Seeking Justice For The Justice
Just when you think there couldn’t possibly be any more room under the bus for the president to throw another political dissenter, it looks like the administration is thinking about trying to squeeze somebody else under there, someone about the size of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
The White House has been hinting strongly through its numerous minions that it is time for Ginsburg to retire. After all, she could die any day they reason, due to her ripe old age of 81, and they are saying she should be loyal enough to the president and his party to get out of the way so this president can appoint a younger person who has the potential to carry his liberal banner many years into the future.
In a recent interview with Jessica Weisberg in the lifestyle magazine “Elle”, the Justice said “Who do you think President Obama could appoint at this very day, given the boundaries that we have? If I resign any time this year, he could not successfully appoint anyone I would like to see in the court. The Senate Republicans took off the filibuster for lower federal court appointments, but it remains for this court. So anybody who thinks that if I step down, Obama could appoint someone like me, they’re misguided.”
So the tiny justice, who stands just barely 5 feet 1 inch tall, has let it be known she isn’t going anywhere.
And you know what? I agree with her absolutely and entirely. So why am I, being the staunch conservative opinionist that I am, defending the most liberal female justice on the Supreme Court?
Well, life is not always about politics. I believe there is a mentality out there that treats people when they reach a certain age as if they are no longer intelligent, nor rational, nor capable of making decisions just because of their age. And I resent that.
Apparently the Justice feels the same way as she continued in the Weisberg interview: “As long as I can do the job full steam, I think I”ll recognize when the time comes that I can’t any longer. But now I can. I wasn’t slowed down at all last year in my production of opinions.”
That mentality also is reflected in how our society has now come to assess the life value of a person. The ObamaCare legislation is a perfect example. I’ve researched that law and found that it contains some very chilling restrictions with regard to age. Whether you blame it on a doctor shortage, or call it a death panel or rationing or end of life management, the fact is that in a few years, notably 2017, more provisions of the law will come into play that will make it more difficult for senior citizens to obtain necessary health care at the very time that they need it the most.
It is reflected in the massive scandal which has almost consumed the Veterans Administration where our oldest and sickest veterans have been ignored just because staffers feel they are too difficult to deal with.
It is reflected in an increase in rudeness toward older people out in the public arena. Yes, we may move more slowly physically and our mental processing may take a little longer but that doesn’t mean our intellect is not just as sharp and in most cases it means that our wisdom is even greater.
I remember the day about 4 years ago when a Lebanon businessman accused me of being “senile” because I was having trouble finding my keys at the bottom of my purse while I was in his place of business. Seriously? Yes, seriously.
In a recent interview with USA Today, Justice Ginsburg said she is the “hardest working justice” on the Supreme Court today. And she told Marc Tracy in a New Republic article that “I think one should stay as long as one can do the job. Can you think as well? Can you write with the same fluency? At my age you take it year by year. I’m OK this year.”
Steve Benen, a political writer and a producer for the Rachel Maddow show on MSNBC is one of those calling for her to resign, even going so far as to say that “by deferring retirement, the liberal Supreme Court justice is taking an enormous risk - with the court’s future, with the nation’s future, with our future, and with her own legacy.”
So why are Benen and many others in the president’s inner circle of advisors trying to push this Supreme Court Justice off the cliff?
The President doesn’t think he owes her anything. She was Bill Clinton’s appointee, not Obama’s, but he owes Attorney General Eric Holder a lot. New Jersey Superior Court Judge Andrew Napolitano put it this way: "Every time that Barack Obama has bent, broken, avoided or evaded the Constitution or federal law, Eric Holder has been at his side, cheering him on, providing intellectual cover and purporting to give him legal advice authorizing what the president wanted to do."
It is my opinion that the president would like to reward his friend with an appointment to the Supreme Court but if that should ever happen Holder would do major damage to our Constitution. That opinion is based upon the following facts, together with many other similar actions and statements.
In 2008, Eric Holder claimed that the Second Amendment does not protect an individual’s right to keep and bear arms,
In Holder’s opinion, Islamic terrorists had a right to be treated as criminal defendants and not enemy combatants.
He refused to call the Fort Hood shooting an act of terrorism and instead referred to it as workplace violence, and it looks as if we are going to see the same about the Oklahoma beheading.
Are you worried yet?
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