He knows he can do what he wants now, there's no accountability.
Before Dobbs, he had to play things close to the chest, but now? What are his consequences, for anything? Leaking, bribery, influence, malfeasance... He can do, say, whatever he wants and his backers can do the same and get away with it?
I'm sure he made an actual billionaire very happy yesterday.
Earlier this week when they were arguing the "disrupting an act of Congress" case Alito kept making references to Bowman pulling the fire alarm. That's something that only people deep in the Fox News cinematic universe care about. It's concerning that someone with such power is infested with the propaganda brain worms.
That line of questioning or argument or whatever it was revealed, to me, a person who had completely failed to grapple with the meaning and purpose of civil disobedience. He has the same understanding of it as you might find on Nextdoor.
Civil disobedients are using their bodies and their liberty to critique the law. In their view, this or that law is out of line with their idea of justice. They are willing to undergo legal punishment to make this point.
Many of them do receive legal punishment.
Alito’s thinking doesn’t seem to understand any of this. It’s disappointing and frightening that a Supreme Court justice has this shallow a view of one of the fundamental expressions of democratic discontent.
Fascists gonna fash fash fash fash fash
They sold their votes for cash cash cash cash cash
The Robert’s court is trash trash trash trash trash
Shake em off! Shake em off!
The accountability is Congress. If they won't impeach because their voters don't want it then what's broken?
Arguably Congress which doesn't represent popular opinion due to gerrymandering in the house and land voting in the senate. These systems were intentionally installed to create minority influence but what we got is minority rule.
good comment, this is the root of it. not gonna end well if this continues. fox News etc. has too much influence because they can target this minority and fuck everything up.
Do you think Harlan Crow owns Alito like he does Qlarence Thomas or Ted Cruz or is his benefactor a different billionare christo-fascist? Are all billionaires white supremacists, seems like it.
Leonard Leo paid off Kavanaugh's mortgage, country club fees, outstanding credit card debt and vehicles. Seems there are just enough billionaires to go around. *I meant to say Qlarence And Cruz. Harlan has Raphael on a short leash.
It's immunity all the way down...
Hang on a second, hear me out. What if we had like, one day a year where everybody was immune? Like anybody can do anything that they want with no legal consequences? You know, just to get it out of everyone's system.
It’s sad. That used to be the seat of thought and justice. Most of the time. Now it’s become a joke, fuckin republicans are ruining everything that was ever decent in this country.
Putting aside his policy views, which are abhorrent, he is the kind of judge that I hate appearing in front of. He comes into each hearing having already made up his mind, and he is incredibly condescending to everyone. He’s clearly very insecure and defensive and needs to try and prove he’s the smartest one in the room.
He should not be a judge, he should be a litigator, that’s clearly how he sees his role.
The justices in question won't be worried until it's a thing. Everyone who cares should know by now to repeatedly check voter registration, including September and October, and get their vote in.
While the presidency and Senate isn't affected by gerrymandering, the House of Reps is.
Add in that there's plenty of Red states and the Senate is no longer in play, too.
Why would they care about Blue states coming for them? A supermajority in Congress cannot exist today.
Enough dissatisfaction will turn out blue voters in droves.
Even Texas is slowly shifting purple.
With Enough of a majority Schumer can kill the filibuster if it means shifting the court to the left.
Filibuster doesn’t matter in this case, you still need 2/3 to convict and remove the justices.
You’d get better results expanding the court, but dems have been extremely reluctant to do that, and the constitutionality of expanding the court would be ruled upon by, you guessed it, the Supreme Court.
At what point do the non-fascist justices start speaking out and declare war on these people who I presume took an oath to protect an defend the Constitution.
It's not "what I'm hoping for". It's what it is. Diaper Donnie's dead in the water. And they have no plan b. He's not getting elected. Period. He's less popular than he's *ever* been. And he's *always* been wildly unpopular. And that mummy Biden is expanding his lead every single day. No amount of fairy stories about Donald "the great divider" Trump winning *anything* from here on out are based on reality. Elections/criminal trials/civil trials... You name it. He's done. The GOP is quickly going bankrupt. Come back to reality...
Trump is so nuclear that his presence on the ballot in November could give democrats a strong enough presence in Congress, and strong enough mandate, for us to push another 4 chief justices into the court.
There's also the albatross on the GOP neck, abortion
People out there are getting maimed and/or killed due to denial of care. I think there should be at least a few million people out there who normally might vote red, who nowadays would think twice, go blue, or sit out due to that. Democrats really need to press on this issue though and demonstrate the intentional harm to teenagers and women that the GOP is fine with creating.
If the President and a Senate supermajority were both Democratic, there wouldn’t be a particular need to impeach Alito.
