U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor said Monday she feels daily “frustration” as conservative justices move the country to the ideological right.
In an appearance at the University of California, Berkely School of Law, Sotomayor was asked how she copes with the consistently conservative rulings from the court.
“Every loss truly traumatizes me,” but “I get up the next morning,” she said in response to the question, The San Francisco Chronicle reported. The crowd — about 1,300 students — applauded.
In her remarks, she criticized her “originalist colleagues” whom she said have come up with “new ways to interpret the Constitution,” changing rulings “that some of us believed were well established,” the Chronicle reported.
The 6-3 conservative court has had an eventful couple of terms, making its mark on some of the most consequential aspects of everyday life — from overturning the federal right to an abortion to ruling affirmative action in colleges unconstitutional.
Expand the court. “But republicans will do the same” you might say. To that I say “okay, let the court be a million judges to show just how shitty and ridiculous it is, let it collapse under its own stupidity. Besides, the conservatives already control the court, so there’s really nothing to lose.”
Just ignore what they say if you don’t like it.
If enough people do this, they won’t have any power. They literally cannot arrest us all.
Look at what we did with marijuana.
That said, this really only applies to states’ rights. California can disobey the supreme court without repercussion. Women can’t disobey abortion bans in their states unless the vast majority of them band together.
The problem with that is, if the vast majority of them banded together then they could remove the bans in the first place.
What was it that “we did with marijuana”? Because there are a shit load of people in prison that would be happy to know that the problem has been fixed.
Edit: lol at this being controversial. Just to clarify: we haven’t fixed shit with respect to cannabis. We’ve barely put a band-aid on the problem. Yes I’m glad some states have explicitly gone against federal law, but you’re ignorant as fuck if you think we fixed the problem in any way.
Marijuana is still illegal federally but states just ignore it.
I’m downvoting you because this legitimately should not have to be said.
My favored tactic is to – Bam! Expand the court to 11 in one year, than 13 in two. Nuke the filibuster if you have to.
Then Democrats can sit down with Republicans and say “You can let us appoint 4 justices to lifetime terms and wait until you get the Presidency and both houses of Congress to expand it more, or you can work with us to pass an amendment to set up term limits and other reforms so the SC is no longer a political football”.
Make every US citizen a justice upon turning the minimum age for a Supreme Court justice.
Upon learning this in High School I was baffelled… There are no requirements to being a Supreme Court justice in the constitution. Simply that you are appointed by the president, and Congress confirms you. You don’t need a background in law at all. There is no age requirement at all. There aren’t even citizenship requirements. By the Constitution, Biden could appoint Gretta Thornburg to the Supreme Court, and Congress could confirm her, and we would have Justice Thornburg for the next 70-odd years.
https://www.findingalawyer.org/supreme-court-justice-qualifications/
Eh, civil disobedience is making a comeback.
These fucks are going to learn real quick how the social contract is a two-way agreement.
I was in DC recently, and I saw Ruth’s grave, and just wish she knew the legacy she created.
OK so she wasn’t the first to put her own personal legacy ahead of the good of people, so it’s all good then?
If she had simply step aside and let Obama replace her, we would not have this packed illegitimate Supreme Court.
That selfish decision continues to make waves, and those waves continue to hurt us the people. Those waves hurt the rights of women who once look to RBG as an icon.
Well, I suppose she is still an icon, an icon for selfishness and personal pride over the good of the entire fucking nation.
Oh but she wasn’t the first so it’s okay!
No but by refusing to retire when Obama was still able to appoint her replacement (because she believed Hillary would win) she inadvertently allowed Trump to pick her replacement
Even before Trump was elected, the Republican Senate blocked Obama’s nomination of Merrick Garland. Had RBG stepped down and Republicans blocked two nominations between 2014-2016, we would be blaming her for stepping down too soon and giving Trump two nominations on day one.
It’s really just a result of a shitty terrible system, and RBG doesn’t deserve all the blame for the current situation we’re seeing.
NO position should ever be for life. It’s ridiculous that we have 70/80/90 year olds running things forever until they die. They should retire and let the next generation take the reins. Age and term limits. Courts should not be able to be packed like this. Nothing should.
Also, the fact that the reasoning behind this is because they don’t want the justices to be pressured by partisian issues is ironic considering…
I don’t see how anyone ever thought that a president appointing them would be bipartisan. Ironic indeed.
“Ok, we want to find the best legal minds in the country to serve on the Supreme Court in a fair manner without political bias. How do we select them?”
“Let’s put the selection in the hands of a politician!” (With confirmations also done by politicians)
“Brilliant!”
Though I guess that any other system put in place could be corrupted in some other way.
They should also probably be held to some ethical standards, but that’s too much for the nation’s most powerful court/justices. Nevermind the US code of conduct says justices are to avoid even the appearance of impropriety.
But who needs a functional government or justice system? It’s just keeping big business from making even more money, and destroying the planet faster.
I wonder why we don’t elect judges like we do at the local level. What were the founding fathers thought process on allowing the president to appoint them?
The thought was that if they had to campaign and run for elections they’d be too swayed by political pressure to be impartial. As we’ve seen, having the Executive branch do it doesn’t prevent this if politics becomes hyper-partisan. This is part of why Washington was opposed to political parties even existing. I think history has proven him right.
Then she should vote for the people more.