Blog Credo

The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.

H.L. Mencken

Saturday, June 25, 2022

Bill Clinton Would Get A Kick Out Of This

 The House should impeach Samuel Alito, John Roberts, Amy Coney Barrett, Brett Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch. While their answers in their confirmation hearings were lawyerly and ambiguous, you could make a compelling case that these five jurists perjured themselves - at least as much as Bill Clinton did in his evasive, lawyerly answers in the Paula Jones deposition. Republicans impeached him, knowing they wouldn't get the votes to remove him. Clinton, however, was popular and near the end of his term. The Court has finally and fully trashed its legitimacy in the eyes of a majority of Americans, plus they serve for life.

Now, impeaching them would not remove them from the bench, because there are simply not 17 GOP Senators to remove. There is probably not one. (Susan Collins will stroke her chin and say that they have learned their lesson.) And of course, packing the Court is the only proactive part of the GOP agenda.

However, impeaching the justices would have two important impacts. First, it would be "doing something" and pointing out why control of the Senate is so important. Getting vulnerable GOP Senators on the record before the midterms could help push a few seats Blue. Second, you help establish the illegitimacy of the Dobbs decision (and others). Eventually, hopefully, the Senate will have enough votes to codify Roe nationally. At that point, a conservative Court would simply rule that unconstitutional for whatever reason they could figure out. 

There's an historical anecdote - likely apocryphal - of Andrew Jackson referring to John Marshall's decision in Worcester v Georgia with the words, "John Marshall has made his decision; now let him enforce it." At some point, if the Court continues to resurrect Gilded Age jurisprudence and there aren't enough votes to expand the Court, you are simply going to have to nullify the actions of an illegitimate Court.

That begins by impeaching the Lying Five.

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