{"id":139223,"date":"2019-06-12T18:21:50","date_gmt":"2019-06-13T00:21:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/?p=139223"},"modified":"2019-06-12T18:21:50","modified_gmt":"2019-06-13T00:21:50","slug":"back-to-the-bad-old-days","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2019\/06\/12\/back-to-the-bad-old-days.html","title":{"rendered":"Back to the Bad Old Days"},"content":{"rendered":"<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">For over half a century, SCOTUS has been a key in enabling social change and promoting justice for the weak. Prior to that, it was more often a protector of the status quo and powerful, a conservative opponent to progress. We&#39;re headed that way again. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/yxVs5dqHmS\">https:\/\/t.co\/yxVs5dqHmS<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; ***Dave Hill (@Three_Star_Dave) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Three_Star_Dave\/status\/1138919490333417472?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 12, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>For over half a century, SCOTUS has been a key in enabling social change and promoting justice for the weak. Prior to that, it was more often a protector of the status quo and powerful, a conservative opponent to progress. We&#8217;re headed that way again.<br \/>\nhttps:\/\/t.co\/yxVs5dqHmS<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Since, oh, the days of the Warren court, the Supreme Court has, imperfectly and to very broadly generalize, found ways that the words and principles of the Constitution protected those who needed protection.\u00a0<em>Brown vs. Board of Ed,<\/em>\u00a0<em>Roe v. Wade,\u00a0 Gideon v. Wainwright, Engel v. Vitale, New York Times v. Sullivan,\u00a0Miranda v. Arizona, Loving v. Virginia, Texas v. Johnson, Lawrence v. Texas, United States v. Nixon,\u00a0 Obergefell v. Hodges &#8230;<\/em> the Court has found profound ways the Constitution protects individual freedom and equality under the law.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/supreme-court.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-138534\" title=\"Supreme Court\" src=\"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/supreme-court-650x433.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"650\" height=\"433\" srcset=\"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/supreme-court-650x433.jpg 650w, https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/supreme-court-150x100.jpg 150w, https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/supreme-court-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/supreme-court-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/supreme-court-1200x800.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/supreme-court.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 709px) 85vw, (max-width: 909px) 67vw, (max-width: 984px) 61vw, (max-width: 1362px) 45vw, 600px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>What most people today don&#8217;t realize is that, for much of its existence, the Supreme Court usually served as a conservative force for the status quo, protecting majorities and power structures and the establishment. This was not a matter of &#8220;activism&#8221; vs. &#8220;non-activism&#8221; (if the meaning and bounds of the Constitution were obvious and inarguable, then we wouldn&#8217;t need a Supreme Court, or we would need a court of one justice). It was the culture of what was expected of the Court, and resulted in everything from <em>Dred Scott v Sanford<\/em> to\u00a0<em>Plessy v. Ferguson<\/em> to\u00a0<em>Korematsu v. United States<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>Since the 1980s, conservatives in the US have been playing a long game to roll back the clock to those Bad Old Days. The nomination and (usual) confirmation of more ideologically reliable justices was part of that, and the strategy culminated in Mitch McConnell asserting a brand-new (and admittedly disingenuous) tradition of Never Letting a President Appoint a New Justice [When It&#8217;s Not One Of Our Presidents] to deny Obama a replacement on the Court.<\/p>\n<p>The point of the article (link repeated below) is that the result is likely to be not only a return to a Supreme Court that protects the powerful interests within the US and majority sentiments over minority rights, but one that will eagerly roll back the last 60-70 years of precedent <em>(stare decisis<\/em> be damned). Those who find protections of free speech, of minority rights, to be of value, will need to consider how to protect them against a conservative majority that wants to turn the judicial clock back to the 1940s, if not the 1840s.<\/p>\n<p><em>Do you want to know more?\u00a0<\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/opinions\/we-need-to-prepare-for-a-complete-reversal-of-the-role-the-supreme-court-plays-in-our-lives\/2019\/06\/11\/b492d894-8c5b-11e9-adf3-f70f78c156e8_story.html?utm_term=.5299dd3c887a\">We need to prepare for a complete reversal of the role the Supreme Court plays in our lives &#8211; The Washington Post<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Supreme Court is returning to its classic role of protector of the status quo and its power interests.