Three-Point Shots, Vol. 1, No. 8: Democracy Stress Tests

Welcome to another edition of Three-Point Shots, an occasional series briefly surveying three interrelated stories of passing importance. Three-Point Shots is a part of my Life Its Ownself Substack page. If you enjoy reading it, please 1) hit the Like button at the bottom, 2) subscribe to the Life Its Ownself newsletter, and 3) share it with others in the link below. Also, comments welcome and encouraged.

Friday, April 7, 2023

         The political commentariat is very fond of saying that American democracy is undergoing a “stress test,” by which they usually mean whatever outrage Donald Trump has perpetrated in the last news cycle. But the dangers to American democracy are, in my opinion, much broader than the latest foibles of the Orange Mad King.

         Today, three vignettes of democracy teetering off the rails.

1.    The Most Expensive, and Partisan, Judicial Race in History

         When I was in law school, one of the themes constantly pounded into our entitled skulls was that justice was to be administered without fear or favor to all. And, importantly, the judiciary was to be impartial in its rulings, free of ideological or partisan “passions,” as James Madison might call them.   

         It was never entirely true, of course, but it was the agreed-upon fiction that we lawyers, and much of society, embraced. My, how times have changed.

         In Wisconsin this week, Janet Protasiewicz, a Milwaukee County judge, was elected to the state’s Supreme Court in what was the most expensive judicial race in American history. Protasiewicz, a liberal,  defeated Daniel Kelly, a conservative former Wisconsin Supreme Court justice, in a race that was explicitly partisan and explicitly ideological. She made abortion rights her signature issue; he charged that she’d been soft on crime as a local judge.

         Both made statements indicating that they had firm opinions on cases that might come before them, which was once a no-no. Judges were never to pre-judge cases (not the same as having an opinion about an issues) and judicial selection was supposed to be based on “judicial philosophy and temperament” rather than crass appeals to the issues of the day.

         But those days are fading if not already gone, part of the politicization and fragmentation of our great nation. Thank heavens our Supreme Court is still a bastion of rectitude and high principle.

2. The Staggering Corruption of Clarence Thomas

         Whoops! I spoke too soon. A stunning report by the investigative journalism nonprofit Pro Publica reveals that

For more than two decades, [SCOTUS Justice Clarence] Thomas has accepted luxury trips virtually every year from the Dallas businessman [and Republican megadonor Harlan Crow] without disclosing them, documents and interviews show. A public servant who has a salary of $285,000, he has vacationed on Crow’s superyacht around the globe. He flies on Crow’s Bombardier Global 5000 jet. He has gone with Crow to the Bohemian Grove, the exclusive California all-male retreat, and to Crow’s sprawling ranch in East Texas. And Thomas typically spends about a week every summer at Crow’s private resort in the Adirondacks.

The extent and frequency of Crow’s apparent gifts to Thomas have no known precedent in the modern history of the U.S. Supreme Court.

These trips appeared nowhere on Thomas’ financial disclosures. His failure to report the flights appears to violate a law passed after Watergate that requires justices, judges, members of Congress and federal officials to disclose most gifts, two ethics law experts said. He also should have disclosed his trips on the yacht, these experts said.

         Read the whole thing. Thomas imperially declined to comment on the report. That puts the flaming sack of excrement squarely in Chief Justice John Roberts’s lap, who has been fighting a losing battle to convince the public that the SCOTUS is anything more than a privileged bunch of partisan hacks.

         Good luck with this one, John.

3.    Tennessee House: Why Not Just Go With Defenestration?

         Alert Readers will recall the 2013 filibuster by then-State Sen. Wendy Davis of what was then the most restrictive abortion bill proposed in the nation. (Oh, those halcyon days …) They may recall that thousands of pro-choice Texans filled the Capitol Building, cheering on the filibuster.  

(Protesters fill the Texas Capitol as state Sen. Wendy Davis filibusters a bill on abortion regulations. Credit: Todd Wiseman for the Texas Tribune)

         And they may recall that, after Davis’s filibuster had ended and the Senate was trying to rush through passage before midnight, then-State Sen. Leticia Van de Putte, frustrated that the presiding officer refused to recognize her, asked, “At what point must a female senator raise her hand or her voice to be recognized over the male colleagues in the room?”

         Her question set off cheering in the gallery that spread to the entire building; in the pandemonium, it was impossible for the Senate to vote on the bill before the midnight deadline.

         As exasperated by the “unruly mob” as he was, it probably did not occur to then-Lieutenant Governor David Dewhurst or the GOP majority to try to expel Davis or Van de Putte for their roles in the demonstration. (I would not be so sanguine about Dewhurst’s successor, Lite Guv Dan Patrick.) And so it should be.

         Yesterday, however, the Tennessee House of Representatives expelled two of its members for their behavior in support of protesters rallying for better gun safety laws in the wake of the Covenant School massacre. According to The Tennessean, the two, and a third member who narrowly escaped expulsion,

approached the podium, called the "well," without being recognized to speak — breaching the chamber’s rules of procedure. 

With a bullhorn, Rep. Justin Jones, D-Nashville, Rep. Justin Pearson, D-Memphis, and Rep. Gloria Johnson, D-Knoxville, led protestors in the galleries in several chants calling for gun reform. 

[House Speaker Cameron] Sexton immediately recessed the chamber, halting legislative business for nearly an hour before it resumed, and ordered security to clear the House galleries. 

         In the aftermath, hysterical reps clutched their pearls and compared the boisterous but peaceful protests to January 6. The GOP supermajority in the House passed a resolution calling for the ouster of all three. The representatives conceded their breach of House rules but argued that expulsion was an excessive and inappropriate response. In the end, the two black representatives were expelled.

         For the next several weeks, their dismissal deprives 158,000 (mostly black) residents of Nashville and Memphis of a voice during the most consequential part of the legislative session. At some point, elections will be held to fill the vacancies, at which the expelled members will likely run and win. Will the GOP majority refuse to seat them a second time?

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         The weekend … Ramadan Mubarak and Happy Passover to those that celebrate. This is Holy Week, when Christians celebrate the crucifixion, death and resurrection of Jesus.

         For your reading … I have been a big fan of Chris Cillizza for years. I enjoyed his columns, which I thought were insightful, and his TV appearances, where he leavened his insights with a touch of humor and a dash of snark. After he was laid off by CNN in December, he’s come back with “So What?” on Substack. Give it a read, and maybe even subscribe.