The Friday morning when it has been announced in the media that the United States Supreme Court is about to release new rulings on several eagerly anticipated cases, is sort of like a weather report from a local TV station about the potential for severe thunderstorms over the area in the next couple of hours.
The worry is whether he storms will be really bad ones that are almost biblical in nature, or is the station just protecting their backsides, when all that is on the way, is fifteen minutes of sheet rain accompanied by lightning flashes and loud booms that echo across the sky.
The Supreme Court rulings were of the severe weather variety. Dark cloudy days are undoubtedly on the schedule, but the nation has to get past the flash-flooding caused by Friday’s deluge
The nation’s highest court released two rulings that are sure to garner a lot of attention across the United States. The first was Mahmoud v. Taylor, from out of Montgomery County, MD where religious parents had sued the local authorities that the inclusion of LGBTQ-themed books in school curriculums that they were not allowed to opt-out of, {on their children’s behalf} violated the parents right to the free exercise of religion.
Of course, the conservative court, never missing a chance to take a smack at liberalism and tolerance, sided with the parents in a 6-3 ruling. Religion is being allowed more and more influence over America’s schoolhouses where children are allegedly expected to grow, expand their minds and become better citizens.
Good luck with that.
The wild-eyed book banning at the expense of open-mindedness and inclusiveness continues unabated in Trump’s America version 2.0
The second noteworthy ruling involved the principle of birthright citizenship, a constitutionally guaranteed civil right via the 14th amendment. A civil right that President Trump has taken to denouncing at every available opportunity and has publicly vowed to do away with completely, is one step closer to being done away with, as the Supreme Court has granted a partial stay to lower court rulings that were literal nationwide injunctions against the blatantly unconstitutional executive order limiting birthright citizenship to the children of illegal immigrants and persons in the country on temporary visas.
The court, once again, found a way to cede a power to the executive branch that in reality does not belong at the White House. The president’s vile and pretentious directive in no way overrides the United States Constitution. However, in another 6-3 ruling the court inhibited the ability of federal judges to block presidential directives that are almost certainly unconstitutional.
America’s three-pronged democracy takes a hit.
The man who wants to be King, wins again.
At least temporarily.
This exercise in an imperial presidency isn’t going to go unchallenged.
This is just the first round.
These court cases are complicated and confusing to lay persons. The chipping away and dilution of the authority and constitutional obligations of the two rival branches of government, who might stand in the way of the goals of a repugnant wannabe despot, ensconced in his Pennsylvania Avenue enclave, is relatively easy to understand. America’s democracy is under intense pressure because the United States Supreme Court has become horribly politicized, all to the benefit of President Donald J. Trump.
All six Republican-appointed justices twist themselves into contorted loops, ignoring long-established legal precedents and inventing illogical, if not hilarious, interpretations of existing law, all to appease an egotistical chief executive who behaves as if they work for him.
Staunch liberal justices Elana Kagan, Sonya Sotomayor, and Ketanji Brown Jackson stand distinctly apart, if not effectively estranged from the majority conservative high court. Their blistering dissents in Friday’s rulings, as well as other cases previously adjudicated cases are well-intended and inspiring, but their words do not alter the outcomes of the rulings after they are handed down.
In 2016, then Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell unjustly blocked President Barack Obama’s Supreme Court nominee who was intended to replace the recently deceased, Justice Antonin Scalia. McConnell denied the duly elected president’s nominee a vote, with a puerile argument that the end of Obama’s term was too near. From that point onward, the situation at the High Court has deteriorated markedly.
Three noble justices in Washington DC, all nominated by democratic presidents, and admittedly left-of-center in reputation, are not enough to counterbalance a court that has veered far-right to an extraordinary extent.
The Supreme Court is a co-equal branch of the government alongside the legislative branch and the executive branch. The current court is led by the disappointing and remarkably weak and impuissant John Roberts, is not a part of Donald Trump’s fiefdom. But without a competent leader who places the needs of the entire country above all else, along with the vitally important idea of defending existing legal precedent, above that of an out-of-control White House.
The court’s role has become all but meaningless.
The Supreme Court has in some aspects abandoned its most sacred duty leaving the American people unprotected from the aspirations of an unprincipled would-be monarch.
The foundation under America’s democracy remains bedrock solid despite President Donald J. Trump’s evil machinations and obvious intent to undermine the principles of freedom and liberty that this country has represented on the global stage, for some 200 plus years.
Above ground the country is being carpet-bombed. Executive order after executive order is issued to intentionally bypass the legislative branch and any opposition from the political party that is on the outside looking in. – This is not what the Founding Fathers intended.
The repair bill is going to be steep and there is going to be much work to do for America’s civil servants and rightfully elected politicians, to undue the damage from the onslaught directed by Trump.
That’s the future.
Right now, #47 cannot be trusted in any way that is meaningful. Everything that is going on at his White House seems Project 2025 inspired.
That project book is an evil screed published by the Heritage Foundation. A notoriously extreme right-wing think tank in Washington, DC., that is as far away from the safe and conciliatory political center, as can be imagined. The public policy proposals in Project 2025 are hair-raising and decidedly anti-American.
The Trump administration has exhibited strong fascistic leanings, already. Project 2025 motivated or not. And that is a bad sign, indeed.
But there is always hope. There has to be.
Clowns In Politics
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Oliver M. Greene is a freelance writer and online content creator, as well as a keen and discerning observer of the American political landscape.
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