A recent oped by columnist Diane Dimond -- syndicated to small newspapers in New Mexico, New York, Ohio, and other states as well as to many news blogs -- chastises Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg for expressing her opinion; that attack is censorship. While such comments are rare from federal judges, Ginsberg is in full compliance with her First Amendment right to free speech.
The editorial policy of these news outlets will, of course, continue to absolve the fascist members of the U.S. Supreme Court from their many impeachable offenses. The secret Powell Memorandum of August 1971 spelled out how to take control of the federal government and that plan is just about fulfilled -- except for the pesky matter of citizens still being able to vote. (The millions of dollars spent by the Republican Party on voter suppression is an effort to solve that problem.)
Counting the recently-deceased Justice Scalia, the Fascist Five on the Supreme Court are/were all members of the Federalist Society and all are/were signatories to P.N.A.C. (the Project for the New American Century) -- each of which alliance is a violation of their oath of office. (It also happens that all five are/were Catholic, but that is not a crime.)
In addition, Justice Thomas worked for Monsanto Chemical for four years, and yet will not recuse himself, saying nothing in court and always voting for Monsanto. He is married to conservative lobbyist Virginia Lamp Thomas, and misses every opportunity to recuse himself whenever issues that she is working on come before the court. Justice Thomas also appears at Republican political fundraiser events.
Justice Scalia served on the Supreme Court for almost 30 years, doing all sorts of damage to civil rights issues. His son Eugene Scalia is a Washington, DC lawyer who has argued before the court; Scalia did not recuse himself on those occasions. Scalia has messed up the court's decision-making even in death, since the Republican Party violates their oath of office by refusing to hold hearings to replace Scalia.
Justice Roberts committed perjury at his confirmation hearings, over the issue of stare decicis. More importantly, his execrable decision in Citizens United v. F.E.C. declared the United States to be a fascist country. Aside from the wrongness of that decision, he was able to support the decision only with ludicrous legal citations. Any law student knows that citing a dissent in a homework assignment can get you a failed grade; Roberts cited 25 such dissents in Citizens United v. F.E.C., which makes the decision worthless.
But then, here we are. The implementation of the Powell Memo plan has delivered a fascist Supreme Court and Congress, and there is nowhere to seek redress of grievances. The Republican-controlled Senate will not take even the first step toward impeachment of anyone on the Supreme Court (nor of folks like Mitch McConnell within Congress), so the only avenue left to the American citizen (short of violence) is to vote and vote and vote, until Citizens United is reversed.
The national election for President looks like a big win for Hillary Clinton, but congressional and state contests are less certain. Equally important is for every eligible voter to show up for every local election, from city council to school board to dogcatcher.
Your vote matters. If it did not, the Republican Party and its dark money PACs would not be spending millions of dollars to take it away from you.
If the Republican Party had anything of value to offer the American voter they would not have to lie and cheat and steal to win elections.
Copyright 2016 by G.E. Nordell, all rights reserved
