US supreme court

Subterms

    More stories

    • 150 Shares169 Views

      in Elections

      Arizona race could give Democrats extra Senate seat for supreme court fight

      by

      If he wins a US Senate seat in Arizona, the former astronaut Mark Kelly could take office as early as 30 November, an outcome which might jeopardize the launch of Donald Trump’s third supreme court nominee. The Democratic candidate has maintained a polling lead over the Republican Martha McSally, who was appointed to the seat held by John McCain, who died in 2018. Because the contest is a special election to finish McCain’s term, the winner could be sworn in as soon as the results are certified. Other winners in November’s contest, in which Democrats hope to retake the Senate, will not take office until January. Trump has pledged to nominate a replacement for Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who died on Friday, and Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell has vowed that the nominee “will receive a vote on the floor of the United States Senate”.If Kelly wins, when he takes office could be crucial in deciding the ensuing nomination fight. Republicans currently hold the chamber by 53 seats to 47. The prospect of falling to 52 could prompt McConnell to speed up the nomination process. With McSally in the Senate, four defections would defeat a nomination. A tie vote could be broken by Vice-President Mike Pence. Within hours of the announcement of Ginsberg’s death, McSally declared that “this US Senate should vote on President Trump’s next nominee for the US supreme court”. She has not elaborated on whether the vote should come before or after the election. But she highlighted the renewed stakes of her race in a fundraising pitch on Saturday. “If Mark Kelly comes out on top, HE could block President Trump’s supreme court Nominee from being confirmed,” McSally wrote. In the 2018 midterms, Democrats found success in Arizona, long dominated by the GOP, by appealing to Republicans and independents disaffected with Trump. The supreme court vacancy could boost McSally by keeping those voters in her camp. Kelly said late on Saturday: “The people elected to the presidency and Senate in November should fill this vacancy. When it comes to making a lifetime appointment to the supreme court, Washington shouldn’t rush that process for political purposes.” Arizona law requires election results to be certified on the fourth Monday after the election, which falls this year on 30 November. The certification could be delayed up to three days if the state has not received election results from any of its 15 counties. Mary O’Grady, a Democratic lawyer, said the deadlines are firm. “I don’t see ambiguity here,” said O’Grady, Arizona’s solicitor general under two Democratic attorneys general, adding that state law allows recounts and election challenges only under very limited circumstances. Former Senate historian Don Ritchie told the Arizona Republic, which first reported on the prospect for Kelly taking office early a day before Ginsburg’s death: “Usually, the secretary of the Senate’s office goes out of its way to accommodate the new senators coming in.“The old senator is out of their office there. I mean, they actually literally put a lock on the door so their staff can’t go in.” More

    • 163 Shares179 Views

      in Elections

      Donald Trump pledges to nominate a 'very brilliant' woman to supreme court – video

      by

      Play Video

      0:59

      Speaking at a campaign rally in North Carolina, the US president told supporters he had a duty to nominate a candidate to fill the supreme court vacancy created by the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg. ‘It will be a woman,’ Trump said. ‘A very talented, very brilliant woman.’
      Democrats including Joe Biden and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have said Republicans should follow the precedent that GOP legislators set in 2016 by refusing to consider a supreme court choice in the run-up to an election
      Trump vows to nominate a woman for US supreme court vacancy within a week
      ‘I will fight!’: mourners’ vow at supreme court vigil for Ruth Bader Ginsburg

      Topics

      Donald Trump

      Ruth Bader Ginsburg

      US supreme court

      US politics More

    • 163 Shares169 Views

      in Elections

      'I will fight!': mourners' vow at supreme court vigil for Ruth Bader Ginsburg

      by

      On a pavement across the street from the supreme court, school teacher Amanda Stafford chalked the words carefully: “That’s the dissenter’s hope: that they are writing not for today, but for tomorrow.”It was a quotation from Ruth Bader Ginsburg, a justice more renowned for her dissents than her majority opinions, including on the Bush v Gore case that decided the 2000 presidential election. Ginsburg died from pancreatic cancer on Friday aged 87, the newest jolt to an angry, divided and fragile nation.On Saturday night, as summer succumbed to the chill of autumn, thousands came to mourn her at a vigil outside the court in Washington. Some made speeches. Others sang songs. More joined hands or laid flowers and candles. Stafford paid tribute in chalk.“I wanted to show words that are empowering at a time when a lot of people are feeling worn out,” the 31-year-old from Alexandria, Virginia, explained. “As a woman in a country getting ever more divided, it’s important to come out and make a stand for someone who made this her life’s work.”What is the state of American democracy that one single woman passing away feels like a harbinger of hopelessness?Amanda StaffordLike many others, including numerous mothers and daughters, Stafford was hit hard by the loss of the feminist lodestar.“I broke down crying and went to sit in a park, sobbing. I called my closest girlfriends and we cried together. What is the state of American democracy that one single woman passing away feels like a harbinger of hopelessness? We’re already in a pandemic and losing her felt like the end.”Stafford’s homage was one of many outside the court, built in the 1930s in classical style to project the full majesty of the law, its 16 marble columns illuminated as two US flags flew at half mast. “RIP RGB,” said one banner in the rainbow colours of the LGBTQ movement. “For my daughter,” said another, simply.“Real change, enduring change, happens one step at a time – Ruth Bader Ginsburg” was written on cardboard sign amid a sea of pictures, candles and flowers. “She kept theology off our biology” was among the acknowledgements of Ginsburg’s support for reproductive rights. More

