In Memoriam: Justice Ginsburg Dead at 87

Justice Ginsburg, circa 2006

Grievous news:  a remarkable woman has died, leaving a remarkable legacy of upholding liberty and justice for all.  She lived a long, successful life, for which she received many honors and great public esteem, so may she rest in peace now among the pantheon of great Americans.

I need hardly remind my truckbuddies that hers was one of the five votes that brought marriage equality to this country in 2015.  She was always a great friend of the gay community, and will be sorely missed.

But her death at this particular time amounts to a constitutional crisis:  the Republicans in the Senate will no doubt pull out all the stops to get a hard-line rightwinger confirmed to replace her before the year is out, regardless of the election results.  And that bodes ill for our democracy and our republic.

 

NPR reports:

Just days before her death, as her strength waned, Ginsburg dictated this statement to her granddaughter Clara Spera: "My most fervent wish is that I will not be replaced until a new president is installed."

Remember This:  Speaking in 2016 on the nomination of Merrick Garland for a Supreme Court vacancy, Lindsey Graham invited Americans in the future to use his own words against him concerning the next vacancy.  The future is now.

 

For further reading, Amy Howe at SCOTUSblog in 2016 gave this historical summary of election-year Supreme Court vacancies in the 20th century, and how they were filled.  Howe also gives this detailed summary of Ginsburg's career on the high court bench.

 -----

A Talk with Justice Ginsburg

Attorney Ted Olson - who with David Boies was lead counsel on the Prop 8 case heard by the Supreme Court last year - chats with Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg at a technology conference in Reston, Virginia, last December. Justice Ginsburg's observations on the history, societal role, and workings of the Court are fascinating, but you really ought to listen at least from 9:00 to 12:00 to learn about the new opera being written, Scalia/Ginsburg. Seriously, it's a real thing.




A copy of the talk with clearer video can be seen here at the C-SPAN website.

Hitched in Taos, and Other Marriage News

Some video of the first same-sex weddings in Taos, New Mexico, last Wednesday the 28th. Dignity may be somewhat lacking in these impromptu ceremonies, but the emotions are all that they should be.




While we're on the topic of marriage, Chicago Cardinal Francis George, while ranting against how "irrational" gay marriage is, admits that "the Church did not invent marriage"; but "nature gives us marriage," so that's why we do it.  Say what?

It's also worth taking another look at this rather amazing chart of Biblical Marriage that I posted on the Blue Truck a year or two ago - at the link, you can download it yourself or share it on Facebook or Twitter.

And Mary Cheney, lesbian daughter of the former Vice-President who married her wife, Heather Poe, last year in D. C.,  today slammed her sister's announcement earlier this week that she is "not pro-gay marriage."  Mary said:

For the record, I love my sister, but she is dead wrong on the issue of marriage. Freedom means freedom for everyone. That means that all families — regardless of how they look or how they are made — all families are entitled to the same rights, privileges and protections as every other. It’s not something to be decided by a show of hands.

Finally, in the atrium of the Kennedy Center in Washington, D. C., tonight Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg will officiate at the wedding of her good friend and Kennedy Center Director Michael Kaiser and government economist John Roberts (no relation to Chief Justice John G. Roberts). On the guest list are stars of opera and Broadway, as well as the cream of Washington society. Ginsburg is already scheduled to celebrate another same-sex wedding next month.

My God, fellas - can you believe?? A GAY WEDDING presided over by a SUPREME COURT JUSTICE?!! Holy fuck, we're sure not in Kansas anymore, Toto.

And I have lived to see this day.

Still a BFD

In the wake of Thursday's Supreme Court ruling that saved "Obamacare" from extinction, the Obama re-election campaign is now selling t-shirts that recall Vice-President Joe Biden's overheard remark at the signing of the law, back in 2010. A bit crude, perhaps, but for this profane day and time hardly outrageous, and very humorous:

Meanwhile, rightwingers have barely been able to catch their breath after the unexpected rescue of the healthcare law, sputtering and twitching and burbling incoherently.  A number of them, including the unhinged Glenn Beck, are openly suggesting that Chief Justice Roberts - once the idol of the rightwingers - is mentally ill, or morally deficient, or both, and thus his ruling has no validity whatsoever.  As witness this t-shirt Beck is offering to his tea-party minions:

So much for his patriotism and respect for our Constitutional system. But guys, you need to appreciate that it's not merely backwoods Baptists calling into question the validity of the ruling: all sorts of urbane, highly-educated, well-connected types are frothing at the mouth now, muttering about "constutional malpractice" and such. Go take a look at some of the opinion pieces at the Wall Street Journal site to get the flavor of the diehard rightwing views of the profiteering class.

On the other side of the fence, the New Yorker now has a collection of excellent articles and reactions to the Supreme Court's ruling. In particular, I like the article about the unsung hero in all this: the tough-as-nails Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, whom no one can accuse of not having a sharp legal mind and respect for the Constitution.

As an aside - your Head Trucker may be just an ol' country boy stuck way to hell out in BFE, but it warms the cockles of his heart to see that a writer for a high-class mag like the New Yorker agrees exactly with something I told you boys on Thursday:

“This is a toe hold,” Hertzberg, looking further into the future, says. “In one way, the most important thing about this is that it establishes the idea, if not the reality, that health insurance and health care should be universal . . . . This is the beginning of what’s going to be a long struggle."

BTW, it's very telling, isn't it, that all of the women Justices voted to keep the law. As I heard someone say in a news clip the other day, maybe Nancy Pelosi, "Now, being a woman will no longer be a 'pre-existing condition.'" Check. If the Congress and the Supreme Court were more than fifty percent women, we would have had universal healthcare in this country a hundred years ago, I guaran-damn-tee you, boys.

There's nothing evil per se in being a wealthy, straight white man. There is something very wrong, however, with a world that is set up to cater to their wishes and wants alone. Slowly, slowly that old world is passing away, and a new world of true justice and equality for all is being born.

Though the drawn-out labor sure does work my nerves.