Not even pretending

Created
Mon, 10/04/2023 - 00:30
Updated
Mon, 10/04/2023 - 00:30
The law is what they say it is Remember when conservatives accused the left of having no morals, of situational ethics?Remember when conservatives pretended to believe in “a transcendant moral order“? As Archie and Edith sang in the post-1960s, “Those were the days.” Now nullification is back. Election denialism is in vogue. (Kari Lake still insists she is the rightful governor of Arizona.) Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch over the last five years “felt obliged to disclose his receipt of a fishing rod, a watercolor painting, and cowboy boots” in his financial disclosures. Justice Samuel Alito disclosed the gift of a “bronze cast of hand,” tweets Mark Joseph Stern. Yet Justice Clarence Thomas “refused to disclose trips on a billionaire’s private jet for his own personal pleasure.” The Thomas expose from Pro Publica would be beyond belief except for not being. Ruth Marcus is aghast at the ruling in Texas on Friday to strip FDA approval of a pharmaceutical abortion pill available and proven safe for over 20 years: Congratulations are in order for Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk. The competition is fierce and will remain so, but for now he holds the title: worst federal judge in America. Not simply for the poor quality of his judicial reasoning, although more, much more, on this in a bit. What really distinguishes Kacsmaryk is the loaded content of his rhetoric — not the language of a sober-minded, impartial jurist but of a zealot, committed more to promoting a cause than applying the law.…