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":138534,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[78,350,9],"tags":[723,851],"class_list":["post-139223","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tweets","category-civil-liberties","category-politics-law","tag-nt","tag-scotus"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/supreme-court.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":51615,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/06\/25\/scotus-upholds-federal-subsidies-for-the-affordable-care-act-huzzah.html","url_meta":{"origin":139223,"position":0},"title":"SCOTUS upholds federal subsidies for the Affordable Care Act (huzzah)","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 25-Jun-15 9:01am","format":false,"excerpt":"The King v Burwell case was goofy to begin with, and there were plenty of indicators that the GOP was more than a bit concerned that it might actually \"win\" this one and then be stuck with fixing the problem. Regardless, the Supreme Court upheld the law today, saying that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;~PlusPosts&quot;","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":49756,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/03\/05\/looking-at-the-arguments-in-king-v-burwell.html","url_meta":{"origin":139223,"position":1},"title":"Looking at the arguments in &quot;King v. Burwell&quot;","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 5-Mar-15 6:45am","format":false,"excerpt":"King v. Burwell was the case argued before SCOTUS yesterday over whether a provision in the ACA means that subsidies can only be given when a state itself has established an exchange, or if the state exchanges created by default by the federal government can also provide such exchanges.While confessing\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;~PlusPosts&quot;","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":51485,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/06\/16\/when-the-party-of-law-order-becomes-the-party-of-civil-disobedience.html","url_meta":{"origin":139223,"position":2},"title":"When the Party of Law &amp; Order becomes the Party of Civil Disobedience","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 16-Jun-15 11:22pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Because we must respect our legal system, except when it concludes stuff that we don't like.So if the President decided to ignore what SCOTUS rules in the current Obamacare case, or ignore Citizens United, or ignore any other SCOTUS ruling that he disagrees with ... how long would it take\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;~PlusPosts&quot;","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":45036,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/09\/08\/help-help-im-being-repressed.html","url_meta":{"origin":139223,"position":3},"title":"&quot;Help! Help! I&#8217;m being repressed!&quot;","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 8-Sep-14 9:21pm","format":false,"excerpt":"The Daily Caller article manages to bury a single reference in the middle that makes it clear that what's being talked about is financial contributions, not \"free speech\" as most people (besides a slim majority on SCOTUS and corporate lobbying groups) recognize it. To be sure, the Senate Dems are\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;~PlusPosts&quot;","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":130356,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/04\/04\/a-conservative-redistricting-challenge-gets-trounced-by-the-supreme-court.html","url_meta":{"origin":139223,"position":4},"title":"A conservative redistricting challenge gets trounced by the Supreme Court","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 4-Apr-16 9:15am","format":false,"excerpt":"When SCOTUS issues a unanimous decision against you, it's a sign there's probably something fundamentally wrong with your argument. That seems to be the case in Evenwel v. Abbott, which rejected a suit by conservatives claiming that Texas could not redistrict state voting lines based on population, but had to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;~PlusPosts&quot;","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":32822,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2013\/03\/19\/right-of-first-sale-upheld.html","url_meta":{"origin":139223,"position":5},"title":"Right of First Sale Upheld","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 19-Mar-13 12:30pm","format":false,"excerpt":"For (physical) books, at least, once you've sold it, your control of the physical item is pretty much gone. \u00a0A rare victory against Big Media at the High Court.Reshared post from +Les JenkinsYay! The SCOTUS got this one right! Embedded Link Supreme Court to Wiley publishers: your insane theory of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;~PlusPosts&quot;","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139223","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=139223"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139223\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":139226,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139223\/revisions\/139226"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/138534"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=139223"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=139223"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=139223"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}