Dana Milbank has posted an excellent op-ed in The Washington Post. Here is part of it: So Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell thinks the leak of the Supreme Court’s draft opinion overturning Roe is a “toxic spectacle” and an “attack.” Chief Justice John Roberts calls it a “betrayal.”
Cry me a river.
There is indeed a toxic spectacle and a betrayal going on here, but it isn’t the leak. It’s the betrayal of democracy by McConnell’s Republicans and the toxic spectacle of the Roberts court aiding it.
The reported 5-to-4 split on the draft shows that this cataclysmic ruling would be forced on the public by the narrowest possible majority. This means the ruling is possible only because of the seat on the court McConnell and his Republican colleagues effectively stole by refusing for 293 days to confirm — or even consider — President Barack Obama’s duly nominated candidate, Merrick Garland.
Republicans handed that seat in 2017 to Neil Gorsuch — in the process going “nuclear” and eliminating the filibuster so that only Republican votes were needed for confirmation.
Then, in a feat of astounding hypocrisy, McConnell’s Republicans reversed their pious claim that Supreme Court vacancies late in a presidency should be left to the “next president” and confirmed Amy Coney Barrett eight days before Joe Biden was elected president — essentially stealing a second seat.
Some justices reported by Politico to be voting to overturn Roe now stand accused by Republican Sens. Susan Collins (Maine) and Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) of misrepresenting their positions on the “super precedent” during their Senate confirmations.
Three of the five justices reportedly voting to eliminate Roe were appointed by a president who didn’t win the popular vote (Republicans only won the popular vote once in the past eight presidential elections) and confirmed with the votes of senators representing a lopsided minority of the American people.
And the wife of the senior associate justice said to be voting to undo Roe encouraged the Trump White House to overthrow the 2020 election results and to subject President Biden, Democrats and the media to military tribunals at sea. Yet Justice Clarence Thomas refuses to recuse himself from cases stemming from the insurrection Trump ignited.
Now that’s one toxic spectacle.
