12 Comments
founding

Brilliant! Particularly your pivot - here is the reality, as frustrating as it may be, and here is where we put our energy to maintain our democracy. Thank you.

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May 30Liked by Charlotte Clymer

Any chance of expanding the court?

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author

Yes, but we'd need a filibuster carveout (50 Dem Senators + VP) and a Dem House and a Dem President to make it happen. I'm not wholly convinced we'll have 50 willing Dem senators for the forseeable future. There are a few likely holdouts. But there is a chance!

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founding

I know many, many wise people who support the expansion movement. I may be missing something, it seems to me it just kicks the. An down the road. We must restore respect and allegiance to the structures defined by our radically imperfect Constitition and restore adherence to the powers of each branch. This will not fix all the damage that has been done but it will head us down the right road.

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If former President Trump is reelected, the Federalist Society will likely require that T and A retire. Then it will choose two young Justices of the boofer ilk to sit on the bench for many more decades. That is if our new Supreme Leader bothers to maintain a court.

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Charlotte, I am regularly in awe of your writing and thoughts. And I don’t say this easily! Here, you laid out the reality of the situation, and what we are up against. I appreciate that. I used to think the Supreme Court was the most esteemed and honorable body in our country. Ha! Silly me. What a disaster it has become. Thanks again, Charlotte.

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“Please, raise your hand if you think the Senate would convict Mr. Alito short of him murdering someone and bragging about it on national television.“

Even *that* wouldn’t do it unless R’s held both the POTUS and the Senate in order to be able to determine his replacement.

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I agree. We all need to Vote Biden to save our country's democracy. Because Alito and Thomas won't be removed nor step aside via recusal. But a girl can dream, can't she? :-)

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I love the way you think! Keep up the pep talks

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Thank you for your explanation! Love your newsletter I always learn something

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". . . the unyielding authority of mortality’s sweet embrace." Love the delicately euphemistic wording! Also appreciate the explanation of what potential remedies the Constitution offers, however implausible they'd be in these times.

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Thanks for the blast of rationality. It's hard to see institutions that we thought were stable and accountable turn out to be so only because the participants wanted it to be. Once they didn't, all those rules and laws showed themselves to be mere suggestions.

I feel the same way about Merrick Garland. No matter what a person thinks about his fitness for the office (he thinks like a judge, not a prosecutor, so AG's a bad fit), all the anger directed at him for things he cannot do takes a toll - "why bother to vote if they won't do anything!" Like most things in a democracy, it's more complicated and nuanced than that.

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