2020 Goes From Bad To Worse

2020 Goes From Bad To Worse

By Ed Kociela

OK, 2020, bring on your damn apocalyptic zombies.

Just when I thought things couldn’t possibly get any worse, we find ourselves diving headfirst into more hatred, vitriol, and divisiveness in the United States as we stagger into the elections.

But, things went from bad to worse when we lost Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on Friday.

She was a warrior who fought with all she could muster from that tiny frame – barely five feet tall and maybe, on a good day, weighing in at 100 pounds — for women’s rights, civil liberties, and the rule of law. She also went five brutal rounds with cancer that invaded her colon, lungs, and pancreas. Still, despite disease and advancing age – she was 87 when we lost her – she maintained a mental acuity that people half her age would envy.

What’s at stake with her passing?

It is very likely that Roe v. Wade could be overturned, the Affordable Care Act could be invalidated, and that election results, should the president lose, will be challenged in a fight that will be settled by a specious Supreme Court heavy in debt to a president who is doing his damnedest to stack it even heavier with far-right opinions.

Appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court by President Bill Clinton in 1993, Ruth Bader Ginsburg was an unabashed liberal in her rulings. The Court needs liberals just as it needs conservatives to balance justice. As it stands now, there are five conservative justices, two liberal judges, and one moderate. Ideally, it should split at four, four, and one.

RBG, as she became known, came out of Brooklyn before Brooklyn was cool.

She was a bright young woman, graduating from Cornell University where she completed her degree in government as the highest-ranking female student in her class. She would go on to continue her education at Harvard Law School. She was one of only nine women in a class of 500 men at Harvard and, according to reports, she and the other women enrolled were asked to dinner at the dean’s house one night where she was asked, “Why are you at Harvard Law School taking the place of a man?” She moved to New York City when her husband took a job there and completed her education at Columbia Law School and became the first woman to work on two law reviews, the Harvard Law Review and Columbia Law Review before embarking on an illustrious career that resulted in her appointment to the United States Supreme Court.

It was a struggle as law firms of that era did not look highly on employing women.

But, she was tenacious and smart, a deadly combination that served her well on the bench.

In the scant hours after her death, however, she was already becoming politicized as the president and his lackeys started talking about filling her position with an arch-conservative, which would have a devastating impact on the future of the nation by tilting it so heavily in one direction.

Besides being the ultimate act of disrespect for somebody who had given so much of her life to the service of justice and the nation, it was also a highly hypocritical move by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Sen. Lyndsey Graham, R-SC, who both stood in strident opposition to President Barack Obama nominating a justice to fill the seat of Antonin Scalia 11 months before the election, insisting that any move in that direction should come after voters decided on who their next president should be. Fast forward to 2020 and just a few weeks before the election and the story has changed, of course, as they are calling for a swift nomination and confirmation. Can we say, self-serving hypocrites?

The hell of it is that President Barack Obama was set to nominate Merrick Garland, a moderate who had the blessing of Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, who called him a “good man” for the job.

Now, even though Republicans hold a 53-47 edge in the Senate, I don’t think a path to confirmation is a done deal.

Standing in the way is Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, neither of them a fan of the president. They have already said they do not believe it would be feasible or appropriate to vote on a confirmation in October. You can also probably add Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, to that list. Romney has also been a critic of the president and insiders say he is on former Vice President Joe Biden’s shortlist to become Secretary of State. You can bet that Senate Democrats are reaching across the aisle to find another two or three Republican senators to join them in blocking confirmation of any nominee.

Without question, it would be fascinating to watch the fireworks that would be generated if they managed to work out a sped-up vetting process by the Senate Judiciary Committee. It would come down to a head-to-head battle between Graham, who chairs the committee, and Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., who sits on the committee.

Biden, without question, would be opposed to the president putting forth a nominee before the election. His opposition is a long-standing position he first voiced in 1992 on the heels of the bitterly divisive nomination and confirmation of Clarence Thomas as a Supreme Court Justice.

Although there were no openings or expected resignations from the bench, he warned that if one occurred that election year, the most prudent thing to do would be to wait until after the election before proceeding.

As intended, the Supreme Court was supposed to be an independent body, free of political persuasion and influence. That’s why justices are appointed to lifetime terms.

Of course, that’s not how it plays out today, which is why that four, four, one divide among justices is so critical. It keeps them honest, maintains the balance and ethics of a nation that, right now, should be outraged that less than 24 hours after the passing of RBG the president was talking about naming a successor before the first presidential debate on Sept. 29 and why he insists that the vacancy on the court be filled, “without delay.”

It is a power grab, it is folly at best and arrogance at worst.

Choosing a Supreme Court Justice is one of the most important acts of government and is nothing to be rushed into blindly.

Whoever is eventually seated will be there a very long time, make life- and history-changing decisions.

Whoever is eventually seated must be devoted to fairness, dignity, and the good of the nation, and not bend for any political agenda.

Whoever is eventually seated, I pray, will be blessed with that special kind of wisdom and vision that is rooted in courage, tempered with experience, leveled with justice rather than clinging to obtuse or obsolete vagaries of law.

RBG understood this. She also understood how the Supreme Court has lost its innocence, in a way, by becoming the kin of politicians and political parties.

That’s why shortly before her death, she advised caution in naming her replacement.

“My most fervent wish is that I will not be replaced until a new president is installed,” RBG said in a statement she dictated to her daughter.

Sound minds cannot help but agree.

Rest gently, RBG.

You are already dearly missed.

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