Fifty-seven percent
Fifty-seven percent. In US politics, that’s called a landslide. Except I’m not talking about an election — I’m talking about how many people think the election winner should take the late Justice Ginsburg’s seat on the Supreme Court. The ABC News/Washington Post Poll is clear. This country doesn’t want Trump to choose the next justice unless absolutely necessary.
And it shouldn’t be surprising. Trump’s nomination, Judge Amy Coney Barrett, would be the fifth current Supreme Court justice nominated by a president who didn’t even win the popular vote. That’s frankly disgusting. The framers of the Constitution agreed on the electoral college to ensure smaller states would have a chance at having their voices heard, but this has become so warped that we’re quite literally having to live under the tyranny of the minority.
What’s worse is that Judge Barrett is deeply, fastidiously conservative. Her agenda isn’t a secret either. She’s written about how she believes Catholicism should affect a judge’s decision-making — something made all the more harrowing by the fact that she’s a member of a secretive Catholic fundamentalist group that’s been likened to a cult. On top of this, she has written about how she thinks stare decisis — which is a judicial principle that legal precedent should guide a court’s decision and is critical to keeping justice fair and consistent — is a “soft rule,” with constitutional cases being the “easiest to overrule.”
Taken together, Judge Barrett’s extremist beliefs and her lack of respect for the most basic principles of jurisprudence would position the Supreme Court’s 6-3 majority not just “to the right,” but “to the Bronze Age.” Again, fifty-seven percent of Americans want the winner of the presidential election to choose the next Supreme Court justice. That too was Justice Ginsburg’s dying wish. If the Senate confirms Judge Barrett, it would be a punch in the face of the American people and a torch to the monument of Justice Ginsburg’s incredible achievements.
The Senate would be far less apt to confirm Judge Barrett if Trump loses. We need to make sure that’s exactly what happens. That means vote, register others to vote, and safely go to the polls, if possible. To overcome the tyranny of the minority, we need to overcome the systemic imbalances that oppress the enlightened will of the majority. Do it for Justice Ginsburg.
Democracy thrives in snarkiness