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PaperclipPerfector  2d ago (text post)   8489 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of October 14, 2024

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not unlike the trajectory of some Republican-appointed Supreme Court justices

Let's talk about this.

Thomas and Alito don't seem to be on a leftward trajectory. Roberts, of course, seems to love being the middle, or the counterbalance to the right. Kavanaugh seems cut from the same mold, thus far. Barrett I expect to swing leftward on everything and anything not abortion, and in particular I expect her to undermine any anti-immigration or tough-on-crime policies that come before the court, especially given the makeup of her family.

And then there's Gorsuch. Neil "We will abide by the treaties" Gorsuch. Neil "Butt-for Bostock" Gorsuch. Is he shifting to the left as he moves from Colorado to DC? Or is he simply ornery and stubborn in his own interpretation of the laws? To me, it comes down to his rulings on gun rights. There's no way you can read the Civil Rights Act as guaranteeing protections for transsexuals, but not read "Shall not be infringed" as forbidding pretty much every gun law in the land.

Of course, none of them have tried to take an axe to the FISA courts or curtail the massive surveillance state on third or fourth amendment grounds, so I'm not actually hopeful that I'll see a constitutionalist on the court in my lifetime.

Speaking as a left-leaning social democrat who dislikes all the Republican judges for obvious reaosns, Gorsuch is the only one who actually seemingly has an identifiable philosophy ala Scalia (except actually better) that I can at least respect, even though I think it's personally terrible. Maybe Thomas did 20 years ago, but he's fallen into a FOX News brained duo alongside Alito for basically the entirety of the Trump era.

Man, I've been a Thomas fan since Law School, and I think what we're seeing now is a guy who has almost all the same convictions he did 30 years ago, but he's finally gotten to implement them rather than just writing terse and pithy dissents.

There HAS been an uptick in reporters and other platforms attempting to make Alito and Thomas' conduct off the bench out to seem somehow abberrant and worthy of removal, though.

Gorsuch hates the administrative state. There he is quite strident.

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