It remains to be seen if there will be a reversal of some of the major decisions made by the SJC in the past 40 or so years.

We will have dodged a bulletin if we end up with a clone of Kennedy. It might be more realistic to hope that one of the conservative SJJ gravitate towards the center/left...

At moments like this, it is life-preserving to step back and remind oneself that the SJC is not only a reflection of the political party in power at the time of the vacancy, but ultimately a mouthpiece of the citizens/people as their views and values evolve. In ten years we will be looking back and connecting the dots and cleaning up the mess.

Then there’s this: the atrocity committed by the republicans in blocking Obama's pick for the vacancy of Scalia is nearly impossible to forgive, much less forget. We are so broken at this point that it’s hard to find a way over it.

My hope? That the trinity of Sotomayor, Kagan and Bader Ginsburg can perform a jurisprudent conversion on one of the others -- or, better yet, on the collective thought of the SJC.

I'm hoping and crying.
x

That strikes me as a very unrealistic hope indeed, especially given RBG's age. In fact, there's a risk that RBG will decide to retire sooner because she is quite old herself and probably doesn't want to hang in there just to write dissenting opinions. Who do you suppose would drift leftward? Alito? Thomas? Gorsuch? Not the slightest chance of that happening. The best prospect is Roberts, but I am very doubtful. If anything, he has less reason to try to mold centrist opinions because he will no longer have to lure Kennedy with moderation to get his 5th vote. And the same will be true of the other conservative justices. They won't have to give an inch to get Kennedy, because Kennedy's replacement will be a guaranteed vote for activist conservatism.

Roger, allow me a little unrealistic hoping. I’m just trying to get through the day. Did I mention I'm crying?

Waves come and go. Like sleep and waking.

In other news, Erdogan in Turkey was reelected with 97.7% of the vote. I remember that country when the streets were hung with the banners of the opposition. That was what? Three years ago.

John

This side of the pond, Max, it would be "stank" in the last line - and believe me, the establishment here reeks just fine! The context of your judicial woes is, for me, caught disturbingly well in Fintan O'Toole's sobering piece in the Irish Times this week. Find it at https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/f...flow-1.3543375

You're right, Nigel. Apparently my judiciary-despair-fueled flouting of rules extended to those of grammar. I'm feeling very slightly better this morning (which I'm not at all sure is a good thing), enough so to make the correction.

It's a long shot, but Americans should pressure their reps to fight about this. Trump is unpopular enough and there is enough anger at the shenanigans that resulted in the majority that gave us these past two days the gutting of unions, and the seal of approval for gerrymandering and the Muslim ban that we might convince the Dems to block Trump on this.

Max: "there is enough anger at the shenanigans that resulted in the majority that gave us these past two days the gutting of unions, and the seal of approval for gerrymandering and the Muslim ban that we might convince the Dems to block Trump on this."

I know -- believe me -- we know how hard it is to keep track, but you left out the atrocity at the Mexican border separating children from parents and isolating them in pens.

Still, your hope is my hope.

I meant only to list the atrocities sanctioned by the Supreme Court these last few days. But I think you're right that family separation is going to drive votes in November and maybe beyond.

We're interrupting our camping trip this weekend to take the kids to a rally against it.

Two things come to mind. One, as Jim mentioned, the Republicans who value party over democracy and outrageously blocked Garland. Excuse me, blocked even a vote on Garland (who is, I understand, a moderate). Reprehensible. Two, liberals, or those who lean left, who just couldn't vote for Hillary. She wasn't my first choice either, but... Ok, three things. The DNC who didn't give Bernie a fair shake. Now you have a corrupt moron picking two supreme court justices. Talk about a real, long lasting problem. (Though he's been appointing nutty right wing federal judges up and down the courts. What isn't covered by main stream media is a killer with this president.) Hope Mueller is in overdrive about now. It's there, but in time?

Added: I realize Pence is waiting in the wings, but we just need to get to the midterms. There's doubt about the blue wave now, but I'm fairly certain turnout will be strong.

James: "the Republicans who value party over democracy." I think this can be taken further. They value party over democracy, over conscience, over truth, over indeed reality. They have hollowed out, in the past forty years, every principle that might guide a person or a patriot, and are left with standing for nothing whatever other than the raw pursuit of power and gain for their own sake. Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell exemplify this neatly, but the broad GOP support for the Alabama pedophile Senate candidate should make that clear to all who aren't deaf and blind. Like ISIS, today's GOP party stands for nothing. And now it will nominate a new Supreme Court Justice. Thank you, Anthony Kennedy.

Cheers,
John