    • 175 Shares139 Views

      in US Politics

      Rushing to replace Ruth Bader Ginsburg, McConnell shows power trumps principle | Robert Reich

      by

      People in public life tend to fall into one of two broad categories – those motivated by principle, and those motivated by power.Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who died on Friday night at the age of 87, exemplified the first.When he nominated her in 1993, Bill Clinton called her “the Thurgood Marshall of gender-equality law”, comparing her advocacy and lower-court rulings in pursuit of equal rights for women to the work of the great jurist who advanced the cause of equal rights for Black people. Ginsburg persuaded the supreme court that the 14th amendment’s guarantee of equal protection applied not only to racial discrimination but to sex discrimination as well.For Ginsburg, principle was everything – not only equal rights, but also the integrity of democracy. Always concerned about the consequences of her actions for the system as a whole, she advised young people “to fight for the things you care about but do it in a way that will lead others to join you”.My most fervent wish is that I will not be replaced until a new president is installedRuth Bader GinsburgMitch McConnell, the Senate majority leader, exemplifies the second category. He couldn’t care less about principle. He is motivated entirely by the pursuit of power.McConnell refused to allow the Senate to vote on Barack Obama’s nominee to the supreme court, Merrick Garland, in February 2016 – almost a year before the end of Obama’s second term – on the dubious grounds that the “vacancy should not be filled until we have a new president”.McConnell’s move was a pure power grab. No Senate leader had ever before asserted the right to block a vote on a president’s nominee to the supreme court.McConnell’s “principle” of waiting for a new president disappeared on Friday evening, after Ginsburg’s death was announced.Just weeks before one of the most consequential presidential elections in American history, when absentee voting has already begun in many states (and will start in McConnell’s own state of Kentucky in 25 days), McConnell announced: “President Trump’s nominee will receive a vote on the floor of the United States Senate.”This is, after all, the same Mitch McConnell who, soon after Trump was elected, ended the age-old requirement that supreme court nominees receive 60 votes to end debate and allow for a confirmation vote, and then, days later, pushed through Trump’s first nominee, Neil Gorsuch.Ginsburg and McConnell represent the opposite poles of public service today. The distinction doesn’t depend on whether someone is a jurist or legislator – I’ve known many lawmakers who cared more about principle than power, such as the late congressman John Lewis. It depends on values.Ginsburg refused to play power politics. As she passed her 80th birthday, near the start of Obama’s second term, she dismissed calls for her to retire in order to give Obama plenty of time to name her replacement, saying she planned to stay “as long as I can do the job full steam”, adding: “There will be a president after this one, and I’m hopeful that that president will be a fine president.”She hoped others would also live by principle, including McConnell and Trump. Just days before her death she said: “My most fervent wish is that I will not be replaced until a new president is installed.”Her wish will not be honored.McConnell’s ‘principle’ of waiting for a new president disappeared on Friday eveningIf McConnell cannot muster the Senate votes needed to confirm Trump’s nominee before the election, he’ll probably try to fill the vacancy in the lame-duck session after the election. He’s that shameless.Not even with Joe Biden president and control over both the House and Senate can Democrats do anything about this – except, perhaps, by playing power politics themselves: expanding the size of the court or restructuring it so justices on any given case are drawn from a pool of appellate judges.The deeper question is which will prevail in public life: McConnell’s power politics or Ginsburg’s dedication to principle?The problem for America, as for many other democracies at this point in history, is this is not an even match. Those who fight for power will bend or break rules to give themselves every advantage. Those who fight for principle are at an inherent disadvantage because bending or breaking rules undermines the very ideals they seek to uphold.Over time, the unbridled pursuit of power wears down democratic institutions, erodes public trust and breeds the sort of cynicism that invites despotism.The only bulwark is a public that holds power accountable – demanding stronger guardrails against its abuses, and voting power-mongers out of office.Ruth Bader Ginsburg often referred to Justice Louis Brandeis’s famous quote, that “the greatest menace to freedom is an inert people”. Indeed. More

