"A court captured by far-right conspiracy theories": How the GOP drove the Supreme Court off a cliff

[marmar]

"A court captured by far-right conspiracy theories": How the GOP drove the Supreme Court off a cliff
In her new book "Lawless," law professor Leah Litman chronicles the collapse of reason at the highest court

By Amanda Marcotte
Senior Writer
Published May 16, 2025 7:41AM (EDT)


(Salon) "Strict Scrutiny" cohost Leah Litman has the profile of a person who, in previous eras, would seem like a defender of the Supreme Court. She's a law professor at the University of Michigan and once worked as a law clerk for former Justice Anthony Kennedy. In recent years, she's become one of the most outspoken critics of how the current iteration of the nation's highest court has abandoned good faith readings of the law, basic legal reasoning, and even facts in pursuit of a far-right agenda. In her new book, "Lawless: How the Supreme Court Runs on Conservative Grievance, Fringe Theories, and Bad Vibes," Litman chronicles the decline of this once-venerated institution. She spoke with Salon about her book and how recent cases suggest the court is getting even more unhinged in this second Donald Trump administration.

I listened to oral arguments for Mahmoud v. Taylor, and I was struck by how victimized Sam Alito acted during the entire thing. He felt he was being oppressed by this children's book called "Uncle Bobby's Wedding." It perfectly illustrated the thesis of your book, which is about how much the jurisprudence of the current Supreme Court is all vibes and grievance. What were you thinking when you listened to those arguments?

I don't know whether to laugh or to cry. The justices keep providing me with so much content and so much material after I finished the manuscript. It perfectly reflects this notion of conservative grievance: the idea that social conservatives, religious conservatives, all the core parts of the Republican constituency, are the real victims. And there's no discrimination except against white evangelical Christians. That worldview was on display.

This is a children's book about a young girl being concerned that when her favorite uncle got married, he'd have less time for her. Justice Alito read it as a personal attack and rank discrimination against religious conservatives like him because her favorite uncle happened to be getting married to a man. Apparently, acknowledging that some men marry men whom they love is discrimination against Sam Alito and people who believe that marriage is between a man and a woman. It was stunning in its clarity.

....(snip)....

There's been this myth for a long time that there might be liberal judges and conservative judges, but they all adhere to the same belief that they should follow the facts and they should follow the law. Brett Kavanaugh talked about it as "calling balls and strikes." To reject the obvious reading of a children's picture book suggests that's not the case. How far have they drifted from those basic principles?

Oh, I would say quite far. It wasn't just Sam Alito, although he is the best example and encapsulation of this conservative grievance, bad vibes, fringe theory direction that the Supreme Court is headed in. During the same oral argument, you had Neil Gorsuch insisting that the book "Pride Puppy" involved a sex worker who was into bondage. If you read the book, there is a woman wearing a leather jacket, and she's at a Pride parade. Neil Gorsuch took from that and insisted, no, the book actually involves bondage and sex workers. ......................(more)

https://www.salon.com/2025/05/16/a-captured-by-far-right-conspiracy-theories-how-the-drove-the-off-a-cliff/

[CrispyQ]

1. Men so fragile they're threatened by anyone who believes differently than they do.

Wow. I just don't understand how so many other men look up to these types of men. ???

[lees1975]

2. The Democrats had the power to put a stop to this nonsense in 2020.

And perferred to play old school politics instead.