One sentence from 1896 has been doing the work of two opposing constitutional doctrines for 130 years. Five days ago, the Supreme Court chose which doctrine wins.
Jerry, It was an amazing reversal by SCOTUS using Pretzel Logic to overturn 100+ years of precedents set to overcome our original sin. Anyone who lives/ed in the South and a few other states, knows that it still bad there for black and brown populations, with flaunting of the Confederate flag, hidden and overt racism continuing today under the context of "southern pride" or "southern heritage". Thanks for helping us understand what , how and why it happened now. Since most of these SCOTUS judges answered questions about not overturning precedents in their confirmation hearings, now that they are doing so, can this lead to their impeachment? There are suits starting to ask this question. If so, a very difficult if at best, would the decsions of SCOTUS on these issues (including Citizens United, the root of most of this evil) thus be overturned or vacated?
Eric, thank you for this. Your point about "southern pride" and "southern heritage" is sharp. Those phrases are doing the same magnet-word work as "color-blind." That deserves its own WDYM essay.
On impeachment, the straight answer is harder than the question suggests.
One Supreme Court justice has been impeached in U.S. history. Samuel Chase, 1804. He was acquitted by the Senate in 1805 and served until his death. No justice has ever been removed. The Senate threshold is 67 votes, which makes the math impossible regardless of the legal theory.
The harder fact: even if a justice were removed, the rulings would stand. Impeachment removes the person, not the opinions. Citizens United, Shelby County, Dobbs, SFFA, Callais. All of those would remain binding precedent unless a future Court overturned them or Congress and the states ratified a constitutional amendment.
The remedies that have historically worked are slower. Court expansion threats (FDR). Constitutional amendments (the Eleventh, Sixteenth, and Twenty-Sixth all overrode specific Supreme Court decisions). Statutory response (Ledbetter Fair Pay Act). And the long game of building the political coalitions that produce a different Court over a generation.
The Brown court that overturned Plessy was the same institution that decided Plessy. It just took fifty-eight years and a different set of nine people.
Thank you for reading carefully and pushing the question.
Jerry, It was an amazing reversal by SCOTUS using Pretzel Logic to overturn 100+ years of precedents set to overcome our original sin. Anyone who lives/ed in the South and a few other states, knows that it still bad there for black and brown populations, with flaunting of the Confederate flag, hidden and overt racism continuing today under the context of "southern pride" or "southern heritage". Thanks for helping us understand what , how and why it happened now. Since most of these SCOTUS judges answered questions about not overturning precedents in their confirmation hearings, now that they are doing so, can this lead to their impeachment? There are suits starting to ask this question. If so, a very difficult if at best, would the decsions of SCOTUS on these issues (including Citizens United, the root of most of this evil) thus be overturned or vacated?
Eric, thank you for this. Your point about "southern pride" and "southern heritage" is sharp. Those phrases are doing the same magnet-word work as "color-blind." That deserves its own WDYM essay.
On impeachment, the straight answer is harder than the question suggests.
One Supreme Court justice has been impeached in U.S. history. Samuel Chase, 1804. He was acquitted by the Senate in 1805 and served until his death. No justice has ever been removed. The Senate threshold is 67 votes, which makes the math impossible regardless of the legal theory.
The harder fact: even if a justice were removed, the rulings would stand. Impeachment removes the person, not the opinions. Citizens United, Shelby County, Dobbs, SFFA, Callais. All of those would remain binding precedent unless a future Court overturned them or Congress and the states ratified a constitutional amendment.
The remedies that have historically worked are slower. Court expansion threats (FDR). Constitutional amendments (the Eleventh, Sixteenth, and Twenty-Sixth all overrode specific Supreme Court decisions). Statutory response (Ledbetter Fair Pay Act). And the long game of building the political coalitions that produce a different Court over a generation.
The Brown court that overturned Plessy was the same institution that decided Plessy. It just took fifty-eight years and a different set of nine people.
Thank you for reading carefully and pushing the question.
— Jerry