Hey y’all remember when Nixon said “it’s not illegal if the president does it.” And we all agreed that was insane and unconstitutional? Well what a difference a couple decades and lots and lots of dark money make

I also feel like it's worth pointing out in a bit more detail just how bad-faith this decision was:

#VoteBlue

For people who live in the U.S., November can bring to mind a lot of things, and one of them is Thanksgiving. This can be a complicated holiday because while most people just see it as an excuse to get together with friends and family and pig out, we all know that the story of the "First Thanksgiving" is bullshit.

This November, and for as long as it takes, I'm asking you to keep Native American and Alaska Native rights in mind and to fight for them. ICWA, the Indian Child Welfare Act, is at risk.

This act was created to stop cultural genocide. Until the late 1900s, Native American and Alaska Native children were routinely kidnapped and placed in residential schools and white families, where they faced abuse, forced assimilation, and sometimes murder. ICWA was passed in 1978 to stop this by allowing tribes to control the foster and adoption placement of Native American and Alaska Native children.

However, today, the SCOTUS started hearing arguments in a case that could overturn ICWA. This would not only endanger children and allow cultural genocide, but it would endanger tribal sovereignty since it would deny sovereign tribes the rights over the placement of their own children.

This November, this Thanksgiving, and until ICWA has been upheld, I ask you to stand up for the rights of Native Americans and Alaska Natives.

Shorter SCOTUS: addressing racism is unconstitutional, embracing racism is constitutional.

good morning and fuck you to the united states supreme court

So, here are just a few the things that have happened this week so far

Can someone PLEASE explain to me just what the fuck is going on here?

For people who live in the U.S., November can bring to mind a lot of things, and one of them is Thanksgiving. This can be a complicated holiday because while most people just see it as an excuse to get together with friends and family and pig out, we all know that the story of the "First Thanksgiving" is bullshit.

This November, and for as long as it takes, I'm asking you to keep Native American and Alaska Native rights in mind and to fight for them. ICWA, the Indian Child Welfare Act, is at risk.

This act was created to stop cultural genocide. Until the late 1900s, Native American and Alaska Native children were routinely kidnapped and placed in residential schools and white families, where they faced abuse, forced assimilation, and sometimes murder. ICWA was passed in 1978 to stop this by allowing tribes to control the foster and adoption placement of Native American and Alaska Native children.

However, today, the SCOTUS started hearing arguments in a case that could overturn ICWA. This would not only endanger children and allow cultural genocide, but it would endanger tribal sovereignty since it would deny sovereign tribes the rights over the placement of their own children.

This November, this Thanksgiving, and until ICWA has been upheld, I ask you to stand up for the rights of Native Americans and Alaska Natives.

Moodboard for living in the United States

The Public, the Personal, and the Utter Hypocrisy of the GOP

Trump and many Republicans insist that the decisions whether to wear a mask, go to a bar or gym, or work or attend school during a pandemic should be personal. Government should play no role.

Yet they also insist that what a woman does with her own body or whether same-sex couples can marry should be decided by government.

It’s a tortured, topsy-turvy view of what’s public and what’s private. Yet it’s remarkably prevalent as the pandemic resurges and as the Senate considers Trump’s pick for the Supreme Court.

By contrast, Joe Biden has wisely declared he would do “whatever it takes” to stop the pandemic, including mandating masks and locking down the entire economy if scientists recommend it. “I would shut it down; I would listen to the scientists,” he said.

And Biden wants to protect both abortion and same-sex marriage from government intrusion. In 2012 he memorably declared his support of the latter before even Barack Obama did so.

Trump’s opposite approaches, discouraging masks and other Covid restrictions while seeking government intrusion into the most intimate decisions anyone makes, have become the de facto centerpieces of his campaign.

At his “town hall” on Thursday night, Trump falsely claimed that most people who wear masks contract the virus.

He also criticized governors for ordering lockdowns, adding that Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer “wants to be a dictator.“ (He was speaking just one week after state and federal authorities announced they had thwarted an alleged plot to kidnap and possibly kill Whitmer.)

Attorney General William Barr – once again contesting Trump for the most wacky analogy – has called state lockdown orders the “greatest intrusion on civil liberties in American history” since slavery.

