Why did so many DUers consider

[malaise]

Anthony Kennedy an ally?

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bush_v._Gore

[Exotica]

1. Maybe because swung left at times? He certainly was not a staunch ally.

Last edited Thu Jun 28, 2018, 08:53 AM - Edit history (1)

The new RW justice is going to be a monster. Same probably for the replacements of RBG and Breyer, if the shitgibbon is re-elected. He may even get to replace Sotomayor, as her diabetes is getting worse.

[olegramps]

52. The pretense of objective constitutional determination can now be disregared. The sham is over.

The ideologues will totally control the court and in actuality the entire nation. Any law that the progressives pass either on a state or federal venue will be challenged in the lower courts and if not voided will be appealed to the Supreme Court where the decision will be preordained. The extreme right's dream of a virtual theocracy is actually a possibility. If there is the retirement or death of a one of the progressives in the near future the hope of getting a progressive will be difficult. Especially if the Democrats fail to capture control of the legislative branch. We don't have to catalogue the what will happen in regard to individual rights, etc. they will be history until there is a massive upheaval of demand for progressive legislation.

[FBaggins]

2. That will be clear enough shortly

Wait until you see who replaces him

[malaise]

3. He helped to steal the Presidency for Bush

What could be worse?

[FBaggins]

18. Voting against us 100% of the time

Is worse than voting against us 75% of the time.

Not sure why that isn’t clear.

[PDittie]

39. "lesser evil"

Still evil. Not sure why that isn't clear.

[world wide wally]

42. But less evil than the greater evil

[FBaggins]

44. Have you noticed that people are more than a little upset?

Lesser evil is obviously preferable

[PDittie]

46. "Obviously"?

In a binary world, perhaps.

[FBaggins]

55. Ironic that you have that exactly backwards

The "binary world" is the one in which a judge is either with us 100% of the time or he might as well be against us as much as any other nominee.

The more nuanced view is that Kennedy and Ginsburg/Sotomayor only disagreed on the judgment about 1/3rd of the time. That's preferable to what we'll get out of Trump's list.

[joshdawg]

20. Another Gosuck?..............er, gorsuch

[FM123]

4. maybe he was trumpy's ally....

(article from Politico last year)
https://www.politico.com/story/2017/04/donald-trump-supreme-court-236925

[malaise]

5. Maybe?

[FM123]

7. sorry, typo - I meant "maybe"

[malaise]

8. No problem with maybe but a big problem

with any doubt.

[olegramps]

54. It is a cabal with deep tentacles into every aspect of society. His retirement was well planned.

We are little more than disposable pawns in the game that is totally rigged. The all too brief Fair Deal and New Deals are all but forgotten and we have returned to the "sane reality" of the robber barons and the massive transfer of wealth to the ultra-wealthy who can rule with complete impunity.

[Spider Jerusalem]

6. Deciding vote on upholding Roe v Wade, on Obergfell v Hodges, etc

not an ally, but a swing vote. Kennedy gets replaced with a vat-grown Scalia clone, and civil rights, reproductive rights, and LGBT rights get rolled back, the Affordable Care Act is probably gone along with a lot of other things.

[malaise]

9. Yes that one was important

Always love your input.

[47of74]

21. I think the ADA and EEOC will be gone too.

Some company will probably complain that they violate their rights to accommodate disabled people. Hell they’ll probably say allowing disabled people to continue to exist violates their rights. And the SC will go along with them.

[get the red out]

27. The religious right

Could easily get bored terrorizing Hispanic people and start persecuting disabled people if the Rs need it done. We know Jesus hated the disabled, at least Franklin Graham will say that if he's told it needs to be said.

[get the red out]

26. This

He's not Gorsuch, or any other monster Trump would appoint.

[Blue_Adept]

10. A sometimes ally is better than a never-times ally

And you've been around here long enough to understand that.

[heaven05]

14. yeah, yeah, yeah

and watch what our "sometime ally" is going to let trump sock to us now. Our vote and agitation must keep vulnerable November vote repuliKKKans and Democrats on notice. These options are the only power we have NOW. The poster has it right. WHY???!!!!!!!

[mythology]

17. Ally might be the wrong word

He sometimes decided in the way we would like. But we shouldn't necessarily think of any Supreme Court justice as an ally. They aren't supposed to be influenced by political considerations.

