Might Makes (Extreme) Right

In #SCOTUS's Alabama rulings, Justice Kavanaugh complained about the "worn-out rhetoric" used by critics of the Court's "shadow docket."

For @MSNBCDaily, me on why what's increasingly "worn out" by these rulings is the Supreme Court's *own* credibility:https://t.co/G0CueGpmxV

— Steve Vladeck (@steve_vladeck) February 8, 2022

I have a memory of the Brown v Board case, which was a unanimous decision. The memory is either from Con Law or just something I read, but it is that Chief Justice Warren worked for months to get a unanimous ruling on that case. He knew how important it was, and he knew the full authority of the Court was all that would legitimize the decision to finally bury “separate but equal.”

And now the Court is destroying the only application of that doctrine past just integrating schools (which isn’t being done anymore anyway). But it is doing it on the shadow docket and in bare majority rulings. Because, as everywhere else in government, power is all that matters.

And by 5 to 4, the right side of the Court has the power. It’s all they need.

Definitely nothing we can do about it. The Court is sacrosanct and can only be accepted, never challenged or changed in any way. Right?