Two decisions this week are being applauded, especially noting that Gorsuch wrote the LBGTQ decision and Roberts the DACA one. Surprise! Joy! Rapture!
I read some of each decision and here’s what I think: neither Roberts nor Gorsuch is turning into a liberal, or even a great judicial thinker, in front of our eyes.
Both of them have been supported by the worst, most nefarious elements in our country: oligarchs who profess to be “libertarian.” I have a hell of a lot to say about that but not right now.
I do believe that Roberts must be pretty uneasy, if not afraid, of the massive peaceful protests. If his Court continues to defy the majority ethos this movement represents, the Court will be regarded as an alien force in our country and, one way or the other, will be seriously diminished. I doubt Roberts wants to be the first chief justice to be overruled in some fashion by The People, or neutralized by an expansion of the court which is being murmured openly about by “libertarian” lawyers, who are apparently pretty anxious that their current primacy will be overturned if the Democrats win the White House and the Senate.
Roberts did a “I’m really not commenting on the big DACA issue. I’m just nitpicking away at how the mini-minds in this Administration couldn’t put together anything like an intelligent objection, or even follow clear procedure.”
Yeah, Roberts is afraid.
As for Gorsuch? Well, here’s the thing about him. If he is owned in some fashion by the “libertarian” oligarchy, his LBGTQ decision in no way bucks their disingenuous platform. (More about that later on.) So he made one of his “textural” comments — a big “texturalist,” is Gorsuch — as a rationale for his decision. And it all came down to the word “sex” in the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that applied.
So the two things to point out about Gorsuch here: (1) his patrons don’t have any problem with gay rights, since such rights don’t challenge the only thing they do care about: eliminating government regulations and, indeed, government agencies that get in their “libertarian” way; and (2) maybe even more important although I’m not sure he realizes this — the Act was apparently very well written. It left no hole for creepy SCOTUS justices to crawl through.
So the big lesson I’ve learned from these decisions is that when the Democratic Congress is in the majority and takes up the hundreds of excellent bills produced by the House, they should write Acts with exquisite legal care and dedicate their attentions to Gorsuch’s clutch at texts.
Write for Gorsuch. No holes for anyone to wiggle through.