...

Where has your outrage been the last 20 years? In that time 18 judges have been nominated to the Federal bench that the ABA rated as unqualified. All of those unqualified nominees have been put up by GOP presidents. The Trump was so taken aback that they suspended providing information to the ABA so their judicial nominees would not be rated.

As you can imagine, the ABA, while rating 4 of Clinton's nominees unqualified, they had no problems with nominees from either Pres Obama or Biden. I'm sure you'll call the ABA partisan, but as a group that historically been said to biased against women and minorities, I'd probably argue otherwise.

Shaw Kenawe said...

BTW, Here's something skudrunner and many others don't know:

Leonard Leo serves as Executive Vice President of the Federalist Society -- a national organization of ultra-conservative lawyers.

Leo co-chairs "Students for Life" -- an organization whose mission is to "abolish abortion." That's in their Mission Statement.

"No one is more dedicated to building a Supreme Court that is dedicated to overturning Roe v. Wade than Leo is." -- Ed Whelan, a Conservative activist

Leo, a 53-year-old father of six, appears in the media as the mild-mannered public face of a strident campaign to reshape the American judiciary. It is a mission that has spanned several administrations, driven by Leo and fellow devout Catholics, and bankrolled with tens of millions of dollars from unidentified conservative donors. More than a decade ago, it helped secure George W Bush’s confirmation of Justice Samuel Alito and Chief Justice John Roberts.

“No one has been more dedicated to the enterprise of building a supreme court that will overturn Roe v Wade than the Federalist Society’s Leonard Leo,” Ed Whelan, a conservative legal activist and commentator, .

Working more behind the scenes is Ann Corkery, a Washington lawyer and fundraiser, who in the 1990s said she was a member of Opus Dei, the hardline Catholic order. Corkery defended the group’s practice of self-flagellation. “People don’t understand sacrifice, the whole idea of why anyone would inflict pain, because the modern notion is to avoid suffering,” she said. Corkery did not respond to emailed questions.

Leo and his wife, Sally, have themselves donated money to a Washington-area school that states its “orientation and spiritual formation are entrusted to Opus Dei”,


This is the Catholic Church deciding secular law for the people the United States.

Chief Justice John Roberts, as well as Associate Justices Alito, Thomas, Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, and Barrett, are ALL CONSERVATIVE CATHOLICS and anti-choice. (Justice Sotomayor is Catholic, but in favor of a woman's right to choose.)

Shaw Kenawe said...

skud: "Now we have biden currying the favor of blacks,"

Rubbish! Democrats don't "curry" favor from African-Americans, African-Americans choose the Democratic Party because it is inclusive, and it doesn't pass laws that makes it HARDER FOR THEM TO VOTE AND BE COUNTED AS FULL AMERICAN CITIZENS!

Our African-American brothers and sisters once favored the old Republican, now Trumpublican, Party but the majority left it.

"The realignment of black voters from the Republican Party to the Democratic Party that began in the late 1920s proliferated during this era. This process involved a “push and pull”: the refusal by Republicans to pursue civil rights alienated many black voters, while efforts — shallow though they were — by northern Democrats to open opportunities for African Americans gave black voters reasons to switch parties.

The Trumpublicans are alienating black voters AGAIN by making it more difficult for them, other poc, and Americans in rural areas of the country to vote.

Some famous Republican once admitted that if everyone voted, the Republicans would NEVER hold the White House or Congress again. Thus we have ridiculous gerrymandering and voter suppression to keep the Trumpublicans in power.

Shaw Kenawe said...


McConnell issued statement on SCOTUS vacancy: “The President must not outsource this important decision to the radical left. The American people deserve a nominee with demonstrated reverence for the written text of our laws and our Constitution.”


Funny how Republicans only demand reverence for the written text of our laws and our Constitution when Democrats are in charge.

Donald Trump outsourced ALL of his nominees to the Radical Right Federalist Society -- ALL OF THEM.

Shaw Kenawe said...

Ari Berman
@AriBerman
Your daily reminder that Mitch McConnell made up a nonexistent Senate rule to block Merrick Garland 8 months before election then killed filibuster to confirm Amy Coney Barrett 8 days before election when 65 million people had already voted

BluebullAmerica said...

how typical of Skid to let his slobbering lovefest for the radical right to not get in his way stating blatant racism to defend his ideology. {Pathetic though it is]
Did anyone else hear him scream in outrage when the King Clorox stated outright that he only would put forward justice candidates who opposed womens rights and choices?
Yeah, me either... Funny about that, huh?

skudrunner said...

Grey, I do agree with you "I'm going out on a limb here to assert the best people in line to become a SCOTUS justice are not limited by gender, race, or sexual orientation " so why did obiden start the discussion not with my handlers will appoint the best qualified but with we will select a black women.

Ms. Shaw, your obsession with trump is beyond comprehension. I guess you felt targeted by him the way I felt targeted by the swell guy. Now some of your contributors are anti women and you still support them. Would you rather have obiden or nilkki or tulsi. I know you judge leadership as being a nice guy and only calling a conservative reporter a SOB, some judge a leader on their ability to lead which takes crisis joe out of the running. Some day we will have a female president but with attitudes like yours it will be many decades.


Dave Miller said...

From Susan Collins, Senator from Maine and a supporter of Amy Coney Barrett when she was nominated within 3 days of the death of RBG, has her hearings and was approved by the Senate in under a month.

"This time there is no need for any rush. We can take our time, have hearings, go through the process, which is a very important one. It is a lifetime appointment, after all."

