Let us look a bit closer at some of the decisions and concepts promoted by just three of the possible nominees (for the sake of brevity), with thanks to ThinkProgress.com and People for the American Way for the following information:
·
backed voter ID laws
o
one helped uphold a restrictive Georgia voter ID law and
joined one other judge in claiming that “racially disparate effects” should not
be enough to prove a violation of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, even
though the Supreme Court has ruled precisely the opposite.
o
dissented from a decision finding that a city had
violated the Voting Rights Act by improperly diluting the voting strength of
Native Americans
·
criticized not just women’s right to choose under Roe v.
Wade but even the constitutionality of the New Deal
·
wrote a decision expanding religious objectors’ ability
to limit their employees’ access to birth control coverage that has been
described as “the broadest ruling so far by a federal appeals court barring
enforcement of the birth-control mandate in the new federal health care law.
·
showed anti-reproductive-choice views in providing a
lenient sentence to two anti-abortion protesters who had to be forcibly removed
from blocking the entrance to a Milwaukee abortion clinic and had previously
been arrested 100 times for such offenses; this judge praised them for their “fine
character” and expressed “respect” for the “ultimate goals” the blockade
“sought to achieve.”
·
made the argument that anti-gay groups have a
constitutional right to continue receiving government subsidies even if they
engage in discrimination.
·
argued in favor of big business and against consumers and
discrimination victims, tried to limit corporate liability for product defects
and overturn a $1 million damages award; to protect a corporation from having
to defend against an employee’s claim of discrimination under the Americans
with Disabilities Act, and to reverse a $3.5 million bad faith judgment in
favor of a Lutheran church against its insurance company.
·
asserted in dissent that a jury verdict against a
criminal defendant should have been upheld even though there was extensive
evidence that one of the jurors did not understand English (including a
statement from the juror himself), which disqualified him from serving on a
jury under state law;
·
that a prosecutor should be immune from a claim that he fabricated
false evidence that wrongly convicted a man for 17 years
·
that a conviction under federal law against someone
convicted of domestic violence for possessing firearms should be reversed and
that the law itself could well be unconstitutional
·
favored a claim by
a student group that it should receive state funding and recognition despite
its violation of a university rule prohibiting discrimination based on sexual
orientation, an issue on which the Supreme Court reached exactly the opposite
conclusion several years later.
·
wrote decisions that reversed an $8.1 million award to
whistleblowers who helped bring a defective pricing and kickback claim against
a large corporation and a nearly $19 million class action judgment against
Tyson Foods for violating the federal Fair Labor Standards Act.
·
dissented from a number of Eighth Circuit rulings that
have upheld the rights of employees, consumers and others against big business
and government agencies;
o
In three separate cases, dissented from decisions that
employees should at least get the chance to prove in court that their employers
retaliated against them for filing sex harassment, age discrimination, or other
discrimination claims. In two more decisions, argued in dissent that public
employees should not have the opportunity to prove that they were retaliated
against
·
dissented from a decision giving African-American
shoppers the opportunity to prove discrimination claims against a large
department store
·
dissented from rulings that gave individuals a chance to
prove claims of use of excessive force and, in one case, that a city’s policy
to use police dogs to bite and hold suspects without any warning was
unconstitutional.
IT IS
EXTREMELY IMPORTANT TO BE CLEAR ON THIS:
Trump as President, would have one Supreme Court vacancy to fill
immediately that is now being held up by Senate Majority Leader McConnell on
the premise that the new President, and not Barack Obama, should have the right
to appoint Scalia’s successor. Trump has clearly indicated
that “he would draw from the most conservative segments of the judiciary to
fill vacancies on the Supreme Court.”
If Trump is elected President, this will be his first nomination to the Court, but probably not his last. In
addition to the open seat left by Scalia, there are three current justices who
are quite elderly. The next president could fill as many as four seats. As a result, the nature of the Court could be
“locked-in” for several generations; a Court that will have an ultra-right-wing
majority bent on over-turning many of the decisions now extant that influence
everyday life. This will not only
include over-turning Obamacare, but many programs like Medicare that provides
some insurance and protection for a large group of citizens. Such a Court will also be hell-bent on
overturning certain civil and human rights that we now take for granted, such
as the Violence Against Women Act, Roe v. Wade, Miranda, speedy trial, and much
more. Further,
government programs for people who happen to be poor, underprivileged,
handicapped, challenged, or in need of special consideration will, if not
voided entirely, face restrictions that essentially change the nature and
structure of any such programs.
So, here’s
the deal for all of the disgruntled unemployed and unskilled workers, blue and
white collar workers, low wage earners, and all those who simply support Trump
because they want their leader to be tough with everyone and everything: YOU WILL
GET WHAT YOU VOTE FOR!
NO MINIMUM WAGE and courts that won’t
hear your complaint
NO NEW MANUFACTURING JOBS – they are permanently
GONE and not coming back to any great extent, and any that do will soon be
replaced by robots and electronics that can do those jobs more efficiently and
at less cost per unit than YOU can.
Since Trump regards science negatively, and believes that human-caused
climate change is a “hoax”, and that fossil fuels are our future, where does
that leave YOU in terms of NEW JOBS coming on-line in the alternative fuels
industry?
NO ENHANCED SKILL TRAINING OR RE-TRAINING - the Donald has no plan
for getting our workforce ready for a new techno-world. Technology is taking over and Trump hasn’t a
clue as to how YOU will be trained to meet the challenges. Besides, practical application of
technological advances promises increased corporate profit with fewer personnel
costs, so how does an untrained or re-trained worker match up with that?