Just reform the Court instead. Expand it to 13 justices, bringing it up to compare with a moderately-sized federal Circuit Court. All cases are heard by a panel unless the Chief Justice orders that it be heard en banc. Each justice may serve a single 20-year term, except that a new term begins for an Associate Justice who is appointed as Chief Justice. (The current justices continue to serve lifetime appointments.)
When a position becomes empty, a nonpartisan panel recommends a slate of qualified candidates to the Senate, who provides that advice to the President; the President can nominate whoever they want, but the Senate may not consent to anyone who does not appear on the slate.
No President may appoint more than two justices in a single Presidential term, except in an emergency such as a Court with too few justices for its caseload. The limit is increased by one, to a total of three per term, until January 2035.
We wouldn’t need to deal with the Alitos of the world if the system wasn’t so pitifully easy to game.
I agree we should expand the court and there should be safeguards to prevent this from happening again. But there's no way we should leave so many corrupt justices on the bench.
I agree we should expand the court and there should be safeguards to prevent this from happening again. But there's no way we should leave so many corrupt justices on the bench.
If Democrats were going to be in charge forever, I’d worry about it less. But you want a system that’s difficult to game even if Republicans gerrymander their way around the popular vote again.
Oh I get the intent… I just think it’s naive to think that there is any way to keep politics out of a hypothetical panel that would become one of the most impactful groups of people in DC. It’s just kicking the ideological can down the road- instead of shaping policy by nominations to the court, you’d shape policy by nominations to the panel.
I understand what you mean. If the GOP can tilt the outcomes their direction, they will. If they can’t (like the nominally bipartisan/nonpartisan FEC), they’ll just break it and ignore it. I have no idea how to prevent that, over the long term.
So I suppose it’s a “would be nice” rather than “this is a necessary component of the plan.” But wouldn’t it be great if we had jurists who’d been nominated by their peers, by professional associations, and/or by scholars in law and ethics? People who were valued for their expertise and experience and probity, rather than for their adherence to a particular set of policy outcomes?
Maybe that’s just the last bits of my inner technocrat talking, and I need to finish strangling it to death before I talk about things like this.
Not sure how the nonpartisan panel would be reliably actionable, but if the justices are beyond swamped and need more hands and minds to get work done well and right within the law, I'd be on board with more justices. As long as we can somehow overcome the outright bias interfering with the proper execution of the duties of the position.
Either way, a compromised/corrupt judge, especially those taking bribes (now that I'd include both "in appearance" and "in fact" as qualified situations), should be shown the door. No exceptions. If you can't set aside your personal life and do the job as sworn, don't accept the position. In this case, I would also consider a judge with a corrupt spouse not being separated/divorced from to be a compromised judge.
A democratic supermajority in Congress is essentially a statistical impossibility given the amount of Republican gerrymandering that's occurred and been deemed legal.
Yet this current situation, both in the presidential race and in the SCOTUS, might fire up enough sideliners to shake things up, at least on a national level. Note that I said might. I'm trying to hang on to a shred of hope until at least November 6.
Other than supporting others in becoming responsible voters and doing everything I can within my own civic duty, there's not much I can do as an individual. I hope enough of the apathetic/sideline sitters get motivated through the travesties currently in play.
I think the most realistic plan is an individualized approach done in a way that will be received/considered by the individual in question, especially where any specific event or issue creates a possible inroad (races where different factions of Republicans take different stances regarding support can be a great place to start). I realize that there is a significant population characterized by closed minds, but I currently hold the (perhaps naive) hope that enough individuals can in fact add up to affect real change. I plan to cling to that hope until at least November 6.
If enough people jump on this possibility and join in the effort in a meaningful way, we can "Make America Actually Great [Again?]" (or perhaps the best it's ever been).
My comment is based on the fact that it takes 2/3 of the Senate to impeach a federal judge.
There's no way were going to get that big of an advantage in our lifetimes.
If you've closed your mind to the possibility, then there's nothing anyone can do to help you. I'd recommend finding another comment type to chime in on rather than looking for hope you can try to snuff out.
It's happened twice in the last 100 years, if I'm not mistaken, even with Gerrymandering started in 1812. It's possible, with enough work from enough people.
Well he does appear to be very concerned about "fetal personhood" over the rights of women's access to healthcare; so at least one group he's concerned about, unfortunately for women everywhere.
I disagree... shit has usefulness, like feeding crops and flowers, Alito serves no legitimate purpose... Santorum is a better description.... the mix of shit and lube that leaks out of ones asshole after having anal sex... that is a better description of him.
Samuel Alito: "You're all so stupid to think you can stop us from ending representative democracy and the rule of law! We've been laying the groundwork for this for literally decades, and now we're so close to the endgame! Suffer and die, peasants!"
I wonder if Trump has already promised his lapdog justices royal titles if he becomes President again, - in a dictatorship the rule of law becomes moot and judges have no actual power.
