94 Comments

Goodness.. I had to remind myself to breathe while reading this one...and to harken back to the Portland podcast and awesome audience - to remind myself that the majority are with us. I am glad we are in this together!

Expand full comment
author

That's so important—we should say it more often. We are the majority on some big issues like abortion and gun control. And also, put of the majority that said definitively in 2020 that Donald Trump didn't belong in the White House. Part of voter suppression is making us feel like we can't win, like we're outnumbered. But that's not true, it's all a big disinformation campaign.

Expand full comment

Doubtful that any trump has learned anything about acting in good faith with the courts. They are cut from the same cloth. I wish the HAMMER would come crashing down on DJT by Jack Smith and others. Time is awasting. Plus, isn't it past time for Bannon to start serving time for his conviction? After all, he was found guilty of ripping off stupid people for donations to building more of the wall. Like to hear more of your meeting in Texas, since that is my state (College Station).

On a serious note, Joyce, I'd like all of you to take security precautions when you are traveling to speak out and about. You know there are many crazies with guns loose. We'd be partially lost without you. Peace. Carry on.

Expand full comment
founding

Thank you, Bill ... I agree

Expand full comment

Most definitely 🙏

Expand full comment

When I read anything about a conservative judge claiming that he/she doesn't allow their personal beliefs to influence their rulings, I can feel the heat of anger creep up my back to my neck and face. It's so obvious that they are NOT impartial.

Why can't they rule that there be a package insert included with each dose of mifepristone and a place to sign and acknowledge the pregnant person has read the insert and understands the risk? Nobody is insisting that conservative people have to take the drug. Can you imagine just how angry a conservative person would be if they were *forced" to take it against their will, even if it were a law approved by liberal judges. It would seem they could give individuals the right to make their own decision.

Sorry if this makes little sense, but I'm too angry to think clearly!

Expand full comment

Isn't it infuriating?? They talk as though convictions, political and otherwise, can be turned off with the click of a mental switch.

I believe the underlying problem is that they think their convictions are, or should be, universal. So they don't consider them "personal beliefs."

Expand full comment

Infuriating indeed!!! I'm old enough to remember driving my 15-year-old best friend to the nearest ER after she began hemorrhaging, having had a "back alley" abortion that afternoon. The doctor said she would have died if she hadn't come in to the ER.

I've never had an abortion or needed one, sometimes more due to good luck than good sense. But no woman should be forced to bear a child they don't want or aren't prepared to care for. I believe birth control should be the first line of defense, but if it fails or if it's forgotten, they should have a choice in the matter.

Expand full comment

Political antics.

Expand full comment

It makes total sense 🤗 Same insert should apply for viagra

Expand full comment

Makes sense to me, Harriet - and so does the anger!

Expand full comment

I’m a Bill Douglas fan, and I think Griswold v. Connecticut is under appreciated. Whose business is it if you take an FDA approved drug?

Expand full comment
founding

I was the Asian-American woman to your left of the stage who was unable to make my comment behind the woman from Occupy Democrats and was timed out from questions due to lights out at 10.

First I wanted to let you know that I just closed on my new home in a little Central Oregon community called Sisters!

My questions were, what happens to Jack Smith if we end up with a GOP appointed attorney general. Second, I wanted to ask why Biden cannot sign the ERA. Which states withdrew their endorsement?

I loved seeing you and the Sisters in any case!

Expand full comment
author

First, congrats on your home!

A special counsel remains in place even if a new administration takes over. That's not to say they couldn't try to manipulate him, but as the former head of DOJ's public integrity section, Smith knows the rules a lot better than anyone Trump will bring in would.

I bet your ERA question will be on tap for Sisters in Law soon. But for legitimate ratification, you've got to follow the process, which doesn't permit a president to just sign off on it. Imagine what Republicans might do if that was the case!

Expand full comment

How sad is it that this ERA "question" is even questionable? All these years & the actual advances (not enough, of course) but still so much fear if women were actually allowed to be "equal"! And it is fear.

Expand full comment

Great questions. So happy JSmigh is so knowledgeable 🙏

Expand full comment

I have been a lawyer since 1985 in South Carolina of all places, and I used to believe like you that judges step up and let their politics go once appointed to the bench, especially in the federal courts. You can see that with the relatively strong federal bench in S.C. Two of my biggest disappointments in the law are the realization that letting politics go apparently is no longer the case as shown by many of the Trump/McConnell appointments and the complicity by the members of Congress, reflecting the overall decline in their quality. My other major disappointment is the corruption of the Supreme Court which I would have thought unthinkable when I became a lawyer. Disagreeing with legal conclusions is part of the game, but impropriety that makes the actual law not relevant and the conclusions questionable should not be a factor. And two more would be (1) people like Durbin who continue to use the corrupt blue slip rule to avoid fixing some of the problems and (3) the filibuster to suppress the majority. It remains disappointing that we cannot escape the legacy of the South and its history of people like Storm Thurmond. My opinion.

Expand full comment

Indeed, the blue slip and filibuster have to go!

Expand full comment

Explain the blue slip

Expand full comment

Traditionally, the Senate Judiciary Committee, Dick Dirben, Chair, will not advance a judicial appointment to the floor of the Senate until each senator from the applicable state returns their “blue slip” approving the appointment. It is tradition, like filibuster, not law. Lets Republican senators block judicial appointments in their state.

