The fact that one or more of the Supreme Court Justices appear to be venally corrupt in a rather fulsome fashion is a new addition to the story of the early 21st century. But the heart of it remains this: The current corrupt majority wants to wholly remake American law with little attention to precedent or any coherent jurisprudence or theory of interpreting the constitution. They’ve got the power and they’re going to use it. If you don’t like it, too bad. Yet they also want the deference and respect accorded to thoroughly apolitical players guided by restraint and an approach to the work that is more than dressing up their own policy aims with whatever theory serves the needs of the moment.
It’s this disconnect that underlies everything we’re seeing today: the “sucks to be you” jurisprudence matched with the “don’t you see this robe!” umbrage and entitlement we see on constant display. It’s richer than pure hypocrisy. In Alito’s on-going “stop criticizing me” tour he clearly takes genuine offense that people don’t get what the robe means and aren’t acting accordingly. Look at it on the bright side. It seems to cause him some real, if absurd, anguish.
They really can do almost anything they want. They are. They just can’t have it both ways no matter how much they demand it. The new revelations of sweetheart deals and billionaire gifting stems from the same arrogance and corruption at the heart of the Federalist Society project.