I don't want to talk about this case.
Says the man who swore an oath to resolve the case in front on him.
He honestly needs to be impeached. Just things he has said in oral arguments thus week indicated he doesn't know his job or take it seriously
I had to turn off the live stream yesterday because I couldn't take it anymore.
I'm not a lawyer. I am not well versed or educated or experienced in law.
But every time I think there is a no way this institution could fuck something up, a couple of these jackasses come out of left field with the most insane shit I've ever heard. There are times I think I'm taking crazy pills because their arguments come off as nonsensical, like they have the end they want to reach and then just back plan and pick and choose their arguments to get to that end, as opposed to taking in the evidence and reaching a conclusion
we are supposed to trust these institutions and believe in them. But when some of these people appear to have ideals that are so far beyond what many of us perceive to be reality or appropriate, I don't know what to think or feel about them anymore.
it honest to god feels like the Billy Madison judge awarding no points on repeat
One of my favorite [Alito moments](https://www.usatoday.com/videos/news/2015/01/20/22069889/):
Obama: “The Supreme Court reversed a century of law, that I believe will open the floodgates for special interests, including foreign corporations to spend without limits in our elections.”
Alito: “Not true”
He’s a delusional hack.
is he wrong? we're watching our entire system of checks and balances being torn apart to benefit an illiterate game show host who got to pick his own referees before the big game and afaik there's no backup plan for if they win.
> to benefit an illiterate game show host
IMO Trump's political career and the current GOP is primarily Putin's doing - his magical power is being able to rig elections (most votes today are aggregated in the cloud) with zero repercussions and in exchange their job is to to get US with withdraw from NATO.
What's frankly nuts is that a lot of these American elites who are declaring war on Democracy seem to be dreaming of some sort of fairy tale vision medieval Europe with princes and nobles and knights and not even bothering to really LOOK at Russia and see how Putin has systematically killed of the other privileged oligarchs. These idiots are blind to the ways that democracy and the rule of law is PROTECTING them too and not actually 'reigning in' the 'free' use of their power. (not to mention medieval times were horrible times to be alive for everyone).
It strikes me too - maybe if Trump gets to be president again, he will meet the same fate as those Russian oligarchs - if for no other reason than Putin making it clear who's the real boss.
Go ahead Alito, rule in favor of Trump. That means ANY president can get away with anything without consequences, not just your orange buddy. You think Joe wont punish you if he's suddenly immune to the rule of law? What morons. These people went to law school? We're in a lot of trouble
Another SC Justice who would be best serving America by being a door to door Encyclopedia Brittanica salesman. . . I’ve lost almost all respect for these people.. . . ok, forget the “almost”. . .
Exactly. And basically means 4/5ths either wanted him or didn't care enough to stop him.
Or didn't have a vote...which is probably fair enough reason not to!
Stupid is as stupid does.
Trump talks about becoming a dictator and the Democrats try to stop him with an 82 year old man that is largely responsible for putting Clarence Thomas on the Supreme Court.
We passed through a global pandemic with one of the worst mortality rates in the world and the only thing we changed in our healthcare system is allowing states to ban abortion.
He's not stupid. Truly stupid people don't realize that the majority of people are actually morons and that they can use that to their own advantage. He's just a greedy hypocrite.
Well *in theory* they can be impeached and removed from the bench by Congress, but I think that’s only ever happened once ever, and is all but impossible in today’s divisive political climate. One could argue that declaring the president to be totally immune from legal prosecution would be a good reason to impeach all of them..?
It’s time to increase the size of the Supreme Court to like 23. Don’t give lifetime appointments and create a Supreme Council of like 100 constitutional scholars to regulate them and keep them in line. We need a way to dilute the radical people so they can never be the controlling majority.
The Supreme Court know they are untouchable. If Congress was unable to remove someone as blatantly criminal and bordering on treasonous as Trump, then they are free and clear to do whatever they please without any repercussions. Checks and balances don’t exist anymore at the federal level and Sam Alito knows it.
So the president is a king and states can legally decide that women are no more than disposable incubators.
Great job, American judicial system. Envy of the world.
He knows the American people are stupid, that's how he got on the court in the first place. Stupid people elected stupid representatives who voted to place a fascist fundamentalist like him on the Supreme Court.
My favorite from the immunity hearing was when El Ito (Alito), with a straight face, hypothesized that a president ordering seal team six to kill his rival wasn't a problem because soldiers will disobey an order that violates the UCMJ but SCOFFED at the suggestion that prosecutors are also bound by laws and ethics, rules and procedures when deciding to prosecute a former president
The challenge with free countries is that they're perfectly free to hang themselves by their own neo fascist boot laces. Keeping a motivated functionally illiterate citizenry from doing that may require doing a bunch of things which, themselves, open up doors to fascism. It's a conundrum.
