mtswThere is no "law" anymore as long as the GOP's stolen majority controls the Supreme Court. They will just blindly assert their power to run our country until that power is challenged https://www.vox.com/politics/2023/2/28/23618985/supreme-court-student-loan-forgiveness-biden-nebraska-education-brown
The Democratic plan to deal with this, just kinda hope to never lose another election until a couple conservative justices die while Dems control the Senate, is so obviously doomed it's hardly worth commenting on. Laughable and pathetic way for our ability to self-govern to die, real late-Byzantine Empire shit
Defiance!@mtsw What can be done? Wouldn't legislation (my preferred approach to this stuff) also wind up in the courts, with the same fate? Been trying to think of what Dems or anyone else can do here besides a lot of performative outrage and in-fighting.
Andy Pearlman@Defiance @mtsw basically, Biden has to say something to the effect of "John Marshall has made his decision; now let him enforce it." on something that at least 70% of the country can agree strongly on and is easily implemented by the government.
SCOTUS looks like they're headed there on something by 2024.
Clinical Rawlsian@apearlma @Defiance @mtsw 100%. Biden can either ignore the court and run in 2024 on "I defied an illegitimate and partisan court that was trying to strike down legislation duly and lawfully enacted by the elected representatives of the American people" or he can run on "I wanted to help you guys out, but those mean old conservatives on the court wouldn't let me. What are you gonna do, am I right?"
@apearlma @Defiance @mtsw The six conservative SCOTUS justices have left Biden no option but to ignore their illegitimate, partisan rulings. If he does not, Biden is essentially acknowledging that American democracy is completely dead and that we are going to be governed by the FedSoc six for the rest of our lives.
Clara@MadMadMadMadRN @apearlma @Defiance @mtsw
Democracy is dead if Biden ignores the rulings of the judiciary, an independent, co-equal branch of government. It is rather outrageous to suggest that Biden could, would or should.
Three independent, co-equal branches of government contemplates our current scenario. Our democracy is built to withstand this situation.
@claraeroberts @apearlma @Defiance @mtsw I don't think you understand what "democracy" or "co-equal" mean.
If the judiciary can just overrule the legislative and executive branches whenever they feel like it for whatever reason without any recourse on behalf of the other two branches, that is not a co-equal branch.
@MadMadMadMadRN @apearlma @Defiance @mtsw Have you heard any talk about Congress passing laws related to a judicial code of ethics or laws related to the size of the Supreme Court or their shadow docket? These are legitimate ways for one branch of government to exert power against another branch of government. Likewise, the executive branch has the responsibility to investigate crimes, like fraud. This is another legitimate way to reign in abuses by the judiciary.
Biden refusing to follow the law is as bad as Trump refusing to follow the law. That destroys everything.
Jeff Byrnes@claraeroberts @MadMadMadMadRN @apearlma @Defiance @mtsw It’s not. It also has precedent: various shitty decisions led to SCOTUS being ignored by Lincoln in the 1860s:
“…they simply ignored the proslavery precedents established in the 1850s. In June 1862… Congress passed and Lincoln signed a bill banning slavery from the federal territories — a direct violation of the majority ruling in Dred Scott.”
https://jacobin.com/2020/09/abraham-lincoln-supreme-court-slavery
@claraeroberts @MadMadMadMadRN @apearlma @Defiance @mtsw Basically, SCOTUS does not make law, they interpret it. So the President would not be refusing to follow the law, he would be refusing to acquiesce to a co-equal branch wielding its power ideologically instead of with jurisprudence as laid out by its guiding tenets & the Constitution.
@claraeroberts @MadMadMadMadRN @apearlma @Defiance @mtsw I was as surprised as hell to learn about this bit of antebellum history, as I’d always considered SCOTUS how you seem to be. But the idea that “law somehow exists before or beyond politics, and thus it was illegitimate to resist the proslavery court through popular antislavery mobilization” was right for Lincoln to resist, and we are similarly right to resist this Court.
@jeffbyrnes @claraeroberts @apearlma @Defiance @mtsw
FDR got the Lochner court to back down by making a credible threat to expand the court. Even though Congress ultimately voted against expanding the court, the threat worked.
Biden painted himself into a corner at the beginning of his term by publicly and definitively saying that he didn't support expanding the court. At this point, ignoring politically motivated court decisions is Biden's best and really only option.