Wednesday, March 4, 2020

Chief Justice John Roberts criticizes Senator Chuck Schumer over threats.

Chief Justice John Roberts. Steve Petteway via Wikipedia.

In a rare public comment Chief Justice John Roberts has issued a rare public statement condemning a statement from Senate Minority leader Chuck Schumer of threatening language. The Hill. Schumer, in reference to the court hearing an abortion case, said “I want to tell you, Gorsuch, I want to tell you, Kavanaugh, you have released the whirlwind, and you will pay the price," and “You won’t know what hit you if you go forward with these awful decisions." Schumer claimed that the price would be a political cost but Roberts rejected that saying "Justices know that criticism comes with the territory, but threatening statements of this sort from the highest levels of government are not only inappropriate, they are dangerous,". 
My Comment:
Just a quick post about today's biggest controversy. I think that Schumer was way out of line here. Directly threatening members of the Supreme Court is not something that should fly. This is way different than saying justices should recuse themselves, like President Trump just did. This was a threat and could even be interpreted as a threat of violence.

Schumer says his comments were about political consequences but even that's pretty bad. Was he saying he would stack the court? Is he saying he would try to remove the justices in question? Is he saying the Democrats would win in 2020? I don't know but what I do know is that it wasn't going to change the decisions the court makes.

Given the political climate these days I don't think Schumer should be saying these kinds of things. After all, we aren't that far removed from the congressional baseball shooting that almost ended with several dead congressmen. We got lucky that time that nobody died but if some psychopath hears Schumer's words they could end up trying the same thing, only this time with the Supreme Court.

As for the case itself, I don't know why the Democrats are so worked up. I sincerely doubt that the case at hand, which is an abortion law requiring a doctor to have privileges at a hospital, is going to overturn Roe vs Wade. The case probably will result in more abortion restrictions but it's not going to stop abortions. It just seems like another case of the Democrats not wanting to accept the consequences of losing the 2016 election.

In the end though, I don't think much will come from this. I know there is an effort to censure Schumer but that's about the only thing that will happen for sure. The chances of some psycho taking this as advice are pretty low even in this charged political climate. Soon, other news will push this out of the memory of all but the most devoted political news followers. 

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