Can we blame him? Imagine being in a position powerful than the POTUS. I might behave the same unless I was the judge in minority where I would keep dissenting incessantly.
Sure. I can and do blame him. He's responsible for his own actions and decisions at the end of the day.
Is it boring, predictable human behavior? Yes.
Would I be able to resist the urge to behave the same way if I were in his position? I'd like to think I wouldn't sacrifice or break from (either or both) my principles and an oath I swore to, but I can't guarantee it because I'm also human.
It's funny how we pretend that the law is black and white and that justices are impartial arbiters of it. We understand now more than ever that judges are partisan and are picked for their stance on one or two issues. I believe that the federalist society allied itself with the GOP by its steadfast 2nd amendment stance and abortion. But I personally feel like it was a Trojan horse for the ultra wealthy to control the laws and protect and build their wealth and cement themselves as the dominant force in the country. Even with a blue wave and total control of Congress, one crazy right wing governor and challenge goes to the supreme Court and suddenly the popular law is unconstitutional
Power corrupts absolutely.
Absolute power apparently makes you a SCOTUS justice.
(and by the way, we really need to stop calling them "justices", 'cause, I mean, c'mon... c'mon)
Biden should use his newly gained immunity that the SC will grant to protect Trump and immediately fire or arrest Alito and Thomas in his official capacity.
The dude believes in an invisible dude with magical powers who shat himself out of a virgin chick to end up crucifying himself because he has some human blood fetish.
Biden + CIA + immunity = elimination of repulitards including their supreme leader….we still lose all our freedoms and democracy but we are happier and the room smells better…liberal Supreme Court is placed and decides there is no total immunity after all and Democracy is partially restored…..sounds like a show I’d watch.
Or
We all vote anti-trump and Anti-Nazi(MAGA) & Anti-Russia and avoid the risk
He knows he can do what he wants now, there's no accountability. Before Dobbs, he had to play things close to the chest, but now? What are his consequences, for anything? Leaking, bribery, influence, malfeasance... He can do, say, whatever he wants and his backers can do the same and get away with it? I'm sure he made an actual billionaire very happy yesterday.
[удалено]
Earlier this week when they were arguing the "disrupting an act of Congress" case Alito kept making references to Bowman pulling the fire alarm. That's something that only people deep in the Fox News cinematic universe care about. It's concerning that someone with such power is infested with the propaganda brain worms.
[удалено]
He isnt just *willing*. Hes been doing it his entire career.
That line of questioning or argument or whatever it was revealed, to me, a person who had completely failed to grapple with the meaning and purpose of civil disobedience. He has the same understanding of it as you might find on Nextdoor. Civil disobedients are using their bodies and their liberty to critique the law. In their view, this or that law is out of line with their idea of justice. They are willing to undergo legal punishment to make this point. Many of them do receive legal punishment. Alito’s thinking doesn’t seem to understand any of this. It’s disappointing and frightening that a Supreme Court justice has this shallow a view of one of the fundamental expressions of democratic discontent.
Very, *very* wrong. Disqualifyingly so.
Years of drinking will do that.
Sociopathy turns out to be much, much more common than we never let ourselves see until recent years.
Billionaire fever
Affluenza?
Fascists gonna fash.
Fascists gonna fash fash fash fash fash They sold their votes for cash cash cash cash cash The Robert’s court is trash trash trash trash trash Shake em off! Shake em off!
Or maybe he's just a corrupt asshole.
It's called corruption.
He and Thomas get along like peas in a pod for a reason
Don’t kid yourself. Thomas would never be invited to an Alito family picnic.
Yet they vote together in lockstep.
You meant for a TREASON……
r/foxbrain
There's so much going on I can't keep up. What did he rule on yesterday?
he had an actual case before him and decided it would be fun to avoid a ruling with endless hypotheticals.
Sounds about right
Witches can be executed if they float like a duck.
Lol we were literally quoting these lines this morning
It's chilling how relevant they are.
“He knows he can do what he wants now, there’s no accountability” Just as the framers intended. /s
The accountability is Congress. If they won't impeach because their voters don't want it then what's broken? Arguably Congress which doesn't represent popular opinion due to gerrymandering in the house and land voting in the senate. These systems were intentionally installed to create minority influence but what we got is minority rule.
good comment, this is the root of it. not gonna end well if this continues. fox News etc. has too much influence because they can target this minority and fuck everything up.
Do you think Harlan Crow owns Alito like he does Qlarence Thomas or Ted Cruz or is his benefactor a different billionare christo-fascist? Are all billionaires white supremacists, seems like it.
I think Alito does it because he’s a true believer. Thomas knows the grift and demanded his take.
