{"id":8937,"date":"2017-04-06T17:16:42","date_gmt":"2017-04-06T22:16:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/?p=8937"},"modified":"2017-04-06T17:17:32","modified_gmt":"2017-04-06T22:17:32","slug":"8937","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/2017\/04\/06\/8937\/","title":{"rendered":"Thy Judge Pronounces Thy Doom, Eh?"},"content":{"rendered":"

On the Simple Justice <\/b><\/i>blog, Judge Richard Kopf comments <\/a>on the impending results of the GOP use of the ‘nuclear option’ to force the confirmation of Judge Gorsuch to SCOTUS<\/b><\/i>:<\/p>\n

The Nuclear Option<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

But it is not solely the stupid questions and political posturing at Gorsuch\u2019s confirmation hearing that will deal the death blow to the federal judiciary in the minds of the general public. When the Senate goes nuclear, a clear and unmistakable statement will have been made to the American public. The Senators will be declaring once and forever that federal judges are just like them <\/b>[my bold – HAW]. One\u2019s political party is all and everything that matters, be you a United States Senator or a United States Judge or Justice.<\/p>\n

The Funeral Pyre<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The partisan treatment of Gorsuch is a disaster for the American people and the federal judiciary. With the use of the nuclear option, baked into the mind of ordinary people will be the notion that judging is based upon personal political predilection. The Gorsuch debacle will have cemented\u2014with steel rebar\u2014that untrue but unshakeable belief.<\/p>\n

The politicization of the federal judiciary in the minds of our citizens<\/em> will be complete when the roll is called and a simple majority of the United States Senate carries the day after staging the worst Kabuki dance drama of modern times. At that point, a mortal blow will have been inflicted on the federal judiciary.[i]<\/a> I wish I was exaggerating.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\n

My emphasis is an important point, but this may be considered simply the denouement of a decades-long effort to discredit the judiciary. Of course, it’s been phrased as simply a judiciary out of control which needs to be replaced by originalist<\/i>-oriented jurists – but the result is a judiciary treated with suspicion by the general populace.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Of course, there’s plenty of blame to go around, as sometimes jurists are out of control; but such members should be handled as one handles any rogue member of a profession – detection and expulsion, not as a symptom of greater, but unproven problem.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

And blaming the GOP <\/b><\/i>may not seem entirely fair. After all, the nuclear option was first brought up and used <\/a>by Democratic Senate Leader Harry Reid in 2013. But why did he do so?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Unreasonable opposition from the GOP<\/b><\/i>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

The GOP <\/b><\/i>had simply become of the party of No. They had not beaten Obama at the polls, but, like a pack of small children denied their prize, they stamped their feet and refused to take the responsibility of governance seriously. It’s as if they had been promised the Presidency by God, and when it was denied, they decided to negate the office and let God take care of the United States. (Steven Benen also has a roundup of that era here<\/a>.)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

In the comment section of Judge Kopf’s post, Keith writes,<\/p>\n

\n

Judge Kopf,<\/p>\n

The framers created a third branch of government that wasn\u2019t partisan and they chose to have a partisan pick the people to fill it. They chose to have other partisans advise & consent as to whether that pick was worthy.<\/p>\n

That being the case, I wonder why this hasn\u2019t happened sooner. Do you have any insight from your side as to why it\u2019s taken so long for partisan discord to infect your branch?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

We have gone through periods of extreme partisanship, and while one was resolved through a Civil War, I do not believe the damage of this partisanship must be considered permanent. Eventually, the GOP<\/strong><\/em> will fly apart, and the replacement conservative party will realize the country is more important than mundane party. With vivid examples of how to be bi-partisan in front of them, someone will take a step forward and call for a return to good traditions.<\/p>\n

Just don’t hold your breath while waiting.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On the Simple Justice blog, Judge Richard Kopf comments on the impending results of the GOP use of the ‘nuclear option’ to force the confirmation of Judge Gorsuch to SCOTUS: The Nuclear Option But it is not solely the stupid questions and political posturing at Gorsuch\u2019s confirmation hearing that will \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_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8937","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\/8937","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=8937"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8937\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8939,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8937\/revisions\/8939"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8937"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8937"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8937"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}