Expand full comment

How do you propose we get around it?

Expand full comment

But wouldn’t it be blocked anyway if they don’t have the votes?

Expand full comment

Schumer needs to get serious with Dirben about ditching blue slips. I am not optimistic because Schumer and many democrats seem to be spineless. I think they continue to live in the past when the Senate was a good old boys club.

Expand full comment

It looks to me like my comment in response to this did not go through. If it did, I apologize for being redundant. I may be wrong but McConnell eliminated the 60 vote threshold requirement for judicial appointments to get Barrett, Gorsuch and Kavanaugh on the bench. It remains a 51 vote requirement for judicial nominees with this limited change to the filibuster rule. Of course, we are still stuck with Manchin and Sinema so who knows what they will do.

Expand full comment

Tough stuff.

Expand full comment

Speaking of Mother's Day, I wonder what the children and grandchildren of Ivana, Marla, and Melania Trump; Kellyanne Conway, Sidney Powell, Marjorie Taylor Greene, and Lauren Boebert have learned about kindness, integrity, generosity, dignity, respect, and courtesy.

Expand full comment

Methinks not much. Although sometimes the apple rolls away from the tree. Didn't the Conway daughter have a row on twitter or something?

Expand full comment

I'm waiting to hear something like that from one of Cruz's daughters. I remember many pictures of his "family" and those girls do NOT look happy in any of them. I'm saying that even though I remember my daughter's "unhappiness" in pictures when she was 12-13 etc. But imagine - having him as a father!

Expand full comment

Late last year Cruz's oldest daughter was taken to the ER because she's cutting. I feel horrible for them.

Expand full comment

Yes I remember. My remarks still stand about him.

Expand full comment

A terrifying thought!

Expand full comment

Not in their playbook.

Expand full comment

Wow! That was indeed a lengthy but needed explanation of upcoming issues this week. Thank you Joyce. In light of Mothers Day I am reminded that women in general are at the forefront of most issues on the ballot in the near future. What makes any politician think they can stonewall over half of the current population into believing that even tho they are saying so in their political speak, that they want to protect the sanctity of the family? What a bunch of BS!

I am encouraged that the justice system is beginning to hold TFG accountable and am eagerly awaiting the next indictments to hold him and his family accountable for all of their misdeeds.

Peace and Happy Mothers Day!

Expand full comment

It’s outrageous what they think they got away with.

Expand full comment

That just it! They ‘think’🤣

Expand full comment

Expand full comment

Love me some Sisters!

Expand full comment

Sounds to me like the 5th Circuit, especially, has the fingerprints of Leonard Leo and Mitch McConnell all over it. And gleefully. Not so good if you're a woman living under its thumb however.

Expand full comment

Great podcast from Portland!!

Expand full comment

Thank you again for all of us Joyce; we are very grateful for your well informed analysis! While we can only guess, wouldn’t it be likely that Jack Smith will indict him(and significant others) in both cases by the end of June or earlier? And we know that Fani Willis will issue obviously news-making indictments in July? Thus, he will be surrounded by four criminal indictments by mid-summer (and numerous other civil lawsuits)! That would be an extraordinary legal burden for any defendant, unprecedented stigma for any political figure, and far beyond the experience of any former President in our history! The MSM have not even discussed the political and criminal implications of the closing of all four walls at once around the trump campaign?

Joyce, what is your view of how this sordid situation would play out politically for him (1) with the potential size of his base, and (2) much more importantly with moderate “business Republican voters” plus the implication for an opening by a significantly more moderate Republican candidate such as Gov. Kemp? Thank you!

Expand full comment

How mind-boggling is it, ira, that the guy whose campaign ads showed him holding a gun is now considered moderate?

Expand full comment

Who identified themselves politically as gun owners 20-30 years ago except in crappy red states? Media probably were always unreliable when dealing with political expression but the reliance now on social media which has unknown origins has really complicated political definitions, hasn’t it? I think a significant number of entries are bots because when you open many tweets for example they have no followers and no bio.

Expand full comment

Justice Thomas should not be allowed to vote on any cases since he is being paid to vote by rich men/women. All votes by Thomas need to be rescinded, void, tossed out, take back, cancel, or what ever words need to be said. Thomas's votes can not be counted. They are not legal votes. Pay to play has to be illegal.

Expand full comment

Trump and all his crotch goblins have been frantically deleting all their communications.

Expand full comment

Oh what a descriptive phrase that is! Depending on where you use it, I guess some eyebrows might be raised - but it sure fits these creeps to a t.

Expand full comment

It’s still out there in some form.

Expand full comment

gosh, is there anyone who doesn't know that Trump's M.O. is to stall, stall, stall? I'm amazed that he can still find legal representation.

Expand full comment

A little entertainment for the new day, a recent song I wrote, "Secret Documents." Enjoy. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Og9SDu24V4

Expand full comment

Good job, Bill. Can't help myself from smiling.

Expand full comment

Why thank you.

Expand full comment

I enjoyed your playing. It's great that you have such a wonderful outlet for your frustrations!

Expand full comment

And thank you too. I like that line.

Expand full comment

The Fifth Circuit's composition is the precursor for what Republicans would like the entire federal court system to be. Scarily, they might get their wish.

Expand full comment