SUPREME ARROGANCE
by Michael Hammerschlag 700 wds
In
its incredible decision to defy all precedent and stop the Florida Supreme
Court from handcounting the votes, the US Supreme Court has permanently sullied
it’s reputation and allied itself firmly with the corrupt charade that started
with Katherine Harris and extended to the Florida Legislature and Sauls Court-
the object being to delay and block the legitimate manual recount to prevent
Bush’s loss. Scalia has decided that Bush’s losing was an “injury” that had to
be prevented by crushing the will of the people. There wasn’t time enough to
count the ballots, they claimed, which they insured in their Catch 22 Stay of
the recount.
Arguments
as the Court contemplated its outrageous course, were impressively lackluster-
no dramatic pleas, no eloquent appeals, just reasonable plodding David Boies
arguing facts, and Impeachment plotter Ted Olson arguing lies. Horrifyingly, Boies missed the most powerful
arguments: that this business of equal protection- that they couldn’t allow the
vote to go on because the counting methods weren’t strictly equal- is
insane. Under that standard, the Supreme Court would have to invalidate
every election ever held in America- every one of them was held with
“different standards being applied.” All humans and procedures are fallible- we
do the best we can, which in this instance was hand counts. Most contemptible
was the parade of “moderate” Republicans: Dole, Whitman, Pataki going to
Florida and parroting the Party-line lie: that hand counts can’t be trusted and
aren’t accurate. The improper use the
equal protection, the historic remedy for civil rights, by this court that has spit
on affirmative action, is another turn of the knife and gesture of
contempt, especially after the massive disenfranchisement of blacks in Florida.
Boies should have blasted them for taking
this case, for injecting themselves into
a matter that they had no business: the conduct
of a state’s election. He should have implored
+ chastised them, in the greatest rhetorical
heights, to consider the practical injustice
of their rash and reckless conduct- instead
of niggling over details of arcane Constitutional
law. He should have warned them that they
were destroying the sacred tenet of separation
of powers. Scalia repeated the latest Republican
Red Herring, that it wouldn’t be fair to
not count the overvotes (invalidated double
votes)- knowing full well that the overvotes
are spoiled and unsalvageable*, something
Tim Russert repeatedly asked an amazed David
Boies the previous night. This is a spectacular
example of conservative activism that dwarfs
anything they profess to criticize, although
they tried to cloak their radical usurpation
of state’s rights as curbing judicial authority
(when it was the greatest abuse of judicial
authority in the last Century). Coupled with
Scalia’s son partnership with the lead Bush
attorney and Thomas’s wife’s Bush employment,
it is a crime that will live in infamy- corruptly
handing the Presidency to the manifestly
undeserving loser from the Court’s party
in a blatant political sham.
But
what it bodes for the future is more ominous. This court, in one fell swoop,
effectively packed itself - already 7 of 9 Republican- the next President will
appoint 1-3 Justices – if they are the caliber of Clarence Thomas- who has asked one question in 9 years and
virtually never voted differently than Scalia; or Rehnquist- who helped
disenfranchise blacks as a election official in Arizona, we all have reason to
fear the loss of our liberties. For years, the only reason this conservative
Court hasn’t overturned Roe vs Wade or Miranda has been the projected firestorm
of public fury at the abrogation of rights people believe they deserve. There
has been little such reaction from an exhausted and detached populace, half of
whom didn’t even vote. This radical, unjustified, unsupported, cynical,
contemptuous ruling could be the Court’s breakout into a slew of crushing
conservative rulings, endangering our most treasured freedoms. If they can
get away with this- corruptly delivering the Presidency to their patron’s son-
what can’t they do? This is the most foul corrupt act the Judiciary can commit,
no Supreme Court has ever dared
to rule on a Presidential election before, and its stink will last
centuries.
Michael
Hammerschlag has written commentaries for Seattle Times, Providence Journal, Honolulu
Advertiser; Moscow News, Tribune, and + Guardian in Russia; was a TV reporter and produced documentaries.
He’s written the story of How the Networks
Got It Wrong. His website is http://mikehammer.tripod.com