{"id":6536,"date":"2016-11-11T11:52:37","date_gmt":"2016-11-11T17:52:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/?p=6536"},"modified":"2016-11-11T11:52:37","modified_gmt":"2016-11-11T17:52:37","slug":"the-consequences-of-the-scotus-blockade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/2016\/11\/11\/the-consequences-of-the-scotus-blockade\/","title":{"rendered":"The Consequences of the SCOTUS Blockade"},"content":{"rendered":"

Steve Benen on MaddowBlog<\/strong><\/em> notes<\/a> one consequence of the SCOTUS<\/strong><\/em> blockade:<\/p>\n

Going forward, Americans should understand that rewarding radicalism produces more radicalism. Senate Republicans abandoned the constitutional process, institutional norms, and democratic traditions, rejecting a duly elected president\u2019s high-court nominee \u2013 without so much as a hearing \u2013 because of his party affiliation. And because that gambit worked, and voters rewarded the scheme, the message for policymakers is, \u201cGo ahead and pursue similarly radical plans. The public doesn\u2019t care. There are no consequences for misbehavior.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And this is an important result, although I’m not convinced the GOP<\/strong><\/em> is going to actually hang together all that much longer. In engineering terms, they’re beginning to look like a positive feedback process, and, if so, their immensely good luck a couple of days ago will be followed by some sort of total catastrophe that will rip the party apart. No inside information here, just observing the outer behaviors, and thinking about how the former inhabitants of the fever-swamps will attack the more moderate members of the GOP<\/strong><\/em>.<\/p>\n

But there is another result, not necessarily an alternative but parallel. Assuming (and I use that word with a creepy-crawly feeling going right up my spine) Trump nominates someone of far-right tendencies to replace the late Justice Scalia, the opposition, if it so chooses, could apply the label Illegitimate Justice<\/em><\/strong> to him or her, and through repetition make it stick.<\/p>\n

So let’s consider the temperament of jurists. How many would want that label, perhaps helpfully abbreviated IJ<\/strong><\/em>, pursuing them throughout history? Each decision a SCOTUS<\/em><\/strong> judge renders is history making, so smart candidates are going to have a finely tuned sense of the idea that they’ll have a big legacy.<\/p>\n

Will they want to be known as the IJ<\/strong> of Trump<\/em>?<\/p>\n

Not the smart ones. They’ll decline the nomination. (The patriotic ones will publicly state they do not wish to be the IJ<\/strong><\/em>.) Along with concerns about Trump nominating a judge whose chief work will be creating socially conservative law from the bench, I’m also worried that she or he will be a second-rater<\/em>. Someone, like Trump, who’s hungry for the position, thinking it’ll prove their superiority.<\/p>\n

And can’t reason their way out of a paper bag. Or worse, is a bigot whose influence will create racial tensions.<\/p>\n

That’s another worry to add to the list.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Steve Benen on MaddowBlog notes one consequence of the SCOTUS blockade: Going forward, Americans should understand that rewarding radicalism produces more radicalism. Senate Republicans abandoned the constitutional process, institutional norms, and democratic traditions, rejecting a duly elected president\u2019s high-court nominee \u2013 without so much as a hearing \u2013 because of \u2026 Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6536","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6536","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6536"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6536\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6537,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6536\/revisions\/6537"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6536"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6536"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6536"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}