“The Supreme Court Is a Product of Minority Rule”: Ari Berman on America’s Undemocratic System

"For revolting barbarity and shameless hypocrisy America reigns without a rival." -Frederick Douglass

“Ignorance, allied with power, is the most ferocious enemy justice can have." - James Baldwin.

Unjust law is no law .

At this points we will have a king backed by the senate(its right hand men and women) for a fascist rule with no accountability of acts.What a country!

We're F'd.

"Dark Money: . . . " by Jane Mayer tells it all!

This is nothing new. It just exposes what is. People can no longer pretend.

Samuel Alito was Nominated by George Bush, Jr. & Daddy, George Bush H.W. Bush nominated a woefully inexperienced Clarence Thomas because he was Black to minimize the fallout of replacing the renowned Thurgood Marshall who was the 1st Black jurist on the Supreme Court. Chief Justice John Roberts was also appointed by Bush Jr., originally expected to be an associate but the death of William Rehnquist, Roberts was elevated. Roberts had been a lobbyist for Big Tobacco & was a controversial choice among the civil rights community. But Ari Berman reminds all of us just how un-democratic the American system is based on the Constitution. That document was the by-product of the white male landed elites of the period who excluded white women, Black slave, & Native Americans from the political process. We are the inheritors and sadly are paying a serious price for what this Constitution cited by Berman is inflicting on democracy.

Merrick Garland is the one to blame for failing to appoint a special council for two & a half years!

The amicus brief needs to be amended to include this: Pose a more extreme version of the SEAL Team 6 hypothetical to SCOTUS we heard in the Court of Appeals, where a judge asked if Trump’s theory would absolve him if he used the military to take out political opponents. Take it a step further and tell the Court that if Trump has the immunity he claims he does, a president would be free to order the assassination of Supreme Court Justices who disagree with him, and could not be prosecuted for doing that. Make the impact of Trump’s argument unmistakable. Let the examples of conduct that would be permissible under Trump’s view of immunity drive home how essential it is for the Court to reject his appeal and send this case back on its way to trial. No president and no one is above the law. Source: Article written by Joyce Vance

"If you can convince the lowest white man he's better than the best colored man, he won't notice you're picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he'll empty his pockets for you." - Lyndon B. Johnson

Supreme Court sinks to a new low, showing their willingness to enable Donald Trump. Sam Alito said well we’re not gonna get into the January 6 stuff!

Expanding the court is just as. Much of the ‘checks and balances’ as impeachment’ . SCOTUS has become radicalized . The President needs to expand SCOTUS.

Thank you for the opportunity of teaching

When you hear about the US electoral system after having been taught about the Athens & Rome's voting systems & how (especially Rome's) voting system was purposefully designed with curiae to curtail a majority vote, any pretense that the US tried to create a democratic (in the modern sense) fades away, because those flaws were well-known & studied, by scholars & anyone who received the classical education that was more standard back then than it is now, learning Greek & Latin, would have known about them at that time. They based US democracy on the Republic of Rome, a system where, among the people who were eligible to vote, the poor majority had their votes lumped together as to make them ineffective.

I was 30 when I actually truly understood how our elections worked. That alone is crazy to truly think about. Then when I was younger I always thought that I didn't have to worry about voting or anything because other people more important would do it

Berman should have mentioned that not only does the current system privilege smaller, more conservative states, but it also means that the vast majority of the population who live in solidly red or blue states are essentially irrelevant, the presidential elections just hang on the decisions of about a half dozen "battleground" states that are closely divided. If democracy means anything it should mean that all votes everywhere are equal.

This is true, but what about the extra-constitutional two party system subverting 3rd party/independent voices?

A very timely and important reminder of the urgent need for complete electoral reform, based on the principle of one person one vote . The two party system no longer works. What Paul Weyrich said in 1980 was proof enough of his intention to discourage people from voting. Any change to representative democracy based on the popular vote is against the interests of the power elites. The outdated electoral college distorts the voting process. Paul Weyrich was the cofounder of the lobby group ALEC- The American Legislative Exchange Council, although unknown to the American public. In 2012/ 13 journalist Biil Moyers presented a documentary “ The United States of ALEC,” which uncovered the history of this lobbying group and its influence on American politics.

Let's reform the antiquated systems and upgrade and update our democracy. Yes, Yes, Yes.