When Supreme Justices Aspire to be Kings and a Queen

So you go to all the trouble to have a revolution to sever ties with a monarchy and declare your independence, then a mere 248 years later you turn around to discover you’ve just swapped one monarchy for another!

And it gets worse!

Your average kingdom has a maximum of two monarchs at a time – one of each gender – but you’ve apparently made up for lost time and now have more than double that number. More than DOUBLE!

Sure, you have the usual number of queens – one – but when you count the kings, you find five of them – FIVE!  Altogether that’s six monarchs – SIX! – and they’re all sitting on the Supreme Court!

Now I think about it… those big chairs they sit on are rather throne-like… must have given them ideas above their station – it certainly gave them ideas above the law.

Although all nine Supreme Court Justices sit in high-back chairs, only six have monarchical aspirations. It seems a high-back chair only gives persons of a certain character an outsized opinion of themselves.

Of particular note is that the six monarchical Justices all identify as Republicans. Back in 1776 when the Founding Fathers declared their independence, they chose to call their not-monarchy-in-any-way-whatsoever a republic. So for these six self-identifying Republicans to take on the mantles of kings and one queen, is either an absurd contradiction in terms or a fraud. Or perhaps it’s both and they’re absurd imposters: Republicans posturing as monarchs.

But then, to their minds, that’s the point of being a monarch – you get to be and do whatever you like and no one can tell you no.

Social media would have us believe that these six Extremes (as opposed to Supremes) have just elevated the Presidency to the level of monarchy but this doesn’t make sense – not that much about this is in any way sensible but this makes even less sense. Why? Because it’s about where the power resides.

It wasn’t the President who elevated his position to that of a monarch by increasing presidential immunity. It was the six Extremes. They are the ones with the authority to do this and, by exercising that authority so excessively, they announced to the world at large that they are the real power in this nation kingdom, they are the monarchs.

It wasn’t the immunity case alone – that was the curdled cream on top of a very sour pie. It began before this term with a succession of decisions that have progressively wounded the Republic over the years. There’s their deliberate misreading of the Second Amendment that has cost countless lives, the Citizens United decision that allowed dark money – including foreign money – to pour into elections, the desecration of the Voting Rights Act and the overturning of Roe versus Wade. They all preceded the 2023-24 term.

With each decision that went against the well-being of the nation, right-wing Justices must have felt the thrill of increasing power. No matter how unpopular or treacherous the decision was, no one stopped them. Even so, they took it one horrible decision at a time so as not to overdo it.

Until this term when a series of calamitous decisions pummelled democracy, civil rights and the Rule of Law in the space of a week. In two of the decisions, they poured salt into wounds left after previous rulings. First, the striking down of the federal ban on ‘bump-stock’ devices, followed by a further assault on voter equity by ruling that South Carolina doesn’t need to redraw their congressional map to consider Black voters.

One of the rulings appeared to be aimed at bloodying the nose of AG Garland for having the gall to efficiently oversee the arrest and trials of some 1265 individuals on Jan 6 offenses then following that up with the appointment of super prosecutor Jack Smith to go after Trump (hereafter known as Felon34 until he’s convicted of more felonies at which time the number will be adjusted upwards).

Whatever their motivation, the Court in their wisdom with suspect intent decided to limit a federal obstruction statute that DoJ prosecutors used – and presiding judges accepted – in 350 cases of seditionists whose actions prevented Congress from certifying the Electoral College vote count.

From Mark Sherman at AP on 29 June 2024:

The justices ruled 6-3 that the charge of obstructing an official proceeding, enacted in 2002 in response to the financial scandal that brought down Enron Corp., must include proof that defendants tried to tamper with or destroy documents. Only some of the people who violently attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, fall into that category.

The overwhelming majority of the approximately 1,000 people who have been convicted of or pleaded guilty to Capitol riot-related federal crimes were not charged with obstruction and will not be affected by the outcome.

Still, the decision is likely to be used as fodder for claims by Trump and his Republican allies that the Justice Department has treated the Capitol riot defendants unfairly.

