Justice Gorsuch Appointed To SCOTUS After GOP Go Nuclear!
I truly fear for the United States after corporate friendly Justice Neil Gorsuch was sworn into the US Supreme Court this morning. However, this is not the reason for this write-up specifically, the reason for this write-up is the way that the Republicans changed the rules to force Gorsuch through the senate.
I am not an American citizen, however, I live in the USA and these political decisions affect me just as much as citizens, so I feel I have a right to express my views. The question I ask is; how can we call it democracy when the majority party, in this case, Republicans can take the “nuclear option” and change the requirements from needing 60 votes to 51 to push through their choice of Supreme Court justice?
I find it incredibly infuriating that Republicans used the nuclear option to circumvent the need for a super majority of 60 votes to confirm a justice to the Supreme Court. It has taken away the ability to filibuster the vote, with most Democrats refusing to vote YES to Gorsuch. This really pisses me off after the Republicans refused for almost a whole year to vote on President Obama’s nominee, Merrick Garland.
I find it astonishing that a “nuclear” option was even available, what’s the point of house and senate rules if the majority party can use an option to bypass the rule(s)? Thinking about it makes my head hurt! Of course, the GOP were against using the nuclear option when the Democrats were in the majority, the level of hypocrisy is off the scale, however, this is far from unexpected from such a corrupt congress.
It’s clear that Justice Gorsuch is terrible news for everyday Americans. Citizen’s United is here to stay, corporations are people and money is speech, I doubt that Gorsuch will vote to repeal Citizens United given his track record of ruling on the side of big corporations. This includes ruling against a TransAm Trucking driver who lost his job for leaving his load on the side of the road in Illinois, after his trailer brakes froze in extremely cold weather while he stopped to check where he could refuel his rig.
The driver, Alphonse Maddin chose to ignore company instructions and uncoupled his trailer to go get fuel as he was about to run out, and would have been stuck in his freezing cab for an unknown period of time, no fuel, no heat, risking hypothermia. Gorsuch was the only justice to rule in favor of TransAm.
In my opinion, our politicians should not be allowed to play politics with the Supreme Court. The better solution would be to put it to a public vote, the president can nominate as normal and the people of America decide if they are the best Justice for America. This will also stop either party from blocking a vote, like the Republicans did during 2016, refusing to vote on Obama’s pick, Merrick Garland.