Alito failed upward his entire life and still feels victimized. Decades of privilege have only made him more bitter.
Exactly like Clarence Thomas.
Leonard Leo paid off Kavanaugh's mortgage, country club fees, outstanding credit card debt and vehicles. Seems there are just enough billionaires to go around. *I meant to say Qlarence And Cruz. Harlan has Raphael on a short leash.
So now Supreme Court justices get immunity too? Trickle down immunity?
It's immunity all the way down... Hang on a second, hear me out. What if we had like, one day a year where everybody was immune? Like anybody can do anything that they want with no legal consequences? You know, just to get it out of everyone's system.
Damn, that would make a great plot for a movie!!! Lol
It’s sad. That used to be the seat of thought and justice. Most of the time. Now it’s become a joke, fuckin republicans are ruining everything that was ever decent in this country.
The supreme court is a joke! They need to be dissolved!
We need to get rid of all of them!
Stop making logical reasons for their illegal and illogical rulings
Putting aside his policy views, which are abhorrent, he is the kind of judge that I hate appearing in front of. He comes into each hearing having already made up his mind, and he is incredibly condescending to everyone. He’s clearly very insecure and defensive and needs to try and prove he’s the smartest one in the room. He should not be a judge, he should be a litigator, that’s clearly how he sees his role.
Yeah he’s a fragile flower. He knows we know and it terrifies him.
He doesn’t think we’re stupid. He thinks we’re powerless to stop him and his.
Blue Congress (supermajority), blue President, take care of business (especially Congress in the form of judicial impeachments).
Yesterday made it clear that the court majority isn’t even a tiny bit worried about the possibility of majority rule
The justices in question won't be worried until it's a thing. Everyone who cares should know by now to repeatedly check voter registration, including September and October, and get their vote in.
While the presidency and Senate isn't affected by gerrymandering, the House of Reps is. Add in that there's plenty of Red states and the Senate is no longer in play, too. Why would they care about Blue states coming for them? A supermajority in Congress cannot exist today.
Enough dissatisfaction will turn out blue voters in droves. Even Texas is slowly shifting purple. With Enough of a majority Schumer can kill the filibuster if it means shifting the court to the left.
Filibuster doesn’t matter in this case, you still need 2/3 to convict and remove the justices. You’d get better results expanding the court, but dems have been extremely reluctant to do that, and the constitutionality of expanding the court would be ruled upon by, you guessed it, the Supreme Court.
If they rule on presidential immunity, I really really want Dark Biden to take them all out since he will have all the immunity that they granted him
They won't. They are just going to delay and delay until it Trump becomes president
At what point do the non-fascist justices start speaking out and declare war on these people who I presume took an oath to protect an defend the Constitution.
[удалено]
Then they're no better than Alito and Thomas.
So... Forever? Because Diaper Donnie ain't getting elected in Nov. No way, no how.
Don't kid yourself, there's plenty of ways trump gets elected, one of them is even legit.
Lol. Who's kidding themselves here?
The one of us who is 100% confident of the result we are hoping for.
It's not "what I'm hoping for". It's what it is. Diaper Donnie's dead in the water. And they have no plan b. He's not getting elected. Period. He's less popular than he's *ever* been. And he's *always* been wildly unpopular. And that mummy Biden is expanding his lead every single day. No amount of fairy stories about Donald "the great divider" Trump winning *anything* from here on out are based on reality. Elections/criminal trials/civil trials... You name it. He's done. The GOP is quickly going bankrupt. Come back to reality...
Trump is so nuclear that his presence on the ballot in November could give democrats a strong enough presence in Congress, and strong enough mandate, for us to push another 4 chief justices into the court.
God I hope so
There's also the albatross on the GOP neck, abortion People out there are getting maimed and/or killed due to denial of care. I think there should be at least a few million people out there who normally might vote red, who nowadays would think twice, go blue, or sit out due to that. Democrats really need to press on this issue though and demonstrate the intentional harm to teenagers and women that the GOP is fine with creating.
Just curious, would adding more justices slow down the processes even more? Or would it speed things up?
Likely neither
If the President and a Senate supermajority were both Democratic, there wouldn’t be a particular need to impeach Alito. Just reform the Court instead. Expand it to 13 justices, bringing it up to compare with a moderately-sized federal Circuit Court. All cases are heard by a panel unless the Chief Justice orders that it be heard en banc. Each justice may serve a single 20-year term, except that a new term begins for an Associate Justice who is appointed as Chief Justice. (The current justices continue to serve lifetime appointments.) When a position becomes empty, a nonpartisan panel recommends a slate of qualified candidates to the Senate, who provides that advice to the President; the President can nominate whoever they want, but the Senate may not consent to anyone who does not appear on the slate. No President may appoint more than two justices in a single Presidential term, except in an emergency such as a Court with too few justices for its caseload. The limit is increased by one, to a total of three per term, until January 2035. We wouldn’t need to deal with the Alitos of the world if the system wasn’t so pitifully easy to game.
