I (John French) have, for two decades or so, tilted at a number of windmills -- mostly what would be considered as being intractable issues -- such as, Palestine and Israel (advocating dialogue via video conference with groups of citizens on each side and translators -- my tikkun olam dialogue project) and fixing the Dodd-Frank Act via amendment (reform that was considered by some experts as “bank-approved” reform, which did not sufficiently address some very significant flaws in the regulatory infrastructure and would allow another financial crisis to occur). My most recent windmill: urging citizens to educate themselves regarding the U.S. Supreme Court’s unconscionable campaign-finance jurisprudence, which was inspired by Rob Hager’s book, “Strategy for Democracy…” (a very long book title that I always truncate and then tell folks that, if they Google the author’s name and the truncated title, the link to this book (free/on the internet) will appear at the top of the search results). My wife (for all of these years and a few more), Brenda, has now given up and joined me in my pursuit of a more perfect union (and world) in our latest mission: our Fight for Our Freedoms campaign (and, this time, there is hope, now that there is actually considerable support -- even in Congress -- for checking SCOTUS, now that the current Court majority has grown to a super majority and their absolute, unchecked power has corrupted them to the point, as many experts now agree, that they currently pose a clear and present danger to American democracy and the rule of law (see Note, below).
Note: Please see Judge J. Michael Luttig’s remarks in this video, here: https://youtu.be/oUGF0IIwVAU .
We (Brenda and I) wonder how many days during the Court’s (SCOTUS) last term (just ended in July) were days when Justice Sotomayor needed to go to her office and cry. We are thinking that there were many such days during this most recent term. Like the day the Court decided that Trump should have immunity for committing crimes while in office (such as, conspiring to interrupt the certification of the Electoral College vote count by the Senate, or conspiring to have “fake electors” sign false electoral certificates claiming that Trump won the election in their states contrary to the actual election results in their states, and other crimes for which he has been indicted) and the day the Court decided to strike down the “Chevron doctrine” and the day the Court decided that bump stocks should not have been banned by the Department of Justice (you know… bump stocks like the one the Las Vegas music festival shooter used when “[h]e fired more than 1,000 rounds, killing 60 people and wounding at least 413” (per Wikipedia) ). So, we are recommending that everybody set aside a few minutes to watch this brief video (dated May 29), if you have not already seen this Instagram post by Melissa Murray (Professor, NYU Law), in which Sotomayor tells an audience that there are days that she cries in her office when the Court rulings are enough to make grown people cry. (Personal note from John: I don’t know if I cried on the days the Court issued the rulings mentioned above (and several others), but I can tell you I was quite angry! (See video, here: https://youtu.be/DEN0oLi9PHk .)
