11 thoughts on “Thursday Open Thread”

1. Finally, some good news for a change …

   6/29/22 – GA Senate Race: Warnock Opens Up 10 Point Lead Over Walker, Quinnipiac University Georgia Poll Finds; Kemp And Abrams Locked In Dead Heat In Governor's Race | Quinnipiac University Poll

   Maybe Dobbs will help come November.

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2. Do not trust polls!

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3. Justice Robert Jackson was wrong when he wrote that the US Constitution is not a suicide pact. Apparently, it is:

   Supreme Court Live Updates and E.P.A. News – The New York Times (nytimes.com)

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   1. Maybe we should call the current SCOTUS (i.e. the rightwing majority of the Court) the Jim Jones Court. We're being force-fed the koolaid that will kill the planet.

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      1.     So true!

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   2. His view is certainly wrong now.  This court is so far off the rails it makes the Lochner court look good.  And the court just agreed to hear a case from NC on the independent state legislature doctrine.  We're in a Cold Civil War it seems.

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4. When you lose Neil Gorsuch …  principles?  precedent? judicial restraint?  Nope, can't have that.  Gotta give states power, sticking it to both Indian nations AND the Federal government. [and by the way, gutting the silly solution that said reservations ought to set up abortion clinics.]

   Gorsuch wrote an opinion for the court’s 2020 decision in McGirt v. Oklahoma, which ruled that the Muscogee Nation’s reservation had not been disestablished upon the granting of statehood to Oklahoma. As a result of McGirt, the reservations of other tribes similarly situated to Muscogee are also now considered extant, including that of the Cherokee Nation. All land within an extant Indian reservation is considered “Indian country.”

   "On the second-to-last day of the 2021-22 term, the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that Oklahoma — and all other states — possesses concurrent jurisdiction with the federal government over crimes committed by non-Indians against Indians in Indian country,"

   Gorsuch's reaction?  [my emphasis]

   In dissent, Justice Neil Gorsuch praised the court’s decision in Worcester, noting that it was a deeply unpopular decision at the time, but it showed that “the rule of law meant something.” Criticizing the majority for discarding the Worcester presumption in the absence of congressional authorization, he concluded, “Where this Court once stood firm, today it wilts.” Comparing Oklahoma in the 2020s to Georgia in the 1930s, both of which asserted criminal jurisdiction in “lawless disregard” of tribal sovereignty, Gorsuch described a much-different history than the majority. Justices Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor, and Elena Kagan joined Gorsuch’s dissent.

    

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   1. This decision essentially ignores precedent going back more than 150 years, to the Marshall Court.  Lather, rinse, repeat with the jackass court

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      1. They don't care about no stinking precedent unless it helps their argument.

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         1. That is truly the case.  The court majority is result oriented, only looks at those precedents that back their preconceptions,

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5. Denver just posted nearly final numbers. The number of outstanding ballots is not enough to change any outcomes or probably not bring them into recount range.

   CU Regent for CD1 Dem primary winner: Wanda James

   HD6 Dem primary winner: Elisabeth Epps

   Why are there outstanding ballots at this point you might ask. There are several possible answers:

   1. People who mailed/dropped off a mail ballot without signing it have until tomorrow to rectify that. I don’t know how many have already been rectified, but the beginning number was pretty small.

   2. Provisionals have not been counted yet and can’t be until next week by law. The number of provisionals is very small this election, maybe even single digits.

   3. Overseas voters have until tomorrow for their ballots to arrive and can still be counted if they were postmarked by Tuesday. (it’s a special rule for military and overseas folks called UOCAVA voters)

   So all totaled, it’s not enough to change any outcomes, but every eligible voter’s ballot will be counted before they certify the election sometime next week.

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