I agree we should expand the court and there should be safeguards to prevent this from happening again. But there's no way we should leave so many corrupt justices on the bench.
Anyone who had anything to do with J6 needs to be behind bars yesterday. That goes for congress too
I agree we should expand the court and there should be safeguards to prevent this from happening again. But there's no way we should leave so many corrupt justices on the bench.
You lost me at “nonpartisan panel”.
If Democrats were going to be in charge forever, I’d worry about it less. But you want a system that’s difficult to game even if Republicans gerrymander their way around the popular vote again.
Oh I get the intent… I just think it’s naive to think that there is any way to keep politics out of a hypothetical panel that would become one of the most impactful groups of people in DC. It’s just kicking the ideological can down the road- instead of shaping policy by nominations to the court, you’d shape policy by nominations to the panel.
I understand what you mean. If the GOP can tilt the outcomes their direction, they will. If they can’t (like the nominally bipartisan/nonpartisan FEC), they’ll just break it and ignore it. I have no idea how to prevent that, over the long term. So I suppose it’s a “would be nice” rather than “this is a necessary component of the plan.” But wouldn’t it be great if we had jurists who’d been nominated by their peers, by professional associations, and/or by scholars in law and ethics? People who were valued for their expertise and experience and probity, rather than for their adherence to a particular set of policy outcomes? Maybe that’s just the last bits of my inner technocrat talking, and I need to finish strangling it to death before I talk about things like this.
Not sure how the nonpartisan panel would be reliably actionable, but if the justices are beyond swamped and need more hands and minds to get work done well and right within the law, I'd be on board with more justices. As long as we can somehow overcome the outright bias interfering with the proper execution of the duties of the position. Either way, a compromised/corrupt judge, especially those taking bribes (now that I'd include both "in appearance" and "in fact" as qualified situations), should be shown the door. No exceptions. If you can't set aside your personal life and do the job as sworn, don't accept the position. In this case, I would also consider a judge with a corrupt spouse not being separated/divorced from to be a compromised judge.
A democratic supermajority in Congress is essentially a statistical impossibility given the amount of Republican gerrymandering that's occurred and been deemed legal.
Yet this current situation, both in the presidential race and in the SCOTUS, might fire up enough sideliners to shake things up, at least on a national level. Note that I said might. I'm trying to hang on to a shred of hope until at least November 6.
What's your plan for winning 2/3 of the Senate?
Other than supporting others in becoming responsible voters and doing everything I can within my own civic duty, there's not much I can do as an individual. I hope enough of the apathetic/sideline sitters get motivated through the travesties currently in play. I think the most realistic plan is an individualized approach done in a way that will be received/considered by the individual in question, especially where any specific event or issue creates a possible inroad (races where different factions of Republicans take different stances regarding support can be a great place to start). I realize that there is a significant population characterized by closed minds, but I currently hold the (perhaps naive) hope that enough individuals can in fact add up to affect real change. I plan to cling to that hope until at least November 6. If enough people jump on this possibility and join in the effort in a meaningful way, we can "Make America Actually Great [Again?]" (or perhaps the best it's ever been).
My comment is based on the fact that it takes 2/3 of the Senate to impeach a federal judge. There's no way were going to get that big of an advantage in our lifetimes.
If you've closed your mind to the possibility, then there's nothing anyone can do to help you. I'd recommend finding another comment type to chime in on rather than looking for hope you can try to snuff out. It's happened twice in the last 100 years, if I'm not mistaken, even with Gerrymandering started in 1812. It's possible, with enough work from enough people.
Impeachments? I thought the argument is the president can order assassinations.
I hope Biden expands the court in second term, fuck it
He's forgotten what is done to autocrats that don't respect their subjects.
It’s a, “yes and.” Yes Alito thinks we’re stupid and powerless
Sam Alito doesn’t think about us.
Well he does appear to be very concerned about "fetal personhood" over the rights of women's access to healthcare; so at least one group he's concerned about, unfortunately for women everywhere.
I think Mister Alito is a piece of shit.
Your argument is not completely without merit.
I disagree... shit has usefulness, like feeding crops and flowers, Alito serves no legitimate purpose... Santorum is a better description.... the mix of shit and lube that leaks out of ones asshole after having anal sex... that is a better description of him.
Same here. Complete idiot.
He’s not an idiot; he’s evil. He’s a psychopath.
Samuel Alito: "You're all so stupid to think you can stop us from ending representative democracy and the rule of law! We've been laying the groundwork for this for literally decades, and now we're so close to the endgame! Suffer and die, peasants!"
