Decoding Sen. Merkeley’s Supreme Court scare

By Taxpayers Association of Oregon
OregonWatchdog.com

Here are some quotes from a fundraising email from Oregon U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley regarding last week’s decisions and the injunction case:

SENATOR MERKELY: “On Friday, the Supreme Court handed Donald Trump a massive victory, and it should terrify every American who believes in the rule of law.”

THE TRUTH: There is no law being broken, nor rule of law violated by the U.S. Supreme Court.   Smaller districts courts have never been authorized or empowered to invoke nationwide injunctions.

Even Obama appointee Supreme Court Judge Elena Kagan said in 2022 when injunctions were used against Biden, “in the Trump years people used to go to the Northern District of California and in the Biden years they go to Texas, and it just can’t be right that one district judge can stop a nationwide policy in its tracks and and leave it stopped for the years that it takes to go through normal process.”

Kagan was right then, Kagan is right now if you apply the same logic. Yet, Kagan now has changed her legal guidelines because Trump is involved.

Follow principles and not politics.

SENATOR MERKLEY: “Now, the Supreme Court says those courts overstepped. Instead of providing clarity, the Court is creating a haphazard legal system where your rights under the Constitution will depend on which zip code you live in.”

THE TRUTH: Anyone from any zip code can file and join a class-action lawsuit. There are reasonable limits for when injunctions abuse the process by opting-in people by compulsion and opting-in entire states into your lawsuit.   In deference to critical matters, the Supreme Court still accepts expedited cases (from any zip code).

SENATOR MERKLEY: “when Trump breaks the law, our judicial system has limited use of a key tool that could stop him.”

THE TRUTH: Absolutely wrong. If Trump breaks the law, there is a legal course of action.  Politicians want the court to go beyond their authority.  Justice Amy Coney Barret explained in her opinion on this case “We will not dwell on JUSTICE JACKSON’s [dissenting] argument, which is at odds with more than two centuries’ worth of precedent, not to mention the Constitution itself. We observe only this: JUSTICE JACKSON decries an imperial Executive while em-bracing an imperial Judiciary.  No one disputes that the Executive has a duty to follow the law. But the Judiciary does not have unbridled authority to enforce this obligation—in fact, sometimes the law prohibits the Judiciary from doing so”.   Justice Barret is perfectly correct!

SENATOR MERKLEY: ” Checks and balances? Gone.  Accountability? Erased. The threat to our democracy? Growing by the day.”

THE TRUTH: The court has not removed accountability.  In fact, according to data checkers SCOTUS-Blog, 42% of all Supreme Court verdicts this term were unanimous, yes unanimous! This is similar to the previous two terms which were between 40-50% unanimous.   That means the Court is making cross-partisan and unanimous decisions nearly half the time.  In fact, Elena Kagan is on the winning side of Court decisions 70% of the time — which is more than Thomas, Alito and Gorsuch.  These are not the signs of a rogue court or a threat to democracy.

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