[PDittie]

40. "Lesser evil"

Still evil. Not sure if you been around here long enough to understand that, haven't looked at your profile to see how long you've been here.

[Blue_Adept]

41. I've been here since DU was founded.

[PDittie]

45. Congratulations!

Your profile (now that I've checked) says "member since 2008", and since I've been here since 2002, you must have been lurking or posting under another profile for several years prior.

Either way, as you say, long enough.

[Blue_Adept]

47. I was "away" at the time that DU transitioned between servers

so I didn't reclaim the prior account (using the same name though).

I had connected with DU through AFP back in the day and some others that I can barely remember the names of anymore back when the admin team here was modifying the original DC Forum software that I was using on my site at the time. So I got to know them through the support site and spent a lot of time here, including during the 9/11 attack.

Heady days. Crazy days. The place was a real solace amid all of that.

[PDittie]

48. It was grand then

A real refuge. Many of us in Texas thought we were all alone. It was a good feeling to be able to come here and find out that we weren't.

[Blue_Adept]

50. No kidding. The kind of refuge that you couldn't find anywhere else

It's why I've stuck it out over the years, with a few breaks here and there. It's been the best way to get the pulse on things.

[heaven05]

11. exactly

because many have told us to leave s. sanders alone and mean it?

[malaise]

12. The truth is that ReTHUGs would never have accepted

that SC decision on Bush v Gore and Al Gore & Dems displayed way too much 'civility'.

[heaven05]

16. got that right

and way too many democrats are calling for civility as the torch bearing nazis are parading in the streets, metaphorically speaking. But not metaphorical for long. They are sharpening weapons for their "night of the long knives", guaranteed. Get ready to RESIST, again.

[malaise]

51. You nailed it

Demos should have gone ballistic after the first 'lock her ' up' chant.
He would haver officially been called Don the Con if I were Hillary Clinton. Every Dem Senator and Congressperson should have been on the attack just like Maxine.

[Squinch]

13. On at least two monumentally important decisions, he went left.

My cousin is married and many women are not raising unwanted children because of him.

It should be clear to us by now that "alliances" are relative. Some allies are constant. Some occasional. Some are rare but they come through at times when we need them. Kennedy was the last kind.

We now will get someone who will overturn those two pieces of law. Women and the lgbt community, at least, will soon be painfully reminded of the value of the "seldom ally."

[mountain grammy]

33. Not so much "went left"

I prefer to think he twice actually applied the Constitution.

[Squinch]

34. Well, however we term it, the next guy will only hand down decisions

that put the foot on all our necks.

[mountain grammy]

49. I completely agree.

but I think it's important that using the Constitution to make judicial decision shouldn't be considered left, just like truth shouldn't be considered liberal. I'm getting to be a real pain in the ass about that.

[Vinca]

15. He wasn't so much an ally as a wild card who wouldn't automatically vote with conservatives.

I suppose there is a slight, slight chance whoever is installed - and, sadly, no matter what Dems do a judge will be installed - might turn out to be like David Souter or even another Kennedy. That's pretty much the only hope we've got . . . IMO. Elections have consequences and we're about to get a severe lesson in that.

[imanamerican63]

19. To tell you the truth, they are all supposed to follow the law and how they interpreted the law.

Which we all know that in not the case with that idea of the right!

[Orsino]

22. Were there many who did?

Sure, the term may have been tossed around carelessly when comparing Kennedy to a Scalia, but I wasn't aware tht the term was seriously applied.

[Bettie]

23. Not an ally

but not quite as awful as the others.

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

24. I personally considered him a scumbag. But I also didn't want a 25 year old

dropout fascist Breitbart intern as his replacement. Yeah I exaggerate. But not by much.

[NCTraveler]

25. +1

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100210799604

[irisblue]

28. The 14th Amendment & LGBT Rights & Roe v. Wade

NYT 6/2017
"...Justice Kennedy wrote the majority opinions in all four of the court’s landmark gay rights rulings, culminating in the 2015 decision establishing a constitutional right to same-sex marriage. ..."
Psmag.com. "... This is not to say that Kennedy affects all American lives equally. His vote is especially critical to certain groups, and on specific issues. Kennedy wrote all three of the Supreme Court’s landmark gay rights cases, creating gay rights jurisprudence as we know it. The problem is, this body of law is barely formed, and far from finished. These cases merely established that the right to liberty guaranteed by the Due Process Clause protects lesbians’ and gays’ rights to intimacy and marriage...."


