A Setback in the Court, and Some Hope

A ruling for the rule of law

This has been a tough and chaotic week, no doubt. A Supreme Court ruling yesterday will have a major implications on an important tool of pushing back against Trump, the federal courts.

Just as I am not a military analyst or expert, I am also not a legal expert, but I wanted to give the gist of what has happened, and what it could mean.

Our Legislative Branch

First off, the third branch, our legislative branch, e.g. Congress, is officially hopeless, as is. The Republicans have been rendered spineless eunuchs, and we cannot expect them in any scenario to do the right thing.

We were reminded of such yesterday, when the Senate at long last voted on Sen. Tim Kaine’s measure invoking the 1973 War Powers Resolution, and it failed mostly along party lines, 53-47, with Sen. Rand Paul voting with Democrats, and Sen. John Fetterman voting with Republicans. If you can’t even get Congress to put a check on our wannabe dictator after he ordered an attack without them, it seems pretty hopeless that they will do anything to get in his way.

I want to note here that midterms are not that far away, and they will be essential in putting a check on power. We’ll have our first test of the mood of the country in a few months, when certain states will hold important off year elections, including governor races in Virginia and New Jersey. It is imperative, no matter how down we may feel on a given day, that we prepare to mobilize for these races and into next year. Control of Congress would have a major impact!

Supreme Court Ruling

Now to the Supreme Court. And before we get to the ruling itself, which went 6-3 and on the face of it seemed remarkable, I just want to ask out loud what many of us may have been thinking: did the intimidation work? The majority opinion was written by Justice Amy Coney Barrett, who has been in the crosshairs of Trump and his supporters. As we have covered in this project, even her family members have been threatened, and Trump has not held back in his public castigation of her (and the others). We will never know most likely, but this ruling does seem extreme.