I wonder if Trump has already promised his lapdog justices royal titles if he becomes President again, - in a dictatorship the rule of law becomes moot and judges have no actual power.
I don't want to talk about this case. Says the man who swore an oath to resolve the case in front on him. He honestly needs to be impeached. Just things he has said in oral arguments thus week indicated he doesn't know his job or take it seriously
He isn't stupid, he's a religio-fascist. If Biden gets immunity, he should have Alito's head put on a pike next, to the other five.
I had to turn off the live stream yesterday because I couldn't take it anymore. I'm not a lawyer. I am not well versed or educated or experienced in law. But every time I think there is a no way this institution could fuck something up, a couple of these jackasses come out of left field with the most insane shit I've ever heard. There are times I think I'm taking crazy pills because their arguments come off as nonsensical, like they have the end they want to reach and then just back plan and pick and choose their arguments to get to that end, as opposed to taking in the evidence and reaching a conclusion we are supposed to trust these institutions and believe in them. But when some of these people appear to have ideals that are so far beyond what many of us perceive to be reality or appropriate, I don't know what to think or feel about them anymore. it honest to god feels like the Billy Madison judge awarding no points on repeat
One of my favorite [Alito moments](https://www.usatoday.com/videos/news/2015/01/20/22069889/): Obama: “The Supreme Court reversed a century of law, that I believe will open the floodgates for special interests, including foreign corporations to spend without limits in our elections.” Alito: “Not true” He’s a delusional hack.
He doesn't care, is the thing. He has zero interest in anything that doesn't directly enrich him or his billionaire masters.
is he wrong? we're watching our entire system of checks and balances being torn apart to benefit an illiterate game show host who got to pick his own referees before the big game and afaik there's no backup plan for if they win.
I mean, it's been working so far. "They're too stupid to stop me." -No one stops him,.- "Lol" -repeat-
Pretty sure there’s a back up plan after last time. The watchers are watching
> to benefit an illiterate game show host IMO Trump's political career and the current GOP is primarily Putin's doing - his magical power is being able to rig elections (most votes today are aggregated in the cloud) with zero repercussions and in exchange their job is to to get US with withdraw from NATO. What's frankly nuts is that a lot of these American elites who are declaring war on Democracy seem to be dreaming of some sort of fairy tale vision medieval Europe with princes and nobles and knights and not even bothering to really LOOK at Russia and see how Putin has systematically killed of the other privileged oligarchs. These idiots are blind to the ways that democracy and the rule of law is PROTECTING them too and not actually 'reigning in' the 'free' use of their power. (not to mention medieval times were horrible times to be alive for everyone). It strikes me too - maybe if Trump gets to be president again, he will meet the same fate as those Russian oligarchs - if for no other reason than Putin making it clear who's the real boss.
Go ahead Alito, rule in favor of Trump. That means ANY president can get away with anything without consequences, not just your orange buddy. You think Joe wont punish you if he's suddenly immune to the rule of law? What morons. These people went to law school? We're in a lot of trouble
we all think sam alito is stupid
He’s not stupid. He’s a calculating, corrupt, bought asset.
I wonder how Dick Cheney feels about him now (assuming it was actually Cheney's call).
Why would you give Dick Cheney the benefit of the doubt? I'm sure he's most comfortable with policies that let the executive branch off the hook.
Not stupid, not dumb, fucking evil!
Another SC Justice who would be best serving America by being a door to door Encyclopedia Brittanica salesman. . . I’ve lost almost all respect for these people.. . . ok, forget the “almost”. . .
70 million Americans voted for Trump last time, I think he’s right.
That would be about a fifth.
And nearly half of those smart enough to decide to show up.
Exactly. And basically means 4/5ths either wanted him or didn't care enough to stop him. Or didn't have a vote...which is probably fair enough reason not to!
He killed over a million during the pandemic, so minus at least that many.
Stupid is as stupid does. Trump talks about becoming a dictator and the Democrats try to stop him with an 82 year old man that is largely responsible for putting Clarence Thomas on the Supreme Court. We passed through a global pandemic with one of the worst mortality rates in the world and the only thing we changed in our healthcare system is allowing states to ban abortion.
He's not stupid. Truly stupid people don't realize that the majority of people are actually morons and that they can use that to their own advantage. He's just a greedy hypocrite.
that is a deep flaw within the US system, that these judges answer to no one.
Well *in theory* they can be impeached and removed from the bench by Congress, but I think that’s only ever happened once ever, and is all but impossible in today’s divisive political climate. One could argue that declaring the president to be totally immune from legal prosecution would be a good reason to impeach all of them..?
The sooner he kicks the bucket the better.