How convenient... this time there is no need. And yet there was before. Yet there was no need for speed in the Garland hearings either.

Is it me, or does anyone else see a pattern from folks like Collins and Skud?

Shaw Kenawe said...


Dave, People like Sen. Collins and even skud, don't see the double standard at all. That's the only explanation for both of them: They. Are. Blind. to their own tribalism.

Ronald Reagan, as you noted, never said he wanted "the most qualified person" for the SCOTUS, he said he wanted to appoint A WOMAN. PERIOD.

When Pres. Biden said he would appoint a BLACK woman, skud criticized the President for his words, forgetting, or not knowing, that Reagan said almost the same thing -- except "Black" was missing from his announcement of wanting to appoint a woman.

Maybe that's what disturbs people? Remember, skud has said that we need a president like Reagan to bring this country together, because skud believes Reagan was wonderful. Yet Reagan said EXACTLY what Pres. Biden said, except he did not specify what color the woman he wanted is.

Sen. Collins is just plain foolish when she says things like "there is no need" to rush. She either has no memory of what happened in 2020, or she is, like a lot of Trumpublicans, a galloping hypocrite -- or both. I have no use for her foolishness.

Shaw Kenawe said...

skud: "...so why did obiden start the discussion not with my handlers will appoint the best qualified but with we will select a black women."

The same reason Ronald Reagan said he would "appoint a WOMAN" to the SCOTUS. Or maybe HIS handlers told him to say that? Why is it so difficult for you to accept from Pres. Biden EXACTLY what Pres. Reagan did????

"Now some of your contributors are anti women and you still support them."

Who are these people? Unless you name them, I have to believe you're being untruthful.


skud: "Some day(sic) we will have a female president but with attitudes like yours it will be many decades."

That's a heavy burden to put on me -- being responsible for not having a female president for decades to come just because of my blog????

Anonymous@8something said...

@Dave- yup, a pattern. very seldom is there a surise.

is it just me, or does anyone else see a merry-g-round?

BluebullAmerica said...

Collins is a liar. She always has been and always will be. She like to think she's fooling people with her 'I'M pro choice" routine and then she always becks the anti-choice creep the right puts up. Always. Then again, she's a Republican and anyone who still believes a single word out of the mouth of a Republican is just too far gone to be reasoned with.

Shaw Kenawe said...

BluebullAmerica,

You're correct. Her words are worthless. Like McConnell's.

I've been thinking of you. Hope you're doing well. Sending good thoughts to you.

anymouse said...

Shoshana Mah Quah, my friend, Back in the hospital but hope to make it home again soon. Peace be your constant companion Ms Shaw. Best always.

Grey One talks sass said...

skud tells me they agree with me but what exactly are they agreeing to?

I said "I'm going out on a limb here to assert the best people in line to become a SCOTUS justice are not limited by gender, race, or sexual orientation and that historically people of color and women have been under represented when it comes to the Judicial Branch. Choosing a Black Woman isn't special treatment, it's their turn. Fair is fair after all."

skud read what I said and still had to ask "so why did obiden start the discussion not with my handlers will appoint the best qualified but with we will select a black women."

If you were my kid I'd put you in a time out for willful stupidity. Seriously.

Biden's full tweet, which you did not hear because your ears are stuffed with Right Wing talking points, was this:

The person I nominate to replace Justice Breyer will be someone with extraordinary qualifications, character, experience, and integrity. And they will be the first Black woman nominated to the United States Supreme Court. Jan 27, 2022.

The words you write skud are exactly what Hannity and Carlson on Fox spewed from their lying faces (and repeated on OAN and the Gateway Pundit). Odd isn't it?

Shaw - saw the dirty weather headed your way. Warm thoughts for you and yours. Also, amazing facts presentation. Thank you for your research. I always learn something when I visit.

As for skud's assertion that people like you (and by association all of us who visit here) are why progress won't happen is the bleating of Pharisees as their reign of influence, power, and privilege comes to and end.

In my opinion it's about time. :)

skudrunner said...

You do seem to place me in the support politician category. They are all incompetent crooks who only serve themselves and their party. Reagan was a great president but he was a politician which makes him a puppet just like all the rest. If presidents selected the best qualified instead of paying back a supporter the country could thrive but that won't happen. Biden should appoint Hunter to represent the US in any negotiations with China because he has the most experience dealing with them.

If you re-read some of your posts you will see that there are a couple of prominent supporters who dismissed Nikke and Tulsi. I can't remember the exact response but it was they are not qualified because and you have to assume it is because they are women.

BluebullAmerica said...

No SKID, They are opposed because they have outrageously bad ideologies. But, I'm glad you at least know enough about yourself to call you an ass (ass u me). Just how many grades were you held back before graduating kindergarten, Skid? Apparently not enough.

skudrunner said...

Blueballs, I have a PHD according to standards described on Mike's blog.
Grey, for joey to start the conversation with it will be a black female he is limiting his choices. Every decision made by politicians is pandering to some group and this selection is no different.
My hope is the confirmation will not turn into a circus like kavanaugh.

BluebullAmerica said...

Let me guess --- Liberty U? Anyway, you clearly missed reasoning and logic in school. Missed it by a mile, in fact. Your constant slides into irrelevancy and tedium never fail to astound one with mindless regularity. Why am I I wasting my time on your crap? Ugh.
Ms. Shaw, and any others in the path of this monster storm, please stay safe, warm and indoors
as much as possible. They are saying we'll have to watch for falling Iguanas tonight. Yikes!!