closg00 wrote:dobrojim wrote:Supreme Corruption. It *is* the worst decision since Dred Scott, or ever (?). It's hard to decide.
Maybe Biden needs to take advantage and do some official acts to save what's left of the country.
I was weighing if it was worse than Dredd Scott too, in the hands of Donald Trump, we’re under a de facto Dictatorship.
Taney writing Dred Scott certainly remains the worse opinion in a vacuum when comparing opinions 1v1. However, I would argue that Dred Scott was written at a time, and in a historical context where Taney was "merely" perpetuating the status quo and refusing to grant new rights to people whereas the Roberts Court thus far has been defined by a continuous effort to make the nation more regressive and is actively taking away existing rights, which is a crazy thing to type out.
Also, Trump v. United States is, from a technical perspective, a worse opinion, in terms of its structure, logic, lack of foundation, and direct contradiction of the words of the Constitution. Furthermore, Taney was at least the exercising the power of the judiciary as a check on the other branches. Roberts is actively surrendering power and abdicating responsibility as a check to the executive and legislative branches.
Holistically, considering Roberts' body of work, he may be the worst chief justice ever. Compare Roberts to Burger and Rehnquist, who were both considered to be reactionary conservative courts that sought to undo the progress made by the Warren Court. Despite being conservatives, Burger decided Chevron, Roe v. Wade, and US v. Nixon (President can't shield himself from producing evidence in a criminal prosecution on the doctrine of executive privilege). Rehnquist decided Lawrence v. Texas (can't criminalize homosexuality), and Grutter v. Bollinger (upheld affirmative action).
Rehnquist was chief justice for 19 years, and Burger for 17 years. Roberts, thus far in his 19 year tenure, has only produced one landmark decision that could be considered "good:" Obergefell (legalizing gay marriage). The "bad" opinions include (a) overturning affirmative action; (b) overturning Chevron; (c) overturning Roe v. Wade; and (d) negating a number of Nixon-era executive privilege/immunity cases with Trump v. United States.
Oh, and don't forget Shelby County, US v. Heller, Kneecapping Obamacare with Sebelius, an entire string of cases relating to campaign finance starting with Citizens United, an entire string of cases relating to gerrymandering, and an entire string of cases that uses "religious liberty" for all sorts of previously prohibited conduct such as discrimination, and inermixing of Church and State.
And the footnote to all of this is the non-legal stuff like Alito and Thomas's naked partisan biases and conflicts of interest, the bribery, Gorsuch's contentious confirmation over Garland, Kavannaugh's contentious confirmation being mired by sexual assault allegations, ACB's weird religious trad sect ties, etc.
