The "loss of legitimacy" part of the title is mine. The rest is Rachel Maddow:
"[In Bush v Gore, Conservative justices] were pretty happy to take radical legal action, as long as it achieved a political aim that they wanted." [7:54]
"If you go by what people tell pollsters — we think the majority of the Court is a partisan body that will do anything in their power to help politicians who are on their side, and to hurt politicians who are on the other side." [10:57]Needless to say, this is another excellent segment from Team Maddow. It's about the mess that the Supreme Court has become (clearly by design).
The segment is in two parts:
■ She begins with the decision in Bush v Gore, which Bruce Ackerman calls "a constitutional coup". (Does that phrase sound familiar?)
Then she pivots to voter suppression, which is why the Florida election was stealable in the first place.
If you listen to just the first half of the segment (seven minutes or so), you might think the take-away is — Voters in Florida don't care that voter registration is a crime, so they deserve what they get.
A perfect half-segment, and she could have stopped there, with the mess in Florida. But there's more.
■ She then pivots back to the Supreme Court (7:30). First, back to Bush v Gore, then to Citizens United, and finally to this week's oral arguments on the ACA (at 9:20).
Watch:
Don't miss the chart at 10:32. And don't miss the comments (at 11:10) connecting the Koch Bros–funded AFP demonstration outside the Court with the MoveCon–"funded" Clarence Thomas & family.
It's a brave new world; glad it's being called out.
GP
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