SCOTUS 15: Help Us, Ruth Bader Ginsburg! You're Our Only Hope!

[bronconick]

Supreme Court just denied hearing Trump’s appeal in US v California, challenging California’s sanctuary laws.​

 

[Kepler]

Should freedom of religion not included somehow freedom FROM religion?

Since as-shats like Alito and Drunky McRapist keep arguing that all basic law derives from Judeo-Christianity, as an Atheist I claim immunity from all laws under my religious freedumb.

 

[Deutsche Gopher Fan]

I guess it is more accurate to say that MissT can no longer be treated like sh-t for being trans. She can be treated like sh-t for being a woman.

Progress!

Bingo!!!

 

[LynahFan]

I would think an organization would at least have to prove that the religious beliefs they were basing their discrimination on were sincere and strongly held. So a Catholic school could fire a teacher who came out as LGBT+ because they are obviously an organization affiliated with a specific religious denomination that considers same-sex relationships immoral, and that scenario has likely always been written out in the employee policy manual. OTOH, the BoD of Staples or Cargill can't wake up tomorrow morning and announce a new policy to fire all openly gay employees because they're now a Christian organization (this would be a dumb move for them even if it's legal, I'm just spitballing).

Even for religious organizations, the exemption ought to be narrowly defined to include only those whose roles are directly related to the religious beliefs of the organization. You want cis male pastor? Fine. But the church shouldn't be able to get a civil-rights exemption for the church janitor (who works M-F during the day when the congregation isn't even there). Same argument for a math (or physics or English or even biology) teacher at a religiously-affiliated school.

 

[Kepler]

Interesting. While the "conservative judicial experts" (read: iron age thumpers) were all wailing and committing seppuku over today's LGBT decision, FNC didn't make a peep. You would think they'd be all over making transphobia the bathroom bill of 2020 for their snowflake viewers.

 

[Kepler]

Also: Alito and Gorsuch in a constitutional cripple fight.

Gorsuch’s majority opinion concluded that the Civil Rights Act’s protections against sex discrimination covered workplace discrimination against employees for being gay or transgender. He framed his opinion as a textualist approach to the 1964 law. While acknowledging that the law’s drafters might not have envisioned the law being interpreted this way, Gorsuch said that the “limits of the drafters’ imagination supply no reason to ignore the law’s demands.”

Gorsuch quoted the late Justice Antonin Scalia, whose seat Gorsuch filled, in the opinion to explain why it did not matter that Congress, since the 1964 law, had attempted to pass measures outlawing LGBT discrimination.

Alito took several shots at Gorsuch for daring to invoke Scalia in the opinion.

He said “no one should be fooled” by Gorsuch’s “attempts to pass off” his approach to the one “championed” by Scalia .

Comparing Gorsuch’s opinion to a “a pirate ship,” Alito said it “sails under a textualist flag, but what it actually represents is a theory of statutory interpretation that Justice Scalia excoriated –the theory that courts should ‘update’ old statutes so that they better reflect the current values of society.”

“[N]o one should be taken in by the majority’s effort to enlist Justice Scalia in
its updating project,” Alito wrote.

Alito said it was “preposterous” that the majority was “merely enforcing the terms of the statute.”

“The arrogance of this argument is breathtaking,” Alito said.

His dissent compared the firing of an LGBT employee for being gay or transgender to the firing of an employee because his or her astrological sign.

“Even idiosyncratic criteria are permitted; if an employer thinks that Scorpios make bad employees, the employer can refuse to hire Scorpios,” Alito wrote. “Such a policy would be unfair and foolish, but under Title VII, it is permitted. And until Title VII is amended, so is a policy against employing gays, lesbians, or transgender individuals.”

Like Alito, Kavanaugh accused the majority of playing the role of Congress and the President. He claimed that in “judicially rewriting Title VII, the Court today cashiers an ongoing legislative process, at a time when a new law to prohibit sexual orientation discrimination was probably close at hand.”

He said that Gorsuch’s opinion “rewrites history.”

“Seneca Falls was not Stonewall. The women’s rights movement was not (and is not) the gay rights movement, although many people obviously support or participate in both. So to think that sexual orientation discrimination is just a form of sex discrimination is not just a mistake of language and psychology, but also a mistake of history and sociology,” Kavanaugh said.

Hey, Justice Drunky McRapist: f-ck you.

 

[ScoobyDoo]

So, wait. Gorsuch? Wow.

 

[SJHovey]

So, wait. Gorsuch? Wow.

Almost enough to make you chuckle at all the pearl clutching that's gone on in the SCOTUS thread these past four years, eh?

 

[MissThundercat]

Hey everyone: thanks. People like me have a long way to go, but today matters. I started to cry when I picked up my lunch today.

 

[unofan]

Almost enough to make you chuckle at all the pearl clutching that's gone on in the SCOTUS thread these past four years, eh?

There are still 8 major cases left this term, 3 of which pit religion against otherwise neutral laws and a 4th involves abortion. Let's see how those break before we start calling chicken little, shall we?

 

[Kepler]

Almost enough to make you chuckle at all the pearl clutching that's gone on in the SCOTUS thread these past four years, eh?

Again, this was exactly on point for the Roberts Court. They f-ck us on economics, protect the Nazis on procedure, then buy back credibility with social. It's the Plutes looking after their own.

