On today’s BradCast, the GOP’s far-right take-over of the U.S. Supreme Court for generations — including one blatantly stolen seat and two men accused of sexual misconduct and/or assault — is now all but complete, and we discuss an upcoming SCOTUS case that some have cited as reason for the Trump/GOP panic to get their man on the bench as soon as possible. [Audio link to show is posted below.]
On Friday, the four theoretically previously-undecided U.S. Senators announced how they planned to vote on the confirmation of accused sexual assaulter and confirmed liar Brett Kavanaugh for his lifetime appointment to SCOTUS. Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska announced her intention to vote against him, while Republicans Susan Collins of Maine, Jeff Flake of Arizona and Democrat Joe Manchin all declared they will vote in favor of the most contentious nominee to the high court, perhaps in U.S. history. We discuss what all of that means today, moving forward, as the far-right cements its stolen majority. As you might imagine, both Desi and I have some thoughts on all of that today.
Then, we’re joined by legal historian and Fordham Law School professor JED SHUGERMAN, author of The People’s Courts, to discuss the upcoming Supreme Court case that many Trump opponents have cited in recent days as one of the explanations for Republicans’ apparent panic to seat Kavanaugh on the Court as quickly as possible. The case, Gamble v. U.S., involves what some on both the Right and civil libertarian Left consider to be unconstitutional double jeopardy regarding an Alabama man who was convicted at both the state and federal levels for unlawful possession of a firearm. Some Trump critics have suggested, depended on how its decided, that the case could result in states being barred from prosecuting Donald Trump, his associates, or his family members in the event that they are pardoned at the federal level.
Shugerman — who was one of more than 2,400 legal professors to sign on to a recent letter published by the New York Times calling on the Senate to reject Kavanaugh’s nomination due to his lack of appropriate judicial temperament — explains why he believes the Gamble case poses no threat to state prosecutions of Trump and/or his associates, nor to Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation and prosecution of Team Trump.
He also explains today why he signed the public letter opposing Kavanaugh, how it now may affect lawyers who signed it when arguing cases before Justice Kavanaugh, why he believes the GOP has been in such a hurry to seat Kavanaugh, and the “completely unprecedented” public opposition to him by former Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens.
Shugerman also describes some of his major concerns for the Court once Kavanaugh is finally in place: how Chief Justice John Roberts is going to be forced to deal with it. “How is he going to manage this explosive controversy and the unprofessional conduct, the injudicious conduct, of Judge Kavanaugh? How will he restore consensus to this Court? How will he manage Judge Kavanaugh, given that he should have reason to fear that Judge Kavanaugh cannot be balanced, and won’t be perceived to be balanced when he’s on the Court?”
Finally today, some listener mail regarding more voter registration problems via the vote.org service (we recommend registering either in-person or via your Sec. of State or County website, rather than via third-party app, is possible); the first reports of 100% unverifiable touchscreen vote-flipping in the general election (in the very close U.S. Senate race in Missouri between Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill and her GOP challenger Josh Hawley); and Willie Nelson’s new song, Vote ’em Out!, debuted for the first time at last weekend’s 55,000-person rally in Texas, in support of Democratic Congressman Beto O’Rourke’s surging campaign against Lone Star State Republican Sen. Ted Cruz…
Roberts and Alito were stolen because George W Bush stole the Presidency.
BRIAN:
That’s exactly right. Also, Roberts helped Bush steal that presidency and so did Kavanaugh. I don’t think we need to get into how Gorsuch stole his seat.
In no sense is this a legitimate court.
Lovely cite for you, Brad: WaPo: The Cybersecurity 202: The U.S. is warning Congo that using electronic voting machines could backfire