THAT is the main question as Brett Kavanaugh joins the nations highest court this week…
While Republicans , Conservatives and those on the Right THINK Brett Kavanaugh will join 4 others on the court to undo every Right Americans have to abortion, healthcare, racial equality, rights , immigration and everything else?
That has a slim chance….
And people should mindful that Kavanaugh IS gonna be the junior guy on the job and will have to find his sea legs while being warned already that the people there do NOT want the court to become a group of people on a political tear…..
There have been surprises before on people who get on the court and somehow begin to realize with job security?
They can vote different from those who sent them hoping for certain things in return…
It is far from certain that the court will move precipitously on this or any high-profile issue. “It’s not going to be lost on anyone on the court that everybody is going to be watching the new court to see which issues they engage in,” said Paul Clement, solicitor general under President George W. Bush.
The justices could look for cases that are more likely to produce consensus, including those about privacy protections in the digital age, Clement said.
Some contentious issues, though, will be harder to avoid because federal law compels the court’s involvement. In coming months, the issue of drawing political districts for partisan advantage will return to the court in a case from North Carolina. Last term, the justices failed to set limits on the practice known as partisan gerrymandering in cases from Maryland and Wisconsin. Kennedy was seen as the conservative justice most likely to side with liberals on the issue. His retirement dimmed the hopes of proponents of such limits.
New state restrictions on abortion could make their way to the Supreme Court soon, along with challenges to the Affordable Care Act and protection from deportation for young immigrants.
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Two of those liberal justices, speaking Friday at Princeton University, talked about the court’s legitimacy, without mentioning their new colleague.
“Every single one of us needs to realize how precious the court’s legitimacy is. You know we don’t have an army. We don’t have any money. The only way we can get people to do what we think they should do is because people respect us,” Justice Elena Kagan said.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor said the nine justices recognize the small world they inhabit, suggesting that the tense atmosphere surrounding Kavanaugh’s nomination is unlikely to be replicated on the court.
“We have to rise above partisanship in our personal relationships. We have to treat each with respect and dignity and a sense of amicability that the rest of the world doesn’t always share,” Sotomayor said.
Chief Justice John Roberts has been especially sensitive to portrayals of the court as a political institution. That perception has waxed and waned over the years, but it was particularly strong following the Bush v. Gore decision that sealed Bush’s 2000 election.
On a practical level, the four liberal justices need a vote from the right side of the court in which they otherwise divide on the familiar ideological fault lines. Kennedy and Sandra Day O’Connor were justices “who found the center,” Kagan said, “and that’s enabled the court to look as though it was not owned by one side of the other. It’s not so clear that you know going forward that that sort of middle position — it’s not so clear whether we’ll have it.”
In stressing Kavanaugh’s frequent agreement with Judge Merrick Garland on the federal appeals court in Washington, the new justice’s backers seem to be suggesting that Kavanaugh’s vote cannot be taken for granted.