    • 138 Shares199 Views

      in US Politics

      New York will honor Ruth Bader Ginsburg with statue in Brooklyn

      by

      Ruth Bader Ginsburg will be honored with a statue in Brooklyn, the New York City borough where she was born and grew up.The supreme court justice died on Friday at the age of 87, 27 years after her nomination by Bill Clinton.Donald Trump, former presidents, governors, federal jurists and lawmakers led tributes. In New York, Governor Andrew Cuomo announced that the state would erect the statue.“She redefined gender equity and civil rights and ensured America lived up to her founding ideals,” Cuomo said. “She was a monumental figure of equality, and we can all agree that she deserves a monument in her honor.”In Washington, hundreds gathered on the steps of the court overnight, marking the passing of a justice who became a hero to liberals. Elizabeth LaBerge, a lawyer, said Ginsburg’s death was another blow for people who have made “serious law and order a mission of their lives”.She never forgot where she came from, or those who sacrificed to help her grow into the historic icon we came to revereKamala Harris“Who is going to take care of us?’ ” LaBerge, 36, told the Washington Post. “It just feels like such a deep loss at this particular time. It’s a lot to put on a woman of her age to keep us safe and functioning as a constitutional democracy.”The California senator Kamala Harris, Joe Biden’s running mate in the presidential election, called Ginsburg a “titan”, “a relentless defender of justice” and “a legal mind for the ages”.“Justice Ginsburg,” she said, “was known to pose the question, ‘What is the difference between a bookkeeper in the Garment District and a supreme court justice?’ Her answer: ‘One generation.’ She never forgot where she came from, or those who sacrificed to help her grow into the historic icon we all came to revere.”On Saturday morning, Harris too visited the steps of the court.“The stakes of this election couldn’t be higher,” she wrote. “Millions of Americans are counting on us to win and protect the supreme court – for their health, for their families, and for their rights.”Trump, who has a chance to tip the court firmly to the right, was at first caught off guard. After stepping off stage at a campaign rally in Minnesota on Friday night, he described Ginsburg as “an amazing woman who led an amazing life”.The president later issued a formal proclamation that remembered Ginsburg “for her brilliant mind and her powerful dissents at the supreme court”, and ordered flags flown at half-staff. On Saturday, Trump said he would move quickly to nominate a replacement, setting up a Senate fight just weeks before the election.Biden said: “Ruth Bader Ginsburg stood for all of us. She was an American hero, a giant of legal doctrine, and a relentless voice in the pursuit of that highest American ideal: Equal Justice Under Law.” He also posted: “Let me be clear: the voters should pick a president, and that president should select a successor to Justice Ginsburg.”Barack Obama, who nominated two women to follow Ginsburg on to the court, wrote: “Justice Ginsburg helped us see that discrimination on the basis of sex isn’t about an abstract ideal of equality; that it doesn’t only harm women; that it has real consequences for all of us. It’s about who we are – and who we can be.”Justice Ginsburg paved the way for so many women, including me. There will never be another like herHillary ClintonBill Clinton said: “America has lost one of the most extraordinary justices ever to serve on the supreme court … her landmark opinions advancing gender equality, marriage equality, the rights of people with disabilities, the rights of immigrants, and so many more moved us closer to ‘a more perfect union’.”Hillary Clinton said: “Justice Ginsburg paved the way for so many women, including me. There will never be another like her. Thank you RBG.”The eight remaining supreme court justices issued a joint statement. Chief justice John Roberts mourned “a jurist of historic stature [and] a cherished colleague”.Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan described Ginsburg as a “hero” and mentor. Clarence Thomas called her “the essence of grace, civility and dignity”, while Brett Kavanaugh said he learned from her “principled voice and marveled at her wonderful wit”.Senator Lindsey Graham, the Republican chairman of the judiciary committee who will play a key role in the nomination, said: “While I had many differences with her on legal philosophy, I appreciate her service to our nation.”Civil rights activist, Guardian columnist and NBA hall of famer Kareem Abdul-Jabbar remembered Ginsburg as “the best of us” and a champion of “equal opportunity and fair justice”.“Ruth Bader Ginsburg was one of the fiercest, most intelligent defenders of equal opportunity and fair justice for all,” Abdul-Jabbar said on Saturday in a statement to the Guardian. “She was the best of us and her example brought out the best in everyone who believes in a truly democratic America.”Erin Murphy, a law professor at New York University, remarked on Ginsburg’s friendship with the conservative justice Antonin Scalia, who died in 2016 and whose seat was held open by the Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, in defiance of political convention, until a new president could pick a replacement.“What irony,” Murphy wrote, “that the deaths of Scalia and Ginsburg – the two revered justices from opposite ends of the political spectrum, famously best buds notwithstanding ideological difference – precipitated our extreme free fall into rancor and partisanship.”Recently receiving the National Constitution Center’s Liberty Medal on the 100th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th amendment which gave women the right to vote, Ginsburg said she felt lucky to have joined the fight.“It was my great good fortune to have the opportunity to participate in the long effort to place equal citizenship stature for women on the basic human rights agenda,” Ginsburg said. “In that regard, I was scarcely an innovator.”The justice will be buried at Arlington national cemetery. More