SCOTUS – R&R – Reachout and Rebuild

Something you can do for RBG

David Posnett — Mon, 21 Sep 2020 12:04:47 +0000

From Randall Parsons/Judith Hope:

If you feel the need to do something… or something more than you’ve been doing, here’s a way to honor RBG and help stop McConnell from pushing through another ultra conservative Supreme Court nominee.

Leave voicemails for the six Senators below. Murkowski and Collins have said they’ll oppose the vote, but it’s a good idea to call and support (and thereby reinforce) their decision. To make it easier for you, here’s a script for the other four (and we only need two of them):

“My name is________________. I know you know that Mitch McConnell is hypocritically ignoring the principle he set up in 2016 by trying to confirm a Supreme Court justice less than 7 weeks before the Presidential election. To preserve the legitimacy of the Court in the eyes of all Americans, I’m asking you to refuse to do that until after a new president is sworn in.”

Obviously, change the script in any way you want.

If you call today or tonight, you won’t have to talk to a live person. You can email if you prefer, but you’d have to leave your address, phone number, etc.

Mitt Romney, Utah: ‎(202) 224-5251
Martha McSally, Arizona: (202) 224-2235
Cory Gardner, Colorado: (202) 224-5941
Chuck Grassley, Iowa: (202) 224-3744
Susan Collins, Maine: (207) 784-6969

Lisa Murkowski, Alaska: (202) 224-6665

Those were the names that were sent to me, but I thought it would be worth it to contact the three Republican incumbents, who are retiring and have nothing to lose by opposing McConnell. I appealed to their sense of fairness:

Lamar Alexander, Tennessee: (202) 224-4944
Mike Enzi, Wyoming: (202) 224-3424
Pat Roberts, Kansas: (202) 224-4774

It seems that we the people are the only ones who can prevent this travesty. A lot of noise has worked before.

Open Letter to the United States Senate from Law Professors Around the Country

David Posnett — Wed, 03 Oct 2018 19:07:44 +0000

Open Letter to U.S. Senate

https://www.scribd.com/document/389986161/Signed-Law-Prof-Kavanaugh-Letter-to-Senate-Oct-1-2018-5-00pm

Judicial temperament is one of the most important qualities of a judge. As the Congressional Research Service explains, to be a judge requires that an individual have

“a personality that is evenhanded, unbiased, impartial, courteous yet firm, and dedicated to a process, not a result.” (1) The concern for judicial temperament dates back to our founding; in Federalist Paper 78, entitled “Judges as Guardians of the Constitution,” Alexander Hamilton expressed the need for “the integrity and moderation of the judiciary.”

We are law professors who teach, research, and write about the judicial institutions of this country. Many of us appear in state and federal court, and our work means that we will continue to do so, including before the United States Supreme Court. We regret that we feel compelled to write to you to provide our views that at the Senate hearings on Thursday, September 27, 2018, the Honorable Brett Kavanaugh displayed a lack of judicial temperament that would be disqualifying for any court, and certainly for elevation to the highest court of this land.

The question at issue was of course painful for anyone. But Judge Kavanaugh exhibited a lack of commitment to judicious inquiry. Instead of being open to the necessary search for accuracy, Judge Kavanaugh was repeatedly aggressive with questioners. Even in his prepared remarks, Judge Kavanaugh located the hearing as a partisan question, referring to it as “a calculated and orchestrated political hit,” rather than acknowledging the need for the Senate, faced with new information, to try to understand what had transpired. Instead of trying to sort out with reason and care the allegations that were raised, Judge Kavanaugh responded in an intemperate, inflammatory, and partial manner, as he interrupted and, at times, was discourteous to questioners.

As you know, under two statutes governing bias and recusal, judges must step aside if they are at risk of being perceived as or of being unfair. See 28 U.S.C. §§ 144, 455. As this Congress has put it, a judge or justice “shall disqualify himself in any proceeding in which his impartiality might reasonably be questioned.” 28 USC § 455.

These statutes are part of a myriad of legal commitments to the impartiality of the judiciary, which is the cornerstone of the courts.

We have differing views about the other qualifications of Judge Kavanaugh. But we are united, as professors of law and scholars of judicial institutions, in believing that Judge Kavanaugh did not display the impartiality and judicial temperament requisite to sit on the highest court of our land.