The LGBT Rights laws affected society at a down to the block level, no longer could people say they didn't know any lesbians or gay men, they saw us getting married in 2015


Kennedy, knowing he was leaving, tried to create a precedent in the Masterpiece Cakeshop, but he left his legacy in the hands of trump and the Heritage Foundation. Those conservative groups will be glad to limit & damage LGBTQ rights.


He used the 14th Amendment, from Wiki..." The Fourteenth Amendment, particularly its first section, is one of the most litigated parts of the Constitution, forming the basis for landmark decisions such as Brown v. Board of Education (1954) regarding racial segregation, Roe v. Wade (1973) regarding abortion, Bush v. Gore (2000) regarding the 2000 presidential election, and Obergefell v. Hodges (2015) regarding same-sex marriage. The amendment limits the actions of all state and local officials, including those acting on behalf of such an official."


The right & conservatives have hated this since it's adoption in
the United States Constitution in July 9, 1868, as one of the Reconstruction Amendments.

[mountain grammy]

29. the occasional swing..

but I think very few considered him an ally. He turned on a dime.

Personally, I wish him a miserable and unhealthy retirement.

[Lee-Lee]

30. Here is the thing

Was he a dependable ally? No.

Did he come through for us some times when it really mattered?

Yes.

Kind of like that one friend who isn’t really dependable to show up and help you, but has been there and saved your ass a few times when it was close.

But it is not that we are losing an ally so much as it is we are losing the chance at that changing that seat. That seat is going to go from a wildcard that sometimes did the right thing to another Gorsuch, and it will be that way for 2-4 DECADES.

That’s the tragedy here. Not the loss of a wushu washy Justice, but the loss of any chance to make it better and instead it’s going to be worse for a long time.

[Raster]

38. Basically we have the big money GOP "donors" --though I think OWNERS...

...is a more accurate term-- that have spent a fortune to make sure the SCOTUS adheres to THEIR VALUES, THEIR BELIEFS, THEIR MORALS, and NOT the values, beliefs, and morals of a large majority of Americans. Most Americans, and even many here on DU don't realize that the Koch Brothers are the sons of one of the founders of the John Birch Society, the uber-conservative organization that is deeply committed to changing the political mindset of the government and judiciary to more resemble their beliefs.

That said, Kennedy would come through occasionally. And no, I would NOT classify him as an ally.

We should have expected this, as this was in the cards for a long, long time.

We have now seen this SCOTUS basically rubberstamp tRump*s discrimination based on religion. We are witnessing the gutting of unions in the federal government.

Roe v. Wade, the right of a woman to control her own body and her reproductive freedom is now in deep jeopardy. Don't think it can't happen... it is already underway.

"That’s the tragedy here. Not the loss of a wushu washy Justice, but the loss of any chance to make it better and instead it’s going to be worse for a long time."

[braddy]

31. gay rights

[sellitman]

32. Because life is complicated

It's not Black & White.

It might be soon enough though.

[Honeycombe8]

35. I don't think he was considered an ally. It was that he was more sane than the wacko Scalia...

Alito, and Thomas.

He gave the deciding vote in some cases, where he didn't decide how the far right would want him to.

[louis c]

36. Least of the many evils

He came down in favor of affirmative action, gay marriage and abortion rights.

We are about to get a guy (or gal) who will overturn all three of those cases.

He was no ally. He fucked a lot in many cases, but he wasn't 100%, like the other 3 justices. Roberts is now the swing vote because he found in favor of Obama Care, so he is almost 100% fucked up, but not quite there.

[IronLionZion]

37. We're not going to get a moderate from any Republican administration ever again

They will of course always look for the most extreme rw loyal extremist they can find. A right wing court is going to make life difficult for all of us for the foreseeable future since they have lifetime appointments. Trump has already packed the federal courts with young right wing extremists. They blocked most of Obama's nominees over the last years of his presidency.

Obama nominated Merrick Garland who is somewhat more moderate than many of the other liberal choices available, and GOP still obstructed him knowing fully well that they were going to steal the election from Hillary and appoint a RW extremist.

[NewJeffCT]

43. Never considered him an ally

but, he did cast the deciding vote on a few social issues, so he gets my thanks for that.

However, he was also the deciding vote in Bush v Gore which accelerated the decline of America.

[Fresh_Start]

53. not an ally so much as not as bad as Gorsuch nt

nt