From Seth Stottlemyer:
I came across this piece from esteemed Presidential historian, Steven Beschloss, via his Substack newsletter. It was originally run last year, but he thought he should repost it as a good reminder of the bald-faced lying many current Supreme Court judges engaged in during confirmation hearings regarding their opinion on established law and precedent. Gorsuch, Barrett, and Kavanaugh were all dishonest, under oath, to the American people when they gave their responses about Roe vs. Wade. They said what they needed to say to get Susan Collins and other lawmakers’ votes. Then as soon as they had their chance, they voted to gut federal protection for women’s reproductive rights. Don’t think they are finished by any stretch. In lockstep with efforts from right-wing extremist state legislatures, they will certainly be emboldened by their Party’s resurgent homophobia, intolerance of immigrants, and hate of the trans community to move on to other cases.
It’s a reminder not to forget this betrayal, and to stay motivated on issues of equal rights, body autonomy, and reproductive freedom going into the 2024 election cycle. There is one party that is aggressively and unapologetically trying to wind the clock back on America to the darker days of inequality and repression; that’s today’s Trump-MAGA & Dark Ages-DeSantis Cult of Personality-dominated GOP. My friends, it’s no time to sit back and just wish it will all go away, because it won’t go away without our concerted attention and effort.
From Steven Beschloss:
“If you’re a regular reader of America, America, you’ve probably noticed I have something of a fixation with lying. In short, I can’t stand it, especially from people in public life who employ it to fool and otherwise manipulate public and private opinion to achieve their desired outcomes. I think you can guess (and likely share) the depth of my daily horror as the previous White House occupant lied almost with the same frequency as he took breaths.”
“Lastly, please note where I end this piece, which remains as necessary to say now as we head toward the 2024 elections as it was last year before the midterms: “You may be discouraged, depressed, disheartened or even feeling destroyed by what the Supreme Court is about to do. But I hope it doesn’t cause you to give up. Let all the sadness and rage motivate you to do whatever you can to ensure the GOP does not take back the majority.”
From his post on his newsletter ‘America, America’ May 6, 2022.
I don’t like liars. I don’t like them when they’re elected to political office. And I surely don’t like them when they lie to land a lifetime appointment on the Supreme Court.
Yes, there’s come to be an old song and dance that Supreme Court nominees perform—Senators ask direct questions about world-altering legal precedents like Roe v. Wade and the nominees deliver clever answers meant to convey their respect for that precedent without ever saying what they really think. That’s the performance that we’re all supposed to just gloss over or accept as the reality of “how it is.”
In 2006, Amy Coney Barrett signed her name to a published ad from an anti-abortion group that has urged “an end to the barbaric legacy of Roe v. Wade and restore laws that protect the lives of unborn children.” Yet when questioned during her confirmation hearing last year, just before the 2020 election, she insisted, “I don’t have an agenda.” Earlier, when seeking a seat on the Court of Appeals, she claimed, “It is never appropriate for a judge to impose that judge’s personal convictions whether they derive from faith or anywhere else.”
As for Brett Kavanaugh, when he wasn’t expressing his love for beer, shouting at US Senators or denying assault charges, he was asserting that Roe was “settled as a precedent” because it has been “reaffirmed many times over the past 45 years.” He got back-up from Maine Sen. Susan Collins, who committed to vote for him after a private meeting in which he told her that Roe is “settled law.”
And then there’s Neil Gorsuch, the first of the Trump nominees who was questioned about constitutional protections like abortion and marriage. “I have never expressed personal views as a judge on this subject,” he smugly insisted, “and that is because my personal views do not matter.” (Sen. Collins also was assured by Gorsuch in private about his principled commitment to precedent—and voted for him.)
So smooth. So self-assured. So comfortable lying about the truth of their convictions and their intentions once the opportunity arose.
Now we’re about to see the painful consequences of a world where liars lie and—despite the fact that 70 percent of Americans support abortion and reproductive rights—we all are expected to just take it. Of course, liars lie, what else would you expect? Aren’t we all just supposed to go along with the con artistry of the confirmation process, which after all is a job interview leading to a lifetime appointment on the highest court in the land?
But imagine if you were answering questions in a job interview and lied. Would you expect to get the job anyway? Well, probably you would, if you, the interviewer and the hiring committee were all in on the scam. Even though I have zero belief that the job applicants who lied under oath to attain a seat on the Supreme Court will ever face perjury charges, it’s worth noting that the sentence for conviction can be imprisonment for up to five years.
With the seismic leaked release on Monday of the draft opinion written by Justice Samuel Alito and the likely demise of Roe v. Wade as the precedent of precedents, the settled law of the land, the domino effect will be terrifyingly quick: Thirteen state lawswill be triggered to ban abortions almost immediately and another 14 states are prepared to follow suit soon after.
Even as people across the country brace for the imposition of policies that will lead to unwanted pregnancies, unwanted babies and an increase of pregnancy-related deaths, we can anticipate that this rejection of reproductive and privacy rights opens the door to the possible end of same sex marriage and the sale of contraception.
We can cross our fingers that somehow this draft opinion will be softened and will not earn the support of the majority when the final opinion sees the light of day later this summer. My speculation: Fat chance……….