The Supreme Court’s Follies and Trump’s Jollies

Yesterday was quite a day. The poor folk of Wisconsin were given a chance to vote if they were willing to leave their homes in the face of a stay-at-home order in order to expose themselves to Covid-19. Just to be sure they would be put into a position of greatest danger in the City of Milwaukee I’ve heard that only five out of 180 polling places were open.

The Republican Party that controls the House and Senate in Wisconsin refused to move the day of the vote to a time in June.  The picture on this page shows the Republican Speaker wearing protective gear usually seen in hospitals telling the people there is no danger in voting. it would be laughable if the situation did not involve life and death.

A federal judge recognizing that this is a time like no other entered an order saying those who wanted to vote by mail had an additional week to do that. The United States Supreme Court, the court that has closed its doors and refuses to do normal business because of Covid-19, overturned that order with the five judge conservative majority ruling in favor of the Republican Party. It held the vote must go on even though it was itself was afraid to go on.

I haven’t read the decision. I’m sure there was some precedent or another to justify it. But what precedent is there for what the people of this country are experiencing with Covid-19.  I suggest the decision seriously damaged the Supreme Court’s reputation. Who now can look on it as other than an arm of the Trump administration? Who now will say it will administer justice fairly? Common sense shouted out that the people not be put into danger for exercising their franchise. When the Court shows it lacks that basic common sense and is willing to perpetuate a situation where many people will lose their right to vote because they wisely choose not to go out in the public as their government has urged them to do with its stay-at-home orders then it will find its reputation in the trash can and deservedly so.

It was not only the Supreme Court that could perversely enjoy seeing people putting them in a life and death situation that made yesterday quite a day. No one could miss the Trump getting his perverse jollies that have become so commonplace with him.

Was it just last Friday night that he fired an independent inspector general who exercised his independent judgment reporting Trump’s request that Ukraine investigate the Bidens. I guess he enjoyed doing that so much that he fired another inspector general  yesterday because his report showed that Trump had been lying all along about the situation with the hospitals during this pandemic. You have to think he gets some type of kick out of crushing people who are doing what they were appointed to do. Do you fear for your country when people who are assigned to ensure the government is operating properly are fired when they show it isn’t? If not, I suggest you should.

Then we had the Acting Secretary of the Navy Thomas Modly who fired a captain of a Navy aircraft carrier who sought to protect his crew from Covid-19 that was surging on his ship. Word is Trump told him to do it. Do you know what skill you need to become captain of such a ship? He fired him because his letter complaining about it went public. He then flew out to Guam where the ship was stationed and called the captain “stupid and naive” to the crew who had given him a rousing cheer when he left the ship. It made me thing of Pee Wee Herman who would have said to Modly  “I know you are but what an I.”  Speaking of Pee Wee, I wonder if he will become the new acting secretary of the Navy. He would fit right in on the Trump Team.

 

 

4 Comments

  1. Some critics of Trump are blinded by their dislike of POTUS. Trump has never done any good in their eyes. It is comparable to Howie Carr’s treatment of Sen. Bulger. An unending vilification campaign. Much of their criticism is easily discounted.

  2. William M. Connolly

    Matt, I’ll keep my powder dry, until I review all the facts.

    1. I remember the St. Patrick’s Day Parade Case when only one Judge in Massachusetts, the erudite, honorable Joseph Nolan, stood with the Veterans’ Free Speech rights, and most lawyers and law professors stood against them and him. I remember when even after the Supreme Court (SCOTUS) rebuked the Massachusetts Judiciary for crushing the Veterans’ rights (16 jurists and administrative judges had ruled against the Veterans, who were admirably defended by the astute, persistent, pugnacious, courageously undaunted, Chester Darling) that the Chief Justice of the Massachusetts Appeals Court, Justice Katz, wrote in LAWYERS’ WEEKLY that a majority of Mass Judges still disagreed with the Supreme Court. Read “From Trial Court to the United States Supreme Court: Anatomy of a Free Speech Case.

    2. The point is that political correctness infested the Massachusetts Judiciary then, and perhaps still does, as it infests many jurisdictions throughout the country.

    3. Folks still go to groceries and pharmacies. On Super Tuesday, March 3, 14 states held primaries; on March 10, several more, with only Ohio postponing. President Trump supports federalism, and leaves local matters up to Governors. He did express his support for one Wisconsin Jurist whom he admires. I don’t recall him expressing an opinion, whether states should or should not postpone primaries.

    4. On 9-11, New York’s Mayoral race was postponed, while Steve Lynch won a Congressional race in Boston. November elections have been held in prior epidemics, prior hurricanes, prior snowstorms, throughout World Wars. I don’t recall elections being postponed, and I think the issue in Wisconsin had more to do with absentee ballots than elections.

    5. As far as the Captain. He was discharged for going outside the chain of command. President Trump in fact said that a man’s career should not be destroyed over one mistake and implicitly rebuked the Secretary’s decision. Trump showed great sympathy for the Captain, and in fact, his rebuke arguably led to the Secretary’s next day public apology for his intemperate words, and the Secretary’s resignation. I wish more would apologize for their harsh, intemperate words, aspersions, mud-slinging and character assassination.

    6. As for President Trump’s appointments and firings: All were justified in my opinion. He can’t have persons under him, he doesn’t trust; especially leakers and deep-staters, who are looking to undermine him and sabotage his agenda.

    8. One of the great things I like about President Trump, in addition to his good decision making, his assertiveness, decisiveness, and pugnacity (combativeness) is his appointment of jurists who are constitutionalists, conservatives, people who interpret the law as written, not create the law as they wish it had been written, not leftists, not judicial activists who see penumbras and emanations floating from every sentence.

    9. The MSM has been brutal to Trump, even when the economy was booming. A few days ago the Washington Post gave a timeline, and left out Trump’s January 31 decision restricting immigration from China, and other decisive actions of the Trump Administration. The Post took almost everything out of context. It was the first time I commented on a Post article in decades; I wrote, “HOGWASH!” then implored the Post to try to be more objective.

    • WMC,

      “…his appointment of jurists who are constitutionalists, conservatives, people who interpret the law as written, not create the law as they wish it had been written, not leftists, not judicial activists who see penumbras and emanations floating from every sentence.”

      What a delight this is to read!