The people can take it to the pols

This is likely to be a nasty week framed by upcoming Supreme Court decisions, most likely killing the remnants of affirmative action, affirming that religious bigotry deserves protection from the claims of gay rights in public accommodations, and denying the government's effort to forgive student loans which are made and administered by the government. Not pretty.

With a 6-3 -- mostly wingnut -- Supreme Court majority, we're on track for a lot of Junes when the hits to equality, progress, and freedom keep on coming.

What's particularly difficult about these blows coming from the Court is that we are not used to visualizing what our democratic actions can do now that the right wing project to pack the court has succeeded. 

When the political actors are elected officials, either legislative or executive, we know what to do. Here progressive community organizations in San Francisco pressure the Board and Mayor not to dump the burden of the city's economic woes on neighborhood services.

June 26, 2023

But what to do when the offenders are robed and reserved judicial priests in a marble palace in DC?

We are NOT helpless:

• We can attend to the amazing history lessons in democratic Constitutional interpretation delivered by new Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson; she's charting a course for a better judicial direction.

• We can keep calling out the blatant corruption of the worst of them. This palling with wealthy litigants stuff has been a long time practice (gift link) of conservative judges. They need to be shamed.

• We can goose our elected officials to take Court corruption seriously. It's not clear what electeds can do -- but we can make it clear we elect them to figure that out. This sometimes works.

• And though we'll be told direct agitation is useless, it doesn't hurt. I have friends who still have their t-shirts from marches on the Court for civil rights and gay marriage. Folks got arrested; sometimes a useful tactic. The justices will say they've closed their ears, but direct action keeps them listening. A majority of them still think they should be respected and liked. They aren't and won't be so long as the only rights they recognize are those of white Christian billionaires.

Demand Justice seems a good advocacy group making concrete proposals for court reform. 

The Court has already crashed in public esteem since it allowed states to outlaw reproductive health care. It can fall further. This matters.