 

[burd]

Hey everyone: thanks. People like me have a long way to go, but today matters. I started to cry when I picked up my lunch today.

Girls.

 

[ScoobyDoo]

Almost enough to make you chuckle at all the pearl clutching that's gone on in the SCOTUS thread these past four years, eh?

Not really. Bush v. Gore and Citizens United cemented the plutocracy into power for the next 3 generations. So, fuck their willingness to look the other way on a few social issues.

 

[SJHovey]

Again, this was exactly on point for the Roberts Court. They f-ck us on economics, protect the Nazis on procedure, then buy back credibility with social. It's the Plutes looking after their own.

With every Supreme Court it's a mixed bag. The Court is never as extreme as some people claim they are, or some people want.

Also, I'm pretty sure that it was mostly social issues that caused much of the hand-wringing around here. Things like guns, LGBTQ issues, Roe, etc... Granted, they haven't decide the abortion cases yet but I'm certainly willing to bet they won't result in overturning Roe, everyone's fear with Gorsuch and Kavanaugh.

 

[Kepler]

With every Supreme Court it's a mixed bag. The Court is never as extreme as some people claim they are, or some people want.

Also, I'm pretty sure that it was mostly social issues that caused much of the hand-wringing around here. Things like guns, LGBTQ issues, Roe, etc... Granted, they haven't decide the abortion cases yet but I'm certainly willing to bet they won't result in overturning Roe, everyone's fear with Gorsuch and Kavanaugh.

By the numbers, this is the most economically rightwing out-of-step Court in American history, even worse than the Lochner Court. It's the only thing allowing the Plutes and the Heists to continue.

As for social "hand-wringing," I think we all remember the hand-wringing about Germany in the 30s. That sure turned out to be much ado about nothing. But, yes, your lack of concern about attacks on people other than yourself is noted and logged.

You may have not gotten the memo but that incel "I don't care, do you?" garbage doesn't sell outside of Freep and CPAC anymore. Find a different shtick; that look is out along with goose stepping.

 

[ScoobyDoo]

With every Supreme Court it's a mixed bag. The Court is never as extreme as some people claim they are, or some people want.

Also, I'm pretty sure that it was mostly social issues that caused much of the hand-wringing around here. Things like guns, LGBTQ issues, Roe, etc... Granted, they haven't decide the abortion cases yet but I'm certainly willing to bet they won't result in overturning Roe, everyone's fear with Gorsuch and Kavanaugh.

That's just the sideshow. They make everyone nervous and fighting over basic rights like Black Lives Matter and the control over your own body while they steal every dollar that isn't nailed down.

 

[Kepler]

That's just the sideshow. They make everyone nervous and fighting over basic rights like Black Lives Matter and the control over your own body while they steal every dollar that isn't nailed down.

It is used by the GOP to get their dopes in a lather and voting to cut their own throats, yes. But it's not a sideshow for the people who are hurt en passant.

Republican Plutes don't give a sh-t about race or gender. They put policies in place to murder blacks and trans to get their racist and fundamentalist mouthbreather base excited. But that's no consolation to those murdered.

 

[SJHovey]

By the numbers, this is the most economically rightwing out-of-step Court in American history, even worse than the Lochner Court. It's the only thing allowing the Plutes and the Heists to continue.

As for social "hand-wringing," I think we all remember the hand-wringing about Germany in the 30s. That sure turned out to be much ado about nothing. But, yes, your lack of concern about attacks on people other than yourself is noted and logged.

You may have not gotten the memo but that incel "I don't care, do you?" garbage doesn't sell outside of Freep and CPAC anymore. Find a different shtick; that look is out along with goose stepping.

It's ok to admit you're wrong sometimes. I've done it. It doesn't demonstrate weakness. We can all be wrong.

Since the time of Robert Bork, at least, there have been nothing but proclamations from the left about the horrors that will descend upon us if Republican appointee "x" is approved. It never changes. The arguments never change. The sky is falling predictions never change. Jeebus, at least show a little originality.

And what happens? The nominee is approved. That's it.

Do you want me to run down the decisions since then, the issues that have been decided? It's kind of funny, actually, to watch the Federalist Society keep pushing that rock up the hill, thinking "if we just get this one more" they're finally going to get their way. It never happens.

But hey, you guys just keep being you.

 

[ScoobyDoo]

It is used by the GOP to get their dopes in a lather and voting to cut their own throats, yes. But it's not a sideshow for the people who are hurt en passant.

Republican Plutes don't give a sh-t about race or gender. They put policies in place to murder blacks and trans to get their racist and fundamentalist mouthbreather base excited. But that's no consolation to those murdered.

Of course people get hurt. Every dollar stolen hurts a lot of people as well. They don't give a shit either way. Most of it is just classic redirection and damm the collateral damage.

 

[Kepler]

Since the time of Robert Bork, at least, there have been nothing but proclamations from the left about the horrors that will descend upon us if Republican appointee "x" is approved. It never changes. The arguments never change. The sky is falling predictions never change. Jeebus, at least show a little originality.

The dire economic and political damage has been done. The neo-feudal economy and wholesale corporate bribery of our politics is installed. We're living in an America which is significantly less democratic than it was fifty years ago. The fact that it is more tolerant socially does not change that. The threat to create a Handmaid's Tale theme park was the camouflage the Plutes used to get white racists and thumpers to repeal the New Deal.

That happened. We're not warning of a coming dystopia. We already live there.