On today’s BradCast: If you think the way the Republican Party has rigged and stolen the U.S. Supreme Court is appalling, just wait until you see what they’re trying to do of late at a few of the state Supreme Courts! [Audio link to show is posted below.]
But, first up today: Donald Trump says the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia told him he had nothing to do with the disappearance — and, likely, murder — of Washington Post journalist, Saudi citizen and U.S. resident Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Turkey. The Prince’s word appears to be good enough for Trump, who went on to compare the situation to the allegations of sexual assault against now-U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh
Meanwhile, the midterm elections are now exactly three weeks away and early voting got underway on Monday in Georgia where, you’ll be shocked to learn, it didn’t go well. After our previous coverage of ongoing racially disproportionate voter suppression schemes under the command of GA Sec. of State and Republican gubernatorial candidate Brian Kemp (who is in a tight election contest with Democrat Stacey Abrams), and after very serious and years-long concerns about their completely unsecure, wildly hackable, and 100% unverifiable touchscreen voting systems, it appears that the electronic pollbook systems failed across Fulton County (Atlanta) on the first day of early voting.
In not entirely unrelated news, the GOP appears to now be a wholly owned subsidiary of Las Vegas billionaire Sheldon Adelson.
Then, we move to some of the insanity of several attempted state Supreme Court coups this week with Slate’s legal reporter MARK JOSEPH STERN. Stern joins us to detail both some good news from the Florida state Supreme Court, regarding that state’s Supreme Court, and an apparent Constitutional Crisis in West Virginia after a decision by that state’s Supreme Court, regarding their state Supreme Court. If it all sounds nuts, it’s because it is.
First, in Florida, outgoing Republican Gov. Rick Scott had vowed to name three new Justices to the Court, even though the Democratic-appointed Justices he planned to replace will not be vacating their seats, because of term limits, until after Scott officially leaves office in January. Stern reports the largely good news — with a caveat or two — regarding the Sunshine State’s Supreme Court’s unambiguous ruling last week that will leave the job of appointing three new Justice to Scott’s successor instead (who will be either Democratic gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum or Republican Ron DeSantis, depending on how things go on November 6th.)
Then, things get far crazier at the West Virginia state Supreme Court, where the Republican state legislature, along with Republican Gov. Jim Justice, have been attempting a coup by impeachment of all five Justices on the state’s 3 to 2 Democratic-majority Court. This story has more jaw-dropping twists and turns in it than I can possibly describe here — including five temporary replacement Justices determining that at least one of the impeachments was unconstitutional under state law and the GOP-majority state Senate which hopes to move forward with a trial anyway…if only they could only find a Justice willing to preside over it, as required by the state Constitution.
Just tune in for the insane details on how, as in Florida, West Virginia Republicans are doing anything and everything they can to blatantly steal a Democratic-majority high court.
And, as if that’s not enough, Stern then reports on the wildly hypocritical decision by the U.S. Supreme Court last week that will leave a new voter suppression law — enacted by North Dakota Republicans — in place for the November midterms. The ruling effectively changes the state’s election law at the last minute before this year’s general election and is likely to disenfranchise thousands of Native American voters. The ruling threatens to undermine this year’s re-election chances of Democratic Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, who won her previous election in 2012 by just 3,000 votes, and could assure Republicans hold their control of the U.S. Senate along with it.
Yes, elections and Supreme Courts — be they at the federal or state level — matter!
Finally, Desi Doyen joins us for the latest Green News Report, as the long road to recovery begins and the death toll increases after the catastrophic Hurricane Michael, and as a bought-and-sold Republican Party — from Marco Rubio in Florida to Donald Trump in the White House — continue to deny the deadly and costly impacts of climate change on behalf of their fossil-fueled corporate owners…
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