... and, above all, its stolen seat, we turn to the latest developments in the ongoing saga of How Nepotism Plays Out In Washington, Especially With Mitch McCONnell Greasing The Skids.
It turns out that all is not well among The Nine of Maryland Avenue (or, more precisely, The Eight and the Thief in the Middle of the Night). As it turns out, the Thief in question, Associate Justice Neil Gorsuch (son of the least qualified and please EPA Administrator, up until this Administration) is not getting along well with any of his colleagues. You read that correctly: not any of them. Not the Democratic appointees, which was to be expected. And not the Republican appointees, either, which was not to be expected at all.
In Washington, as is the case pretty much elsewhere, newcomers are expected to be seen, and very rarely heard from. Justice Gorsuch, as it turns out, did not get that memo. And, judging from some of his behavior thus far as a Justice, it is doubtful that he would have heeded the memo's advice even had he read it. Both publicly and privately, he has managed to irritate his colleagues by asking more questions than would be expected from a rookie on the Court, all of them betraying not only contempt for the other Justices and attorneys, but also a depressingly shallow understanding of the law relevant to the cases being heard.
What is perhaps most surprising is that the complaints from Gorsuch's colleagues about his behavior, which would normally stay within the ambit of the Court and its staff, seem to be selectively leaked to the press. Here is one example. Anyone familiar with the way in which the Court operates knows that this is a serious, even historic breach of its own internal protocols, to say nothing of its sense of independence.
It's difficult, if not impossible, to avoid viewing all of this as a perfectly logical outcome of the badly compromised process by which Gorsuch ended up on the Court. Traditionally, even in the cases of the most controversial nominations, the White House and the Senate have done their best to work together to find consensus choices, and the confirmation vote totals reflect that fact. Nothing like that happened when Antonin Scalia died and Barack Obama nominated Merrick Garland to replace him; at that point, Mitch McCONnell and Senate Republicans turned consensus into civil war. It is clear that Gorsuch, already viewed as being little more than his mother's political legacy, understood from the moment he was nominated that he was meant by his supporters not to help reinforce the judicial legacy of the Court, but to tear it down, one decision at a time. As a consequence, he has not attempted to blend in, but to strike out on his own..
And, as a consequence, all of us are losers. Even Gorsuch's supporters. They just haven't figured it out yet.
No comments:
Post a Comment