A State Appellate Court

One in Michigan got one right. The Michigan Court of Appeals has reversed a State Court of Claims decision that would have counted ballots postmarked by Election Day but received up to two weeks later.

The appellate court held that

[D]esigning adjustments to our election integrity laws is the responsibility of our elected policy makers, not the judiciary….

The court also held that

the state constitution requires all votes to be turned in by 8 pm of Election Day to be counted, and could not be changed by a judicial order.
“The Constitution is not suspended or transformed even in times of a pandemic, and judges do not somehow become authorized in a pandemic to rewrite statutes or to displace the decisions made by the policymaking branches of government,” Judge Mark Boonstra in one of the opinions.

Political decisions must be made by the political branches of government and not by the judicial branch.

Imagine that.

Here, for good or ill, the political branches have made their decision: only votes received by the end of Election Day—and not by the end of the day itself—can be counted. Full stop.

Hypocrisy

Progressive-Democrats are accusing Republicans of that as they move to confirm Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court “in a Presidential election year.” Typical of them is this bit by Congressman Gerry Connolly (D, VA):

I’m focused on the hypocrisy of the Republicans who promised, Lindsey Graham [R, SC, and Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman] being number one, his own words, said they wouldn’t do this.

What Connolly is carefully ignoring is that Graham, subsequent to that commitment and in response to the then-Judge Brett Kavanaugh Supreme Court confirmation hearings, said in no uncertain terms, that as a result of Progressive-Democrat (my term) behavior during those hearings, all bets were off.

What Connolly also is carefully ignoring is that his Progressive-Democrat confreres on the Judicial Committee during Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearings utterly refused to engage in a serious confirmation process. Those worthies instead executed a deliberate character assassination campaign in an attempt to destroy the man; their effort against Kavanaugh made Progressive-Democrat treatments of Robert Bork, Clarence Thomas, and Samuel Alito look absolutely gentle.

It’s not Republicans who are being hypocritical in this manufactured kerfuffle.

A Supreme Court Selection

Leslie Marshall thinks Judge Amy Coney Barrett ought not be confirmed—ought not even be considered—as a Supreme Court Justice.

She’s wrong.

Barrett could also cast a key vote on cases involving the upcoming presidential election….

That’s part of the point of getting a ninth Justice quickly confirmed—to avoid the possibility of tie votes on such important decisions.

…she has little in common with Ginsburg.

Nor is she required to have; she’d be her own Justice, just like the other eight each are their own Justice. Contrary to Marshall’s apparent belief, the vacant seat isn’t Ginsburg’s seat, nor is it a liberal’s seat. It’s the people’s seat on We the People’s Supreme Court.

Replacing a white Jewish woman with a white Catholic woman on the Supreme Court does not bring more diversity to the court.

This is wholly irrelevant. The role of Supreme Court Justices—of all judges in the American legal system—is to rule on what our Constitution and the statute before them say, not on what the Justices think those items should say. Diversity for diversity’s sake has no place on a court—especially on a court, where consistency in the application of law is a Critical Item.

Senate Republicans now suddenly have no problem with the idea of a rushed confirmation of a justice….

What rush? Prompt isn’t the same as rushed. And unprecedented, as she also suggested? This is plain nonsense. The precedent is the Constitution with its stated obligation for the President to nominate to fill a vacancy and for the Senate to advise and consent or withhold consent. Full stop.

A big fear is that she will vote to overturn Roe v Wade….

What Marshall is carefully ignoring in her worry that Barrett adheres too closely with Scalia is the latter’s respect for and adherence to precedent and his belief that once a precedent has been accepted by the people, it’s a legitimate law whatever anyone might think of that precedent.

Barrett is unlikely to overrule Roe unless there’s clear reason.

Her rulings as a judge have been very pro-gun rights and she has made decisions unfavorable to undocumented immigrants nearly 100% of the time.

A judge and a potential Justice obeying her oath of office to uphold and defend the Constitution and ruling on the basis of what the text of our Constitution and the text of a statute actually say instead of what she might wish either to say—imagine that.

Threaten the rights of millions of Americans? On the contrary: a Justice who applies our Constitution and the statute before her as they are written would preserve the rights of all Americans, the rights acknowledged in our founding principles statement as being endowed in all men by our Creator and as laid out in our blueprint that tightly circumscribes our government in order to keep the men–of any generation–who populate that government from altering them, weakening them, eroding them into oblivion.

Marshall’s piece is just another hysteria-mongering article of nonsense.

Irrationality

Senate Progressive-Democrats are growing increasingly hysterical over the thought of President Donald Trump nominating someone—anyone—to fill the empty seat on the Supreme Court and the majority Republican Senate confirming the nominee (never minding that confirmation is far from a done deal). It’s especially overt with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D, NY):

All the rights enshrined in our Constitution that are supposed to be protected by the Supreme Court of the United States. All the rights that could be undone or unwound by a conservative majority on the court.

Never mind that preserving and strengthening these rights are the explicit goals of those 18th Century Liberals who wrote and ratified our Constitution and of today’s Conservatives and conservative Republicans. Never mind that it’s the liberal, living Constitution bloc on the Court and Progressive-Democrats generally who demand to be able to alter that conservative document or to disregard it altogether.

Schumer went on.

By every modicum of decency and honor, Leader McConnell and the Republican majority have no right to fill [the empty seat].

Of course. Because there is no modicum of decency and honor in satisfying a Constitution-originated obligation to fill a Supreme Court seat—or any other vacancy—promptly so the Court—or any other agency—can function at maximum efficiency.

All Schumer—all the Progressive-Democratic Party—have to offer is this sort of wholly illogical, irrational “argument.”

Be very wary of the Supreme Court Progressive-Democratic Party Presidential candidate Joe Biden would construct were he elected and Progressive-Democrats seize the Senate.

Court Packing

Senator Debbie Stabenow (D, MI) was asked, on a conference call involving conference call Wednesday with Senators Tammy Baldwin (D, WI), Sheldon Whitehouse (D, RI), and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D, NY)

if they support “stacking the court” in response to the GOP proceeding with the nomination to fill the vacancy.
“I would say we want to take it one step at a time,” Stabenow replied. “We’re focused on what we need to do right now to be able to get [] four Republicans to join us.

That’s a pretty clear indication that Stabenow considers packing the Supreme Court to be a viable step. She and her cohorts’ first step will be to give uppity Republicans a chance to fall in line “voluntarily.”