Sen. Edward M. Kennedy: The Supreme Court's Wrong Turn -- And How to Fix It

[babylonsister]

The Supreme Court's Wrong Turn -- And How to Fix It

After posing as moderates in their confirmation hearings, Justices Roberts and Alito have moved the Court radically to the right. Henceforth, we should compel nominees to state how they would have ruled on specific cases, and why.


Sen. Edward M. Kennedy | November 19, 2007



Last May, the Supreme Court faced a textbook case of pay discrimination. Lilly Ledbetter was one of a few women supervisors working at a Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company plant in Gadsden, Alabama, and she remained at the plant despite her bosses' bias against women. One even told her that "the plant did not need women," that women "caused problems." For almost two decades, the company systematically downgraded her performance evaluations to pay her less than male colleagues who performed the same duties. Her pay eventually fell 15 percent to 40 percent behind her male counterparts.

In 2003 a jury found that Ms. Ledbetter was paid less because she is a woman, and she was awarded full damages to correct the injustice. But in a 5-4 opinion, the Supreme Court held that Ms. Ledbetter was entitled to nothing at all. The majority ruled that she should have filed her case within a few months after the employer decided to pay her less than her male coworkers. Never mind that she had no way of knowing what other workers made, or that the discrimination continued with each paycheck. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the sole female justice, observed in dissent: "The Court does not comprehend, or is indifferent to, the insidious way in which women can be victims of pay discrimination."

Unfortunately, the Ledbetter case is just one example of the Supreme Court's dangerous new direction since the additions of Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito. It is vital that Americans understand how profoundly the newest justices are affecting the Court, and how their confirmation hearings failed to anticipate these developments. Whether or not it was possible to prevent confirmation of the president's Supreme Court nominees by a Republican-controlled Senate, the confirmation hearings should, at the very least, have informed the public about the nominees' views on the pressing legal issues of our time. Their failure to do so makes clear that the Senate needs to reform the process by which it considers Supreme Court nominees.

LOOKING BACK

As we enter the third year of the lifetime appointments of Roberts and Alito to the Court, it is clear that their approach to judging mocks the commitment to open-mindedness, modesty, and compassion that they professed during their confirmation hearings. President Bush had openly expressed his desire to select judges who would satisfy the most radical voices in his political base. We now know that the president got exactly what he wanted.

For two judges who repeatedly proclaimed in their confirmation hearings that they would bring no ideological agenda to the job and would decide cases with an "open mind," Roberts and Alito have turned out to be remarkably like-minded. They voted together in 92 percent of non-unanimous cases in the 2006–2007 term -- the highest rate of agreement of any two justices, edging out Antonin Scalia's and Clarence Thomas' 91 percent rate. In the previous term, Roberts and Alito voted together 88 percent of the time in non-unanimous cases.

For two judges who repeatedly proclaimed the need for judicial "modesty," Roberts and Alito have turned out to be remarkably aggressive in overturning doctrines and statutes. Their disdain for precedent led Justice Stephen Breyer to recently observe, "It is not often in the law that so few have so quickly changed so much." Justice Scalia appeared to share this view. When Roberts claimed that a recent opinion involved only a modest change in the law, Scalia responded, "This faux judicial restraint is judicial obfuscation."

more...

http://prospect.org/cs/articles?article=the_supreme_courts_wrong_turn_and_how_to_fix_it

[freebrew]

1. So, can they be found in contempt?

They lied to congress, right? That's illegal, right?

So, either try them for contempt of congress or impeach them.
Either remedy should be available, IMHO.

[Demeter]

2. Nothing Else Will Work, IMO

If they can't act responsibly, throw the bums out. And if they are acting CRIMINALLY, PUT THEM IN JAIL FOR LIFE!