Bracing yourself for a load of backward-looking, precedent-ignoring, and legally absurd ideological rulings from controlling extremists on the U.S. Supreme Court is unnerving, to say the least.
The fear of what is to come is deepened by the ethical scandals and conflicts of interest swirling around some of the court’s more dogmatic decision-makers.
In 2024, the highest court in the land will not be a respected bastion of judicial integrity. How can that be when information is released about the justices who are wined, dined, and jetted to exotic locations by billionaire clients with cases before the court? How can it be with judges who refuse to disqualify themselves in cases with significant consequences, even when the competing interests they bring to the proceedings make their impartiality legitimately questionable?
We’re stuck with a broken court of right-wingers on a MAGA mission. We cannot strip them of their lifetime SCOTUS nominations. The president has all the cards in his hand on this issue.
It was a convicted felon running for his venerable White House job who built the current hard-line majority on the court that has ended half a century of abortion rights, invalidated a host of other freedoms, and deregulated every possible measure to protect public health and safety.
The court delayed Donald Trump’s desperate request for immunity to avoid impeachment over his 2020 election loss. The two judges ready to rule on this travesty, as well as another case on January 6, should not be anywhere near either of them. The flags displayed by rampaging insurrectionists on January 6 were similar to those displayed at Justice Samuel Alito’s homes.
Judge Clarence Thomas is married to a MAGA fanatic involved in the coup attempt that culminated on January 6. The only thing we can do is watch as public trust in this institution falls to zero and wait until the flood of most vital judgments plunges us into despair. Our fate is sealed. For generations.
Our means to fix what is truly wrong on the Supreme Court are constrained to who we put in the Oval Office and who we elect to the U.S. Senate. But in Ohio, voters can fix what’s wrong with the state’s highest court and change what they don’t like. They can retire judges who act unethically, fail to recuse themselves in cases where there is an obvious conflict of interest, or exercise authority diligently as partisans rather than impartial lawyers.
Ohioans have a say in who serves on the state’s highest court and influence their lives. In addition to the judge’s temperament and outstanding achievements, there is also the issue of the candidate’s fidelity to the law, regardless of the party. Will the state’s constitutional right to abortion be upheld as approved by an overwhelming majority of voters, or will it be diminished by a party-line court vote?
Will Ohio’s gerry gerrymandering, skewing legislative and congressional districts to unfairly advantage one party, be deemed an unlawful mockery of the state constitution, or will it be continually supported by one of the parties constituting the court’s majority?
Unfortunately, thanks to the Republican-backed 2021 bill, political affiliation has become extremely vital in Ohio judicial races. This measure politicized judicial elections as a means to achieve partisan goals (more Republican judges). Requires certain judicial candidates, including state highest court justices, to now run under a partisan label.
Voters tend to know little and care less about judicial races at the bottom of the ballot. Party labels attached to candidates running for judicial positions make it easier for the uninformed to vote for the ticket of a heterosexual party, and the color red is becoming redder. Partisan tags, first applied to Supreme Court justices in the 2022 general election, worked like a charm. Republicans swept all three Supreme Court races to solidify a 4-3 majority on the benches.
Now it’s up to Ohio voters. Between now and November 5, do your homework on the high-stakes Ohio Supreme Court races. Beginning Here AND Here AND Here. Be an engaged voter. Not lethargic.
Who has the final say on state regulation in Ohio cannot be left to chance or biased labels designed to unknown unskilled and unprincipled players. Or we will prepare for an Ohio Supreme Court that will mirror SCOTUS.
