"Brett Kavanaugh, the new Injustice of the
Supreme Court of the United States, must be pleased by the leading
news stories on... his swift swearing-in on [October 8]. The multiple perjurer, corporate supremacist, presidential
power-monger, and a past fugitive from justice (regarding credible
claims of sexual assault), Kavanaugh saw critical media coverage
become yesterday’s story. The mass media ha[d] moved on to
other calamities, tragedies, super storms, and celebrity outrages.
Opponents of his nomination must persevere anew.
"The future of the Supreme Court looks grim
considering Kavanaugh’s judicial decisions and involvement in war
crimes and torture as Staff Secretary to President George W. Bush. It
is likely that Kavanaugh will be the cruelest and most insensitive
justice on the high Court. His support of corporate power will have
few limits. That’s saying something, given the rulings of
Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch.
"Kavanaugh’s decisions and political
statements are so off the wall, I’ve called him a corporation
masquerading as a human being. Corporations’ uber alles is
his pre-eminent core philosophy. Public Citizen’s analysis of his
judicial record (apart from his extremist political ideology) showed
that in split-decision cases (which are the most ideologically
revealing cases), Kavanaugh ruled 15 times against worker rights and
2 times for worker rights. On environmental protection, he ruled 11
times for business interests and 2 times for the public’s interest. On
consumer protection, he ruled 18 times for businesses and only 4
times for consumers. As for monopoly cases, he ruled 2 times for the
corporation and zero times for market competition.
"Kavanaugh also likes to rule for
government power when it is arrayed against the people – ruling 7
times for police or human rights abuses and zero rulings for victims.
On the other hand, governmental decisions that are protective of
people interests will find Kavanaugh blocking the court room door
more often than not. (See Public Citizen’s
report).
"The Alliance for Justice
report on
nominee Kavanaugh summed up their research with these words: 'He has repeatedly sided with the wealthy
and the powerful over all Americans. He has fought consumer
protections in the areas of automobile safety, financial services and
a free and open Internet.
"Kavanaugh has also repeatedly ruled against
workers, workplace protections and safety regulations… Kavanaugh has
repeatedly ruled against efforts to combat climate change and the
regulation of greenhouse gases. He also repeatedly ruled against
protections for clean air...'
"Locking in the 5 to 4 dominant corporate
muscle of the Supreme Court will endanger you as a consumer and will
jeopardize your health and economic well-being. Unless you become a
corporation, your freedoms will be jeopardized. (See the Citizens
United Decision in 2010 that allowed our elections to be
overwhelmed with unlimited commercial campaign money
and propaganda).
"The cold-blooded, most
corporate-indentured Republicans dominate our political process today. Mitch McConnell (see Kentucky Values), led by the election-buying Koch
brothers, drove Kavanaugh’s nomination through the Senate, excluding
important witnesses who wished to testify. To shore up claims of
legitimacy, McConnell allowed the FBI to conduct a sham investigation
that was shaped by Trump’s White House lawyer Don McGahn and the FBI
head, Christopher Wray. Wray had previously worked with his friend
Kavanaugh on the Starr investigation of Bill Clinton’s sexual
misconduct.
"Resilience and action are required. The
Supreme Court is deeply political – forget about the claims of
judicial independence by the five Justices in the majority. Their
votes on issues of class, race, presidential and corporate power,
peoples’ rights, and remedies and access to justice (day in court
with trial by jury) against corporations are quite predictable.
"A new Kavanaugh Watch group – lean and
sharp – needs to be created to publicize the Five Corporatist Judges.
Their unjust decisions, hiding behind stylized plausibility and
casuistry, need to be unmasked and regularly relayed to the American
people. Their speeches to the Federalist Society (that shoehorned
them onto the Court) and other plutocratic audiences need to be
publicized and critiqued.
"Importantly their refusal to recuse
themselves, due to conflicts of interest or prior expressions of bias
(as in Kavanaugh’s eruption on his last day of the Senate Judiciary
hearings), need to be denounced. (See Laurence Tribe’s op-ed in the New York Times).
Also, their light workload, as in the low numbers of cases they take,
in contrast to the many cases they decline to hear, both requires
more public attention.
"The life-time ensconced enforcers of
corporate state control over the lives of the American people and
often innocent people abroad (permitting undeclared bloody wars of
choice) must be confronted by 'We the People.'
"We need to remember
that the words 'corporation' or 'company' are not mentioned in the
Constitution that starts with the phrase, 'We the People.'
"Finally, are there a few billionaires in
the country, concerned enough about what their children,
grandchildren and great grandchildren are going to inherit from our
generation, to make a significant founding grant to launch the
Kavanaugh and company watch dog project?" (Ralph Nader).
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