Impeached Presidents Should Not Be Able To Nominate Supreme Court Justices

The passing of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is firstly a personal tragedy for her family, friends, colleagues, and the millions of people throughout the world who admired and were inspired by her intellect, her heart, and her fighting spirit. She is a historical figure whose impact has yet to be fully appreciated.

Donald Trump Walking the Plank

However, it would be naive to pretend that this grievous loss isn’t also a blow to the hopes and dreams of those Americans who value gender and racial equality and the Constitution’s protection for the rights of people over corporations and against the authoritarian aspirations of rogue “leaders.”

Justice Ginsburg was a guardian of the principles that ensure freedom for all Americans. Her loss would be staggering under any circumstance. But to lose her while an ignorant, sociopathic, narcissist is salivating over the prospect of replacing her with an unqualified, neanderthal wingnut is especially painful. The thought of Donald Trump selecting one of his pre-chewed right-wing Stepford judges to take the place of a bona fide superhero of constitutional jurisprudence is excruciating. And Trump’s undisguised glee at having this opportunity is salt in our wounds:

What’s missing from this statement is any hint of reality. Trump was not “put in this position of power and importance” by the American people. They voted against him by a record margin. He was installed by an archaic Electoral College that is anathema to democracy. What’s more, Americans are not proud of Trump. Quite the opposite. He is regarded as a buffoon who is only interested in himself and his puerile pleasures of golfing, tweeting, watching Fox News, and exacting revenge on his perceived enemies.

What Trump is calling an “obligation” is actually just another attempt to steal a seat on the Supreme Court on behalf of his neo-fascist associates in Congress, tunnel-blind evangelicals, and corporate overlords. Trump is violating the precedent set by his GOP confederates who refused to even give a hearing – much less a vote – to an Obama Court nominee during an election year.

Were there any justice in this world, a president who has been impeached ought not to be able to nominate a Supreme Court Justice. Furthermore, impeached presidents with close ties to numerous felons (and pending indictments of his own) should be prohibited from nominating any judges or agency heads or bull manure shovelers. Although, if you’ve ever seen Trump speaking at one of his cult rallies you’d know that shoveling bull manure is something that he is actually pretty good at.

Unfortunately, the last thing we can expect from Trump, or any Republican, is integrity or consistency. They will shamelessly march forward to breach their own precedents without regard to the brazen hypocrisy of their actions.

Consequently, Democrats need to up their game. First of all, they need to win back the White House and the Senate. Then they must abolish the filibuster. Then they need to expand the Supreme Court to fifteen seats. And finally, they need to advance to statehood Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico. And it wouldn’t hurt to collapse North and South Dakota into a single state. Seriously, do we really need two sparsely populated Dakotas?

After completing these steps we can begin to restore the nation’s honor and respect for the constitutional principles that empower our democracy and enable our freedoms. We can bring justice to bear on those who betrayed the country in pursuit of greed and power. And we can heal the divisions that Trump deliberately created and exploited in order to advance his self-serving agenda.

It won’t be easy, but it wasn’t easy for Justice Ginsburg to wage a lonely fight for decades either. She should be our inspiration today. And we should be the custodians of her legacy and her last request: “My most fervent wish is that I will not be replaced until a new president is installed.”

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Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.
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2 thoughts on “Impeached Presidents Should Not Be Able To Nominate Supreme Court Justices

  1. Warning: watching the hypocrisy of the GOP unfold, led by Moscow Mitch & Li’l Lindsey Lickspittle, will be stomach-churning. Losing Justice Ginsburg at this moment is awful, as she well knew; she fought a typically-courageous
    battle to stay with us until election day. She would be terribly missed at any time, but especially now, when the dark forces are fully arrayed to defeat American democracy.

  2. I totally agree that an Impeached President should not be able to nominate a Supreme Court Justice! Especially when that person (tRUMP) will go down in history as the worst President in the history of our great Nation. I have so many expletives’ that I could use to describe this buffoon, but we will just leave it at that. I totally agree with the suggestions you made to the Democratic Party – “First of all, they need to win back the White House and the Senate. Then they must abolish the filibuster. Then they need to expand the Supreme Court to fifteen seats. And finally, they need to advance to statehood Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico. And it wouldn’t hurt to collapse North and South Dakota into a single state. Seriously, do we really need two sparsely populated Dakotas?”

    May God bless RBG, we have all lost a wonderful lawyer, judge and most importantly a wonderful person. We all are well aware who can’t measure up, even closely, to her. That would be almost all of the tRUMP inept Administration, Republican Representatives and Senators. They all DID NOT Make America Great Again – they destroyed it. Oh and why on earth would IMPOTUS tRUMP’s moto stay the same as in 2016 “Make America Great Again” that’s because he didn’t do it in his 4 years and he won’t do it in the next 4 years – only Joe Biden can do that.

    VOTE BLUE AND DESTROY THE INEPT/CRIMINAL REPUBLICAN PARTY!

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