Friday, June 21, 2024

Yesterday's String of Supreme Court Decisions Blew Up Another Liberal Narrative (Again)

Matt Vespa reporting for Townhall 

The Supreme Court has not yet decided on the presidential immunity case involving former President Donald Trump, which could wreck the pending trials from Special Counsel Jack Smith on January 6 and classified document indictments. At the same time, the string of decisions yesterday did unravel another trite liberal talking regarding our third branch of government: it’s a rogue, right-wing machine that’s out to destroy America.

The three decisions obliterated that narrative. There were no 5-4 decisions, and some concurring and dissenting opinions were—wait for it—made up of diverse company. Law professor Jonathan Turley had a lengthy Twitter thread about today’s rulings: 

..We have the first case. It is Moore!

...Another shattering of the narrative of a hopelessly ideologically divided court. 7-2 decision. This is the tax case that I thought we might get today. It addresses the scope of the taxation powers. 

...Court rules that taxpayers who own shares in foreign corporations can be constitutionally required to pay a one-time tax on their share of the corporation’s earnings...In his dissent, Thomas notes that the Court avoided the "wealth tax" issue with a biting couple lines: "Even as the majority admits to reasoning from fiscal consequences, it apparently believes that a generous application of dicta will guard against unconstitutional taxes in the future. The majority’s analysis begins with a list of nonexistent taxes that the Court does not today bless, including a wealth tax."... 

[…] 

..We have the second opinion. It is CHIAVERINI ET AL. v. CITY OF NAPOLEON, OHIO, ET, a Fourth Amendment malicious prosecution case. 

...This is a Justice Kagan decision that holds "the presence of probable cause for one charge in a criminal proceeding does not categorically defeat a Fourth Amendment malicious prosecution claim relating to another, baseless charge."... 

...Once again, the critics of the Supreme Court will be disappointed with the diverse majority of Roberts, Sotomayor, Kavanaugh, and Barrett joining Kagan in the 6-3 decision... 

...We have the third decision. It is Diaz v. US and authored by Thomas. Justice Gorsuch joins Sotomayor and Kagan in dissent. 

The court holds that an expert testifying about how 'most people" have a particular mental state is not an opinion about the defendant and therefore does not violate federal evidentiary rules.

I love how Turley, who isn’t a conservative, pokes fun at the casuals who only weigh in on the Supreme Court’s most controversial decisions, which are exceedingly rare. The late Justices Antonin Scalia and Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who were both the best of friends despite being ideologically opposed, agreed that most of the justices’ work is beyond boring for most, and there’s near-unanimous agreement on almost every case, except for the political-charged which don’t come before the court often. Scalia referred to the lion’s share of his job as lawyer’s work. 

In short, a lot of liberals are paranoid or have watched one too many political thrillers to believe that this institution, which makes sure they don’t go off the reservation, has run amok. 

Over the past few years, the Supreme Court has become a creepy liberal obsession for liberals, an almost Glenn Close-like fixation a la Fatal Attraction. It’s also one of amusement, given the behavioral changes exhibited among leftists once they lose control of an institution. 

It’s all about power—that’s never changed. To claw back, we’ve seen a years-long campaign against a black conservative justice—Thomas—over cockamamie ethics violations that never go anywhere because it’s untrue and boring. The secret audio recording of Justices Alito and Chief Justice John Roberts at a Supreme Court Historical Society is the latest nothing burger the Left has used to weaponize against the institution, where nothing said was remotely controversial, though Sens. Liz Warren (D-MA), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), and Chris Murphy (D-CT) all treated this as if we found the missing minutes of the Nixon tapes. The media lauded reporter Lauren Windsor, who had lied to obtain these recordings because they served the “greater good.” 

The Left knows the core pieces of their legislative agenda will be struck down by the courts, hence why they’ve focused on loading them with ideological psychopaths for the past generation or so. There is a plot to make the courts rouge, but it isn’t from the Right. It’s from Joe Biden’s people, which has always been the case.