It’s a twofer for the Extremes: damage AG Garland’s record and give House Republicans ammunition in their attack on the Jan 6 Select Committee members and all the Democrats who supported them.

Some of the cases they took on this term, and the subsequent decisions they made, pointed towards self-interest. They legalised bribery in a ruling authored by Kavanaugh in Snyder v United States, a 6-3 opinion in which the Supreme Court dealt a huge blow to the federal anti-corruption law. As Moira Donegan explains in her report for The Guardian on 27 June 2024:

Did you know you could give your local government officials tips when they do things you like? Brett Kavanaugh thinks you can. In fact, if you’re rich enough, says the US Supreme Court, you can now pay off state and local officials for government acts that fit your policy preferences or advance your interests. You can give them lavish gifts, send them on vacations, or simply cut them checks. You can do all of this so long as the cash, gifts or other “gratuities” are provided after the service, and not before it – and so long as a plausible deniability of the meaning and intent of these “gratuities” is maintained.

They struck down the Chevron Doctrine, a 40-year precedent that required courts to defer to the professional knowledge and experience of government experts in their interpretation of laws that fall within their purview. This gives judges latitude to rule in favour of corporations against government regulations.

The Extremes followed that up by putting a hold on the EPA’s quest to reduce harmful air pollution that drifts across state lines. The ruling sided with three red states – Ohio, West Virginia and Indiana – and industrial allies determined to derail ‘good neighbour’ regulations that prevent pollution from billowing into neighbouring states.

That brings us around to why the Extremes chose now to intensify pressure on civil rights, the rule of law and a democratic-elected government’s ability to do its job. Note in the previous paragraph how a recent stay not only sided with red states, it also advantages industrial allies. No doubt one of those allies is Koch Industries which, as it happens, is known for hosting right-wing Justices at luxury weekend retreats.

In 2011, Politico reported on the attendance of Justices Thomas and Scalia at one such retreat sponsored by the Koch brothers:

It appears both justices have participated in political strategy sessions, perhaps while the [United Citizens] case was pending, with corporate leaders whose political aims were advanced by the decision.

In 2012, The Center for Media and Democracy’s PR Watch published “Supremely Unseemly Conduct by Supreme Court Justices Spurs Call for Mandatory Ethics Rules” which not only noted Justices Thomas and Scalia’s appearances at Koch-funded events, it also included this:

Justice Thomas has also accepted gifts of travel on the private jets of billionaire Harlan Crow, and he has not been fully forthcoming about the income and political activities of his wife, Ginny Thomas…

A group of House Democrats, led by Representative Louise Slaughter of New York, are also pushing for a Justice Department investigation into various possible ethics infractions by Justice Thomas.

It took nearly twelve years for this story to break into mainstream media. But when it did, Clarence Thomas was furious. Then the Alitos upside-down flag story hit the headlines. They responded by adding additional heavy security around their home which doubtless irritated their neighbours even more.

PR Watch noted that “Chief Justice Roberts was dismissive of calls for ethics reform” and we can now add in 2024 that he still holds this aloof attitude, twelve years later.

Then there’s Brett Kavanaugh. It would be no surprise to learn that he’s very unhappy about calls for the Senate Judiciary Committee to investigate where the money came from for him to pay off his debts when he was nominated for SCOTUS.

That’s four of the six Extremes who are less than thrilled by calls to investigate them and/or have them impeached and removed. I submit that it’s more than enough to trigger a retaliatory response from all of them, hence their terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad decisions this term.

Those decisions were designed not only to reward their billionaire buddies but also help Felon34 who, if elected, would protect them, their extravagant grifts and lavish lifestyles. It’s all the motivation they needed to turn on those who threatened them with the rule of law, with justice. They were angry and determined that they’d show us that we’re not the boss of them. So they used the extraordinary power they’ve amassed and struck.

That is why I say that they are the monarchs, not the President.

But don’t be afraid of them. They’re showing us that not only are they angry, they are worried. They are heavily burdened with massive amounts of legal jeopardy and exposure scares them.

We have all the good guys on our side, including the millions of citizens who will be voting blue from the time postal ballots arrive and early voting begins, right up to November 5. We will overcome. We’ve got this!

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