Dissention In The Ranks ?

(Dissention In The Ranks ?)

In the wake of recent Supreme Court decisions that reflected the High Court's conservative Majority, President Biden made the claim that the Court was "not normal." How would he know ? He knows how the system works and the other guy was able to put his people in there first. Trump's time in Office allowed him to seat three picked jurists to sit on the Bench. But the President had his choice and the sitting Associate Jackson is proof of that.

However and this was mentioned yesterday, Ms. Jackson, all due respect, is a "checked box." People get nominated to the Supreme Court because there is some judicial quality that would serve the county well in collective jurisprudence but Jackson, despite having a legal background and was a judge herself, her career has been less about the law and more about her social activism.

Now, the nine Justices at SCOTUS are supposed to be an elite gathering as the most pre-eminent lawyers in the nation, delivering their interpretation of statute and how it confirms to the Constitution. Jackson in her dissents were joined by the other ideologically liberals, Justices Kagan and Sotomayor. Their collective reaction to these rulings has been such, however, that Chief Justice Roberts had to admonish them.

Roberts, an author of one of the opinions, reminded his more liberal colleagues that there is a sense of decorum that needs to be maintained. However, because these judgements are setting precedents, are setting law for generations, the reaction is from the liberal side can be understandable. What the Chief Justice is suggesting, however, is that dissents, while they are a central part of SCOTUS life, is that the reactions be tempered by Justices who see a ruling against their point of view. And that of the President.

These pages have been critical of the Chief Justice in the past. It has been Roberts' forlorn hope to keep politics from influencing Court decisions. That ship had sailed long ago because he was never acclimated to the fact that in the current environment in Washington, the Court could not help but be influenced by politics. In other words, the re-actions of Jackson, Kagan, and Sotomayor were based on politics, not law.