Let's Face It. We Just Had a Judicial Coup In the United States of America.

 

Here's my quick analysis of the abortion issue: we need to take a step back and see the big picture. Our Supreme Court as an institution is no longer a judicial body; it is a political body that is unelected and whose charge is to carry out an extreme-right agenda that primarily benefits the fossil fuel industry, corporate power, and other anti-democratic forces that are undermining fair elections and personal freedom. Rather than rule on law, the justices are imposing laws that run counter to the wishes of the majority on almost every major issue: reproductive rights, gun rights, climate, consumer rights, Indian adoption laws. I'll add that into this environment Chevron gets away with a private corporate prosecution of me that results in a 3-year detention for holding it accountable for massive pollution in the Amazon. Six right-wing judges on the Supreme Court are now trying to dismantle the "administrative state" which is simply code for blocking all attempts by our executive branch agencies to carry out the will of Congress on climate and other major consumer issues.  It feels like a judicial coup. Industry ⁠— via an array of groups like the Federalist Society, the US Chamber of Commerce, and the Koch Brothers funding network ⁠— are controlling our society for their narrow benefit via six judges: Gorsuch, Roberts, Kavanaugh, Coney Barrett, Thomas, and Alito. Three of them were appointed by Donald Trump after he lost a national election on the popular vote to Hillary Clinton. Our society has become deeply undemocratic. The original purpose of the Supreme Court was to protect the people from the government. The current purpose of the Supreme Court is to protect corporate and governmental power from the people. Stop kidding yourself that the Supreme Court is a judicial body. It is not.  Six unelected judges are largely controlling the freedom and rights of over 300 million people. This is not good for the rule of law. It is not good for democracy. It is not good for the vast majority of people in the US. The problem of the US Supreme Court must be addressed or we will lose our democracy and our planet will continue to burn. In solidarity,   Steven Donziger  Note: This message was originally sent to the subscribers of Donziger On Justice on Substack. If you are interested in receiving similar content in the future, please consider subscribing today. Click here to subscribe.