Recently, I noticed this Romney meme that had made the rounds during the 2012 election – that now seems so long ago. It represents a brave attempt to point out how important judicial appointments are – especially Supreme Court nominations – when choosing a presidential candidate. Well, we all know how things turned out.
However, that doesn’t mean this issue, this threat, is in our rear-view mirrors. If you look closely at the names listed there, the most important is that of Justice Kennedy. Kennedy is often seen as the “swing vote” on a SCOTUS that is split between four on the right (Scalia, Thomas, Alioto and Chief Justice Roberts) and four on the left (Breyer, Ginsburg, Sotomayor & Kagan). Of course, the delicate balance is the thrust behind the argument that it was critical to elect Romney in 2012. Many on the right, especially fans of 2012 GOP primary losers, have claimed that “Romney would have been just as bad”. Really? Some claims are too absurd to even respond to, but if I were to respond to it, this meme would be state’s evidence #1.
Looking forward (no pun intended), the fact that two more liberal justices and the “swing vote” may retire should get the attention of everyone on the right and anyone who cares about the future of this country. If all three retire in the next three years, Obama will have placed on the Supreme Court five of the nine justices – a majority bloc that will change this country for generations.
That’s not hyperbole. If it happens, it will represent the largest influence on the Court since FDR who threatened the Supreme Court. Reagan himself, as popular as he was, serving for eight years, only nominated four of the Supreme Court Justices and one of those was the “swing-vote” Kennedy – a third choice after Judge Robert Bork was “Borked” by Ted Kennedy and Judge Douglas Ginsburg (no relation) was taken down by NPR’s Nina Totenberg for using marijuana 15 years prior – for which she won the Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Silver Baton award for journalism (eye roll please…).
Knowing this, we must reassess the importance of the 2014 elections. If the Republicans don’t gain control of the Senate – real Republicans, not RINOs that wouldn’t take a stand if their life depended on it – America will never be the same. Just imagine – no matter what the case is, for the next forty years, the Obama Justices will vote their way and there’s nothing we can do to stop them. Nothing. Nada. Every single case that’s brought before the Court would be decided in favor of progressive ideology. State’s rights would virtually disappear and anything a Republican President, Congress, Governor or state legislature did would be overturned within the Court system. That amazing 2010 victory that resulted in a record 680 new GOP state house seats – nullified by, you guessed it, the Obama Justices.
For example, recently the Court decided narrowly, as they often do, that Congress could not use 45 year old data for the Voting Rights Act of 1965 – a reasonable ruling that the four liberal justices dissented from. Right after the Obama Justices are in place, cases from all over the country challenging Voter ID laws, perhaps even citizenship requirements for voting, will be brought to the Court and decided in favor of progressives and against conservatives. Just imagine, all those illegal immigrants that Marco Rubio wants to make legal would be given voter rights under the Obama Justices.
In fact, even if the Gang of 8 Amnesty bill doesn’t pass, illegal immigrants may be encouraged to sue for voting rights, based on residency. Even if they’re denied at every level – Federal District Court and the Court of Appeals – it can all be overturned at the Supreme Court and, because of the supremacy clause, there is no where to turn – if the court rules illegals cannot be denied voting rights.
While we, who use reason, would say this is blatantly unconstitutional –judicial activists, who believe in a “Living Constitution”, would claim this is just the latest example of the Court bringing about “social justice” to make U.S. a more “perfect union”. In fact, whether a case is heard or not only requires four Justices to agree – the so-called “Rule of Four”. So, conservatives don’t even have a say which case to hear – the five Obama Justices could deny certiorari to cases that favor conservatives and only hear cases that favor progressives.
Most shocking of all – the Obama Justices will maintain this power even if we elect a Republican President for the next twenty years. A GOP President can only replace justices that step down. The Obama Justices will simply remain on the court, as a governing bloc, until they grow old or another progressive is elected. They’ve got plenty of time. So far, Obama’s first two justices, Sotomayor and Kagan are 55 and 50 years old, respectively. Anyone want to bet the next three will also be young? That gives the Obama Justices a good twenty years together – plenty of time to allow Obama to keep his promise of “fundamentally transforming the United States of America”.
By tradition, Supreme Courts are named after the Chief Justice, thus the current court is called “The Roberts Court”, because of Chief Justice John Roberts.
Unless the Republicans take back the U.S. Senate in 2014, or we quickly pass a Liberty Amendment to address this, then the U.S. Supreme Court will soon be
“The Obama Court”.
Look2theWest 