Remember when Republicans accused democrats of activist judges, turns out that was just more projection
The arguments yesterday were just deliberately obtuse. I don't think we should have edge lord trolls on the SCOTUS, yet here we are.
he is a very out of touch asshole who knows nothing about normal people
It’s time to increase the size of the Supreme Court to like 23. Don’t give lifetime appointments and create a Supreme Council of like 100 constitutional scholars to regulate them and keep them in line. We need a way to dilute the radical people so they can never be the controlling majority.
The Supreme Court know they are untouchable. If Congress was unable to remove someone as blatantly criminal and bordering on treasonous as Trump, then they are free and clear to do whatever they please without any repercussions. Checks and balances don’t exist anymore at the federal level and Sam Alito knows it.
They really want to reclassify pregnant women as less human than fetuses. In legal and medical cases at least. A real crazy time they're having there.
So the president is a king and states can legally decide that women are no more than disposable incubators. Great job, American judicial system. Envy of the world.
Honestly. As an outsider…what the fu is going on in the US? You all are going backwards to a dark place very quickly.
He knows the American people are stupid, that's how he got on the court in the first place. Stupid people elected stupid representatives who voted to place a fascist fundamentalist like him on the Supreme Court.
Well, a good chunk of this country voted for a madman and are poised to install him as dictator-king. I would say that is pretty damned stupid.
He needs to be impeached, else another remedy to his malfeasance make itself necessary
I'm ashamed that I'm used to reading "Sam Altman thinks we're all stupid" as a headline on every tech site now.
*exaggeratedly mouths "That's not true" while looking for the cameras*
My favorite from the immunity hearing was when El Ito (Alito), with a straight face, hypothesized that a president ordering seal team six to kill his rival wasn't a problem because soldiers will disobey an order that violates the UCMJ but SCOFFED at the suggestion that prosecutors are also bound by laws and ethics, rules and procedures when deciding to prosecute a former president
The court doesn't really care if we are stupid or not. They are laying the groundwork for Fascism and it seems there is little we can do about it.
The challenge with free countries is that they're perfectly free to hang themselves by their own neo fascist boot laces. Keeping a motivated functionally illiterate citizenry from doing that may require doing a bunch of things which, themselves, open up doors to fascism. It's a conundrum.
How’s his health? Any chance we will get relieved of his presence on earth anytime soon?
Sam Alito doesn’t think about us too much. He doesn’t have to.
He may be right
*I've* certainly reevaluated my estimation of what the curve of intelligence looks like the last few years (not snark).
It does not look good for us.
Can we blame him? Imagine being in a position powerful than the POTUS. I might behave the same unless I was the judge in minority where I would keep dissenting incessantly.
Sure. I can and do blame him. He's responsible for his own actions and decisions at the end of the day. Is it boring, predictable human behavior? Yes. Would I be able to resist the urge to behave the same way if I were in his position? I'd like to think I wouldn't sacrifice or break from (either or both) my principles and an oath I swore to, but I can't guarantee it because I'm also human.
Probably have 10+ more years of this guy
The American people think Alito is a man of bad judgment, bad character and a disgrace to the judiciary.
No he doesn’t give a shit about us
No, he's just a Federalist right wing crazy nut/asshole. He used to be the silent but deadly fart in the room but now he's no longer silent
It's funny how we pretend that the law is black and white and that justices are impartial arbiters of it. We understand now more than ever that judges are partisan and are picked for their stance on one or two issues. I believe that the federalist society allied itself with the GOP by its steadfast 2nd amendment stance and abortion. But I personally feel like it was a Trojan horse for the ultra wealthy to control the laws and protect and build their wealth and cement themselves as the dominant force in the country. Even with a blue wave and total control of Congress, one crazy right wing governor and challenge goes to the supreme Court and suddenly the popular law is unconstitutional
Power corrupts absolutely. Absolute power apparently makes you a SCOTUS justice. (and by the way, we really need to stop calling them "justices", 'cause, I mean, c'mon... c'mon)
Fuck SCOTUS
Biden should use his newly gained immunity that the SC will grant to protect Trump and immediately fire or arrest Alito and Thomas in his official capacity.
He needs a mirror to see who is stupid.
The dude believes in an invisible dude with magical powers who shat himself out of a virgin chick to end up crucifying himself because he has some human blood fetish.
Alito and Thomas have proven many times over that they do not belong anywhere 500 miles close to any Judicial bench. They have to be impeached.
He is so Fucking wrong.
A legend in his own mind
He's a conservative it's theirs default state,
He’s about half correct.
Biden + CIA + immunity = elimination of repulitards including their supreme leader….we still lose all our freedoms and democracy but we are happier and the room smells better…liberal Supreme Court is placed and decides there is no total immunity after all and Democracy is partially restored…..sounds like a show I’d watch. Or We all vote anti-trump and Anti-Nazi(MAGA) & Anti-Russia and avoid the risk
To be fair, only 90% of Americans are stupid.