Yet at the very same time Trump and his fellow-travelers defend peoples’ freedom to infect others or become infected with Covid-19, they’re inviting government to intrude into the most intimate aspects of personal life.

Trump has promised that the Supreme Court’s 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, establishing a federal right to abortion, will be reversed “because I am putting pro-life justices on the court.”

Much of controversy over Trump’s nomination of Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court hinges on her putative willingness to repeal Roe.

While an appeals court judge, Barrett ruled in favor of a law requiring doctors to inform the parents of any minor seeking an abortion, without exceptions, and also joined a dissenting opinion suggesting that an Indiana state law requiring burial or cremation of fetal remains was constitutional.

A Justice Barrett might also provide the deciding vote for reversing Obergefell v. Hodges, the 2015 Supreme Court decision protecting same-sex marriage. Only three members of the majority in that case remain on the Court.

Barrett says her views are rooted in the “text” of the Constitution. That’s a worrisome omen given that earlier this month Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito opined that the right to same-sex marriage “is found nowhere in the text” of the Constitution.

What’s public, what’s private, and where should government intervene? The question suffuses the impending election and much else in modern American life.

It is nonsensical to argue, as do Trump and his allies, that government cannot mandate masks or close businesses during a pandemic but can prevent women from having abortions and same-sex couples from marrying.

The underlying issue is the common good, what we owe each other as members of the same society. During wartime, we expect government to intrude on our daily lives for the common good: drafting us into armies, converting our workplaces and businesses, demanding we sacrifice normal pleasures and conveniences.  During a pandemic as grave as this one we should expect no less intrusion, in order that we not expose each other to the risk of contracting the virus.

But we have no right to impose on each other our moral or religious views about when life begins or the nature and meaning of marriage. The common good requires instead that we honor such profoundly personal decisions.

Public or private? We owe it to each other to understand the distinction.

People need to fully understand what RGB’s death means. It’s not just a vacancy on the supreme court that could be potentially filled by a conservative Justice - that’s an awful thought, but that’s not the main problem. 

The problem, is that this is EXACTLY the opportunity Republicans have been looking for for decades. If a conservative nominee is pushed through before the election, and I’m hoping it won’t but if it does, that will lead to a Republican majority in the Supreme Court. And you can bet your life, literally, that they will work to roll back every progressive law they can. 

The concept of a separation of church and state is already a joke in this country, but it will get so much worse. 

But more than that? Even if a nominee isn’t pushed through… 

The vacancy RGB left behind will motivate Republicans to come out to vote in droves. 

THAT is what everyone needs to understand. This is a once in a life time opportunity for the Republicans. You think you don’t want to vote for Biden because he’s not exactly who you want? Because he’s not progressive enough or liberal enough? 

What about all the Republicans who may not support Trump, but want a Republican majority on the Supreme Court? The ones who may not like him, but would be willing to deal with him for four more years if it means controlling the Supreme Court for the next 40?

It’s awful and unfortunate that RGB died so close to the election. Throughout her life she worked tirelessly to fight for equality. Don’t let her life be in vain. 

Now more than ever, it’s important to vote. Everyone. Down the entire ballot. 

I’m lucky enough to live in California, a historically Blue state. But those of my followers who live in Red states, you especially need to call your representatives in the Senate and tell them to postpone any nomination. Cite Mitch McConnell’s own actions in 2016. Anything you can do to add pressure. Remind them who they really work for: you, their constituents. 

We cannot give up the fight. We can’t. Your vote matters. If it didn’t, why would the GOP be trying so hard to take it away? Make sure you’re registered. If you want to mail in your ballot then drop it off at designated polling stations instead of the post office to ensure it’s counted in time. 

I don’t have many followers so I don’t know who will see this, but please, reblog this. Spread the information. RBG’s death will galvanize Republicans out to vote en masse. We can’t afford to be apathetic or disenfranchised. We can make a difference, but not if we don’t bother to try. 

@one-time-i-dreamt @thebibliosphere

My jaw DROPPED when I saw that Majority opinion author name 😱

[Context: Trump’s extremely textualist conservative apointee wrote the Bostock Majority & rooted it pretty heavily in “living constitution” law]