With Kennedy鈥檚 Vacancy, Only Voting Can Check One-Party Rule

Trump will replace the last centrist on the Supreme Court. Now only voter pushback can restore balance to Congress.

Wednesday鈥檚 news that Supreme Court Justice come July 31 is a reminder鈥攁nd a warning鈥攖hat no matter what happens in the upcoming midterm elections, or 2020, we鈥檙e not going back to any sort of pre-Trump politics.

Elections matter. And as Trump has proved over and again since his inauguration, the norms that allowed us to function as a society were little more than handshake agreements between leaders who generally tried to do right by their constituents. But then that system ran head first into someone without ethics or shame, and it broke.

The recent Supreme Court鈥檚 term, which culminated with a series of 5-4 decisions that upheld Trump鈥檚 overtly racist travel ban, , and , is likely going to be the last where there would be some question of which way the court would go on the key issues of our day.

Kennedy was the last swing vote on the court. A Reagan appointee, he voted with the majority on most of those issues, including the travel ban and the anti-union ruling that came down this week. Yet he also voted in favor of the , and in 1992 , though he also often voted in favor of specific restrictions on abortion access.

Kennedy鈥檚 replacement is unlikely to be cut from the same cloth. Neil Gorsuch, whom Trump appointed to fill the seat that Barack Obama was kept from filling by a Republican Senate, came from a , which advocates the 鈥渙riginalist鈥� argument that we should live under a Constitution as it was adopted in 1789. The late Antonin Scalia was a staunch originalist, as is Gorsuch.

Trump鈥檚 next appointment is unlikely to be any less conservative and could be a great deal more so.

Given Trump鈥檚 demands for absolute fealty from his appointees, we could expect another Clarence Thomas: undistinguished, unqualified, and unquestioning of the party line. (By contrast, Obama鈥檚 nominee, Appeals Court Judge Merrick Garland, was by all accounts a moderate in the vein of Kennedy and quite easily could have swung several 5-4 conservative victories over to the liberal side. Obama had little choice than to go with moderates. He was dealing with the same Republican Senate leadership that is now .)

It鈥檚 clear now that the Supreme Court is unlikely to be much of a check on the worst actions of Trump鈥檚 administration.

Chief Justice John Roberts鈥� repudiation of the Korematsu decision on Japanese American internment notwithstanding, that low point in the modern court is until the court overturns it directly, and President Trump has ordered on military bases for up to 20,000 migrants. That would seem to set the stage for a showdown between the administration and Roberts鈥� Korematsu dicta ruling鈥攁n aside in a case about something else that is considered persuasive, but not necessarily governing. And in the Trump era, if it鈥檚 not written into the law specifically, the president will do what he can to roll over it.

The Republican Congress has already abdicated its duty to protect the country from rampant corporate nationalism of Trump鈥檚 oligarchy-in-waiting. And now the Supreme Court also cannot be counted on to save us. Those who hold out hope for Special Counsel Robert Mueller鈥檚 investigation are again forgetting that Trump has worked overtime to redefine reality to show that there was 鈥渘o collusion鈥� with Russia in his election鈥攁nd that is 鈥渇ake news.鈥� Mueller is unlikely to do more than issue his report to the FBI and/or Congress, and there it will sit. (I hope I鈥檓 proved wrong about that.)

The only check on power left is if people vote for Democrats overwhelmingly in the fall midterms. I say 鈥渙verwhelmingly鈥� because it鈥檚 not enough for Democrats to eke out a narrow win: They need to flip 24 seats in the House of Representatives and take three seats in the highly uncompetitive Senate. Coupled with Republican gerrymandering of House seats, active voter suppression measures taking place wherever Republicans control the arms of state government, and a highly energized Trump base guaranteed to turn out in high numbers, it鈥檚 an uphill fight all the way.

I鈥檒l say it again: Elections matter.

In the two-party winner-take-all system we have now, protest votes are spoilers, serving only to cement the Republican Party鈥檚 grip on power and Trump鈥檚 grip on the Republicans. With former GOP stalwarts like conservative writer and former Republican strategist pledging to vote for Democrats to stop the creation of a one-party state based on unrestrained xenophobic nationalism and trade protectionism, anyone to the left of them not also joining ranks is beyond irresponsible.

In democracies, voters choose the form of government they will have. We can only hope that voters will choose to restore a balance of power.

Chris Winters is a senior editor at 大象传媒, where he specializes in covering democracy and the economy. Chris has been a journalist for more than 20 years, writing for newspapers and magazines in the Seattle area. He鈥檚 covered everything from city council meetings to natural disasters, local to national news, and won numerous awards for his work. He is based in Seattle, and speaks English and Hungarian.

Reprints and reposts: 大象传媒 Magazine encourages you to make free use of this article by taking these easy steps.

Republish This