The Supreme Kangaroo Court of the United States really have been outdoing themselves for ratfuckery over the last week or so. They have reclassified bribes as "gratuities," gutted environmental and consumer protectionism, and basically tried to give Trump carte blanche for his high crimes and misdemeanors.
But their actions, unfortunately, are not without precedence. In Wisconsin, we've seen it all before in some shape or form.
When the Republicans tried to force Justice Janet Protasiewicz to recuse herself from the redistricting case, it was noted that the conservative justices had long ago adopted rules that said they did not need to recuse themselves no matter how much money they got from the parties before them. They even went so far as to argue that preventing people from bribing them was unconstitutional.
Shortly after Scott Walker took control of the state in 2011, they came up with their own version of the Chevron decision by gutting the Department of Natural Resources, claiming that businesses and corporations could regulate themselves. In 2012, we had one of these self-regulating businesses, Herr Environmental, Inc., spread three times the legal amount of human waste on fields. This, in turn, contaminated scores of water wells, rendering the water unsafe to drink from E. coli and other bacteria. To cover up the mess, they created multiple sets of books. And the lawmakers, who SCOTUS thinks are the experts we should rely on, tried to help them cover up their crimes and helped them get away with the proverbial wrist slap.
Another parallel is SCOTUS wanting to give an out for Felon Trump, by claiming he has core immunity. While not quite giving Walker immunity, the Wisconsin Supreme Court just came out and blatantly quashed the investigation into Walker's illegal politicking. Walker was trying to circumvent election laws by telling donors to give to a friendly PAC and thereby not have to worry about limits. Just like they did when it came to people bribing them, SCOWIS declared it a first amendment violation and stopped the investigation before it could become an indictment.
The big difference is that Wisconsin had a chance to fix our broken judicial system. It took a lot of hard work and many years, but we now have a supreme court that is interested in upholding the constitution instead of just holding on to power. Some people have scoffed at Wisconsin because we do elect our judges and justices, but having a way to fix a broken judicial system sure seems like a good idea now.
However, the country has an opportunity from letting everything go to hell in a handbasket. They are telling us exactly what they want to do to us. We just need to stop them before they get a chance by beating them at the ballot box.
I don't know about you, but I prefer my presidents to be people who do not need immunity.