PUBLIC SCHOOLS ARE NOT GOING TO
SOLVE YOUR PROBLEMS: Trump wants to
keep them under local control, and many local school boards think ‘innovation’
and ‘creativity’ are dirty words. Too
many public schools are not prepared or equipped to meet the 21st
century – not by curriculum, technology, teaching new work skills, emphasizing
math and science, or teaching citizenship and its responsibilities, as well as
its rights and freedoms. Schools are
caught in the 19th and 20th centuries, and have no
inclination to change. And, school
choice which the Donald favors, will only denigrate and re-segregate our public
educational system at a faster pace, since making education, research, learning
and community internships dependent on profit does not benefit anyone but the
profiteers.
NOT to WORRY – the Donald
will fix it right away by giving you the choice
of sending your children to a private, for-profit school that costs an
arm and a leg; to a charter school that cherry-picks the best students; or, you
can keep your children in a public school that has been deserted by all those
who could afford to send their progeny to a private (or charter) school. By the way, you know what that means,
right? Higher taxes to pay for your children’s local public school plus having to pay for those private and
charter school subsidies mandated from the federal tax coffers! Nice
Play, Shakespeare!
NO SYMPATHY or DECISIVE ACTION
WHEN BUSINESSES ABUSE YOU because this will be the BUSINESS PRESIDENT, and workers
who join together to take their cases to court, will be shunted aside in favor of
BUSINESS every time, and Trump’s Supreme Court will take that same side against
YOU
EVERYTHING YOU HAVE COUNTED ON TO
GET THROUGH IS IN JEOPARDY – including Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, pension
rights, adequate health care, unemployment insurance; even food stamps and Pell
grants
LAW & ORDER will bring
results YOU DO NOT WANT: city curfews for
whole neighborhoods, areas or communities; neighbors spying and snitching on
neighbors; your home will no longer be your castle – your home will be able to
be invaded by the police, even if it’s a mistake; innocent people will be caught in police
militarism to establish Law & Order; some people will be targeted for
harassment, arrest, unreasonable charges and unfair sentences; YOU WILL BE ONE
of THEM if you look or act or talk in a “foreign” or “different” manner, or happen to be dark-skinned.
THE WALL WILL NOT SOLVE THE
UNEMPLOYMENT PROBLEM – Illegal immigrants are not taking away your jobs
(first jobs 'taken' by many illegal immigrants are so menial that most working
Americans will not consider them). Under
Trump, Businesses will have all the privileges and subsidies and breaks applied
to companies with those menial jobs. Some businesses will be allowed to hire
“temporary” aliens – unvetted, unscreened, unprotected, but useable for profit.
COSTS OF MILITARY BUILD-UP will not simply fall to
the wealthy – YOUR sons and daughters will be the FIRST to get the call to volunteer
or face a draft; then YOU WILL ALSO HAVE
TO PAY THE BILL for all those new unnecessary weapons systems; all the
contractors’ over-time, excess time and failures; YOU WILL PAY, not those Businesses and wealthy CEOs who will
be benefitting from your lack of consumer protection, lack of rights, and lack
of power, as well as from the many tax breaks that only they can access.
YOU are going to PAY MORE IN
TAXES to fund the WAR AGAINST ISIS
and potentially against Middle East countries that are in turmoil like Syria and Libya; to say
nothing about that country that D. Trump says has gotten so much out of the recent
Treaty signed with us and several other countries (by which the advance of
nuclear power is now restricted), but which Trump wants to renegotiate. Trump has no idea what he is talking about,
and YOU will bear the consequences when IRAN becomes belligerent.
LABOR UNIONS WILL BE OF LITTLE
HELP to you because the restrictions already upheld and those that are still to
come will cripple the Labor Movement beyond repair. Just try negotiating with a business on your
own and see how far you get in this pro-business climate. Retaliation and firing-without-cause plus
lower wages and lack of benefits will from now on be a normal part of what you
will have to face wherever you may work.
CONSUMER
PROTECTION and ADVOCACY ARE OUT THE WINDOW: If you don’t catch-on
soon, this will all come back to haunt you under ‘der Donald’ as President. Remember EPA, OSHA, FTC, AAI, NLRB, FEC – and
a myriad of others? Well, these government-based
consumer protection agencies have all been under attack when Republicans are in
the White House, and some have never returned to the staffing and budgeting
levels necessary for effective inspection and advocacy since the time of the
great destroyer of consumer advocacy, Ronald Reagan. Donald Trump will give them all the heave-ho
if given the chance because he wants “interference” with financial interests
and business interests to be minimized beyond their present status. Beyond government, don’t forget that this
attack has also been made on private consumer-based groups known for citizen
advocacy – such as ACORN, Legal Aid, Planned Parenthood, and Community Action
agencies. Consumer advocacy is GOING,
GOING, GOING – and under Trump --GONE!
With a radical Republican President
Trump, an ultra-right-wing majority on the Supreme Court, and a Congress controlled
or obstructed by Tea Party ideologues, YOU ARE ABOUT TO WISH YOU HAD
NEVER HEARD OF DONALD TRUMP. Just as Ronald Reagan betrayed his union
followers when he fired striking Air Traffic Controllers, Trump followers are about to be
betrayed beyond their wildest fears. THEY ARE ABOUT TO BE EATEN ALIVE by the forces of destruction, division, diminution,
denigration, deregulation, distrust, demonization and demoralization.
I tend, therefore, to pity those followers who
believe that Donald Trump, once in office, will carry out every promise he has made
to help particular groups of people. Why
do I say that? Because he has constantly
demonstrated in his life and in his work that his personal status,
profit, power, prestige and winning are all that matter. Equality and Justice, Charitableness and Service
to others are not important to him unless they can be used as tools to CON
others into following his lead. Therefore, I end with a personal message to Trump supporters:
