“Undaunted from the Bench
Sotomayor pulls back the curtain on MAGA Supreme Court hackery
Justice Sonia Sotomayor did a magnificent job stripping away the veneer of legitimacy they have tried to sustain. In dissenting from a widely criticized emergency docket decision running roughshod over the 4th Amendment and effectively greenlight racial profiling, Sotomayor let it rip.
“We should not have to live in a country where the Government can seize anyone who looks Latino, speaks Spanish, and appears to work a low wage job.”
Sotomayor took a righteous swing at the justices who misuse the emergency docket. “In the last eight months, this Court’s appetite to circumvent the ordinary appellate process and weigh in on important issues has grown exponentially,” she wrote. “Yet, some situations simply cry out for an explanation, such as when the Government’s conduct flagrantly violates the law, or when lower courts and litigants need guidance about the issues on which they should focus.”
Her candor from the bench is not just refreshing; it is essential in educating the public that the six MAGA justices are not engaged in judging; their opinions are not the product of intellectually honest legal reasoning. (Indeed, they frequently provide no reasoning.) As such, their rulings have lost legitimacy, which depends on intellectual and ethical integrity.
That conclusion, so aptly bolstered by Sotomayor’s dissent, can fuel a robust movement to reform the Supreme Court in significant ways. Americans must demand that it once again resembles an impartial court reflecting the highest ethical standards. Our democracy will depend on it.
https://open.substack.com/pub/contrarian/p/undaunted-from-the-bench?r=ce00&utm_medium=ios