A recent letter to the editor essentially supported allowing Donald Trump to run for president despite his 34 felony convictions.
The letter writer also not-so-subtly referenced Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch’s recent publicity tour during which he expressed his opinion — backed by his and his ultra-conservative Supreme Court colleagues’ recent rulings — that “ordinary” Americans are “getting whacked by too many laws and regulations” via federal overreach and overregulation. How good of him to be concerned about us simple Americans. Oh, and to condescend to President Joe Biden as well, by issuing a public warning from on high on the dangers of reforming the Supreme Court, which Justice Gorsuch did on Fox News.
Why did Justice Gorsuch issue the public warning to Biden — but really to all of the “ordinary” people watching? Because, he says of overweening importance of an independent, impartial judiciary to ensure you get treated fairly by the government: “The judicial system is ‘there for the moments when, when the spotlight’s on you, when the government’s coming after you, and don’t you want a ferociously independent judge … ‘to make those decisions?’” Yes, I would very much like that. And I would like it right now from the Supreme Court, of which Gorsuch is a member. It’s a radical court that has just finished a term rife with blatantly partisan rulings — based upon the majority justices’ personal and political preferences — assaulting the basic rights of Americans. Other rulings reflect egregious judicial activism; rulings based not upon the Constitution, precedent or other legal sources, or even what the majority of Americans want.
I would also like an ethical Supreme Court, not one corrupted by justices who believe and act as though they are above the law and ethical constraints imposed upon all other judiciary.
Justice Clarence Thomas and Justice Samuel Alito have received millions in unreported gifts and other benefits from billionaires.
They have refused to recuse themselves from cases when there are obvious conflicts.
In response to the extraordinary judicial activism of the conservative Supreme Court majority — and the resultant damage done to broad swathes of Americans — President Biden rightly proposed a reasoned plan to reform the court, made after consulting with Constitutional scholars, historians and other experts. The concern was how to address a dangerously partisan, corrupt and power-hungry Supreme Court that believes it is above the law.
— Michael Boshears
Palmer
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