Law prof: Some of the Best Justices Were Nasty It may come as a surprise to those who claim Brett Kavanaugh lacks the right disposition…
Law prof: Some of the Best Justices Were Nasty
It may come as a surprise to those who claim Brett Kavanaugh lacks the right disposition to sit on the Supreme Court, says Noah Feldman at Bloomberg, but several of the greatest justices in history “had disastrously bad, highly unjudicial temperaments.” Fact is, Hugo Black, Robert Jackson, William O. Douglas and Felix Frankfurter were all “nasty, vindictive, backbiting, ambitious and partisan.” Indeed, a contemporary observer called the court “nine scorpions in a bottle” — and “scorpions aren’t known for their courtesy or judiciousness.” Yet those four “all made historically significant contributions to constitutional law and the court.” Which is why we need to remember that “temperament isn’t destiny — and that judicial greatness isn’t always the same thing as calm and courtesy.”
Foreign desk: Allies Will Follow US Lead on Iran
Back in 2011, recalls Richard Goldberg at Foreign Policy, the Obama administration was “livid” when a bipartisan Senate bloc prepared to vote for crippling sanctions on the Central Bank of Iran. Officials insisted Washington “would not be able to force its allies to go along.” But the Senate approved them unanimously, and “every European and Asian ally” complied. The measure “was such a success” that President Barack Obama later even claimed credit for it. Today, “the same old opponents of tough sanctions on Iran” have “come out of the woodwork,” but “their arguments ring as hollow. . as they did in the past.” Because, “cry as they might along the way, no European or Asian corporation is going to choose a terrorist regime over access to the US dollar.”
From the left: Audacious Hoax Embarrasses Academia
Yascha Mounk at The Atlantic reports that over the past 12 months, three scholars “wrote 20 fake papers using fashionable jargon to argue for ridiculous conclusions, and tried to get them placed in high-profile journals in fields including gender studies, queer studies and fat studies.” One was even a thinly disguised rewrite of Hitler’s “Mein Kampf.” Yet their success rate “was remarkable” — only six were rejected and seven have already been published. Turns out “some academic emperors — the ones who supposedly have the most to say about these crucial topics — have no clothes.” Because “if they are so invested in overcoming injustice that they are willing to embrace rank cruelty as long as it is presented in the right kind of progressive jargon, they are worsening the problems they purport to address.”
Liberal take: Dems’ Idiocy Could Cost Them Senate
If Democrats end up botching their chance to retake control of the US Senate, they’ll only have “their own foolishness” to blame, suggests The Week’s Ryan Cooper. That’s because the Democratic establishment stuck with New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez “and his long history of outrageous corruption,” when they “could have ditched this turkey for virtually any other person in the state and cruised to victory.” Instead, top Democrats “protected and enabled him.” Indeed, “the entire New Jersey Democratic machine — which is very nearly as corrupt as that of New York, and that is saying a lot — circled the wagons around Menendez.” So polls showing him in a surprisingly tight race are “an object lesson in the political dangers of letting moral rot slide.”
Tax watchdog: Kill Subsidies for Electric Vehicles
Why, asks Ross Marchand at the Washington Examiner, can’t Washington “help but get wrapped up in the tech sector, placing ludicrously large bets on boondoggles that benefit few at the expense of many”? Case in point: electric vehicles and their associated tax credits. Lawmakers are considering yet another expansion of the generous 2008 credit, but while they should “question the wisdom of such a costly move, a handout to high-income families with little or no environmental benefit,” they have “trouble kicking their costly addiction to shiny ‘green’ tech.” Rather than “gamble America’s energy fortunes on subsidies and dirty, despicable labor practices, policymakers should embrace a diverse portfolio that powers the country at a low cost. This means a vibrant mix of vehicles and electricity sources at every price point, from the working poor to the wealthy.”
— Compiled by Eric Fettmann
