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posted by on Wednesday March 22 2017, @10:41AM   Printer-friendly
from the supreme-court-positions-are-different dept.

Submitted via IRC for Runaway1956

More than a decade ago, many Democrats still in office now went along with Gorsuch as he was unanimously confirmed to the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in July 2006. Things are different today, ahead of his hearing for the highest court in the land.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., expressed deep doubts during a press conference last Wednesday about the nominee and asserted Gorsuch "may act like a neutral, calm judge," but "his record and his career clearly show he harbors a right wing, pro-corporate, special interest agenda."

[...] Vermont Sen. Patrick Leahy said he would demand "real answers" to questions he has about Gorsuch's judicial philosophy.

"I hope next week, when the president's Supreme Court nominee will appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee, he provides transparent, truthful answers to Senators' questions," Leahy said in a statement. "I will insist on real answers from Judge Neil Gorsuch, because there are real concerns about his record and his judicial philosophy."

Source: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/03/20/gorsuch-won-broad-dem-support-in-2006-now-things-are-different.html


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  • (Score: 2) by meustrus on Thursday March 23 2017, @02:48PM

    by meustrus (4961) on Thursday March 23 2017, @02:48PM (#483225)

    What is protecting us right now are the constitutional separations of powers put in place for this exact situation. The executive, legislative, and judicial branches are all supposed to have different, non-overlapping functions. The branches of the military are all meant to remain separate and unintegrated. This prevents any one group in the government from consolidating power.

    But these separations have never been tested by a real fascist demagogue like we have now. As a result, generations of presidents, generals, and other government officials have slowly eroded those separations, consolidating power against the intent of the constitution to solve intransigent problems. As a result we have the Patriot Act, the FISA court, wildly outsized expectations of the authority of executive orders, an ideological court system, several overlapping intelligence agencies with authority to secretly spy on American citizens, and a National Security Council to bring the whole of the military and intelligence apparatus under a single cohesive vision.

    Yeah, it's not quite at the level of a dictatorship. But we are just moments away. All that is standing in the way are the constitutional separations that have been eroded over time. Will they hold? And if they don't, do you really believe that anybody can stop Trump?

    It is now up to the Republican majorities in both houses of Congress to maintain those separations against a Republican president. Majorities which have consistently shown to be more interested in brokering power for themselves than the wellbeing of the country (they are politicians after all). The only hope I have is that the inevitable can be stalled long enough to create a divided government again in 2018.

    But that's not up me and it's not up to you. It's up to a bunch of sociopaths in Congress who are unlikely to be held accountable by their gerrymandered districts of authoritarian sheep. And when it comes down to it, I fear they would rather join the Nazi party than become outsiders to its ascent.

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