Signed, with institutional affiliation listed for identification purposes only,

523 Professors, 90 Schools, [and counting]

Note: We invite law professors to sign this open letter to the United States Senate. We will deliver the letter to the Senate on Thursday, October 4, 2018, at 12:00 noon EST. If you are a law professor and interested in signing this letter, please follow the instructions on the Google Document that is available here:

directions to sign letter

Also covered by the NYTimes here: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/10/03/opinion/kavanaugh-law-professors-letter.html

Reaction Against Kavenaugh

David Posnett — Mon, 24 Sep 2018 18:16:33 +0000

By Mara Gerstein:

I was 16 when Anita Hill testified before congress. I watched and was devastated — for reasons I understood and some I couldn’t yet articulate. I can now. It was the first time I realized that women’s lives are worth less then men’s. Ouch.

Even by 16, I had been masturbated in front of in public twice. I had been told that I must give good blow jobs, as I walked down Park Avenue in my Laura Ashley dress, wearing lip gloss and 1/2 inch heels for the first time, on my way to so-and-so’s Bar Mitzvah. I had been hit on (hard) by my high school drafting teacher. (thankfully nothing as terrible as what Blasey-Ford endured)

But these things change your life forever. Your sense of self, your understanding of your own value, your comfort in intimate relationships.

What these assholes tell us every time they excuse sexual abuse is that we shouldn’t negatively impact a man’s life just because he has negatively impacted a woman’s.

Blasey-Ford’s testimony, starting Wednesday or Thursday of this week, will lay this truth very bare. That a single boyhood indiscretion changes a woman’s life forever. That Kavanaugh’s attack almost ruined Blasey-Ford’s life, and that it deeply shaped her life choices. How she spent her college years (hiding with a girlfriend in a dorm room), the subject of her life’s work (trauma and its relationship to depression and anxiety), where she chose to live (as far way from the attack as possible)…

I urge everyone to watch the Senate hearings this week and to make your voice heard in whatever way you can on this issue. March, call, tweet, and talk to everyone you know about it. VOTE. Get everyone you know to vote.

In the end, as with everything these days, it is up to the people of this country to say that they will not stand for women’s lives being worth less then men’s anymore. That it’s time to #kickthebumsout, and get real about equality. It’s time. #timesup #metoo #Ibelieveanitahill #IbelieveBlaseyFord

#StopKavanaugh

David Posnett — Mon, 27 Aug 2018 17:41:27 +0000

Sunday Aug. 26th there were rallies across the country including 2 in NY City:

https://www.facebook.com/search/top/?q=kavanaugh%20protests%20new%20york

Cory Booker summarizes this mess eloquently:

Donald Trump’s personal lawyer has sworn under oath that Trump directed him to commit federal crimes.¹

The Judiciary Committee should stop the Supreme Court hearings that are scheduled for early September and deal with the urgent matter of a president being credibly implicated in a criminal conspiracy.

The Senate must reject any Supreme Court nominee from an alleged criminal co-conspirator—especially when that nominee may rule to protect Trump from any accountability.

Let’s look at the facts. Several of the people closest to Donald Trump, including his former personal lawyer (Michael Cohen), former campaign chairman (Paul Manafort), former national security adviser (Michael Flynn), and others, have either been convicted of or have pleaded guilty to a range of federal offenses—including campaign finance violations allegedly at the direction of candidate Trump.²

Meanwhile, Brett Kavanaugh, Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, has argued that a sitting president cannot be criminally indicted or even a subject of a criminal investigation while in office. The consequences of his confirmation could be enormous: Kavanaugh could become Trump’s shield against accountability.³

We must let Special Counsel Robert Mueller complete his investigation before proceeding with any Supreme Court confirmation hearings.

No American citizen under criminal investigation is able to choose their own judge. The president shouldn’t be an exception.

Thank you. Senator Cory Booker

Sources:

1. “Cohen attorney: If these hush payments are crimes, Trump is guilty,” Politico, August 21, 2018
https://act.moveon.org/go/48600?t=5&akid=214985%2E17413353%2EzHwnWK

2. “Cohen, Manafort and more: Trump associates and others accused or convicted of crimes,” USA Today, August 22, 2018
https://act.moveon.org/go/48601?t=7&akid=214985%2E17413353%2EzHwnWK

3. “Kavanaugh in memo argued against indicting sitting president,” The Associated Press, August 10, 2018
https://act.moveon.org/go/48660?t=9&akid=214985%2E17413353%2EzHwnWK

Sign this petition if you agree

BTW, in case you are wondering, Lee Zeldin supports the Kavanaugh nomination.

Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-Shirley): “ I strongly believe that regardless of whether a judicial court nominee is chosen by a Republican president or a Democrat president, or whether the nominee is conservative, moderate, or liberal in his or her beliefs, it is most important that the individual would not be an activist on the bench or allow their personal beliefs to overcome the required objectivity to strictly interpret the law and our Constitution.”

What a hypocrite. Remember them blocking Obama’s nominee: Merrick Garland.