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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsRetired Hawaiian District Court Judge calls out CJ Roberts by name
Last edited Fri Mar 13, 2020, 06:30 PM - Edit history (1)
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/03/judge-james-dannenberg-supreme-court-bar-roberts-letter.htmlTitle-Former Judge Resigns From the Supreme Court Bar
In a letter to Chief Justice John Roberts, he detailed why hes lost faith in the court.
By DAHLIA LITHWICK
MARCH 13, 20203:22 PM
Letter from Judge Dannenberg to Justice Roberts
The Chief Justice of the United States
One First Street, N.E.
Washington, D.C. 20543
March 11, 2020
Dear Chief Justice Roberts:
I hereby resign my membership in the Supreme Court Bar.
This was not an easy decision. I have been a member of the Supreme Court Bar since 1972, far longer than you have, and appeared before the Court, both in person and on briefs, on several occasions as Deputy and First Deputy Attorney General of Hawaii before being appointed as a Hawaii District Court judge in 1986. I have a high regard for the work of the Federal Judiciary and taught the Federal Courts course at the University of Hawaii Richardson School of Law for a decade in the 1980s and 1990s. This due regard spanned the tenures of Chief Justices Warren, Burger, and Rehnquist before your appointment and confirmation in 2005. I have not always agreed with the Courts decisions, but until recently I have generally seen them as products of mainstream legal reasoning, whether liberal or conservative. The legal conservatism I have respected that of, for example, Justice Lewis Powell, Alexander Bickel or Paul Bator at a minimum enshrined the idea of stare decisis and eschewed the idea of radical change in legal doctrine for political ends.
I can no longer say that with any confidence. You are doing far more and far worse than calling balls and strikes. You are allowing the Court to become an errand boy for an administration that has little respect for the rule of law.
The Court, under your leadership and with your votes, has wantonly flouted established precedent. Your conservative majority has cynically undermined basic freedoms by hypocritically weaponizing others. The ideas of free speech and religious liberty have been transmogrified to allow officially sanctioned bigotry and discrimination, as well as to elevate the grossest forms of political bribery beyond the ability of the federal government or states to rationally regulate it. More than a score of decisions during your tenure have overturned established precedentssome more than forty years old and you voted with the majority in most. There is nothing conservative about this trend. This is radical legal activism at its worst.
Without trying to write a law review article, I believe that the Court majority, under your leadership, has become little more than a result-oriented extension of the right wing of the Republican Party, as vetted by the Federalist Society. Yes, politics has always been a factor in the Courts history, but not to todays extent. Even routine rules of statutory construction get subverted or ignored to achieve transparently political goals. The rationales of textualism and originalism are mere fig leaves masking right wing political goals; sheer casuistry.
Your public pronouncements suggest that you seem concerned about the legitimacy of the Court in todays polarized environment. We all should be. Yet your actions, despite a few bromides about objectivity, say otherwise.
It is clear to me that your Court is willfully hurtling back to the cruel days of Lochner and even Plessy. The only constitutional freedoms ultimately recognized may soon be limited to those useful to wealthy, Republican, White, straight, Christian, and armed males and the corporations they control. This is wrong. Period. This is not America.
predict that your legacy will ultimately be as diminished as that of Chief Justice Melville Fuller, who presided over both Plessy and Lochner. It still could become that of his revered fellow Justice John Harlan the elder, an honest conservative, but I doubt that it will. Feel free to prove me wrong.
The Supreme Court of the United States is respected when it wields authority and not mere power. As has often been said, you are infallible because you are final, but not the other way around.
I no longer have respect for you or your majority, and I have little hope for change. I cant vote you out of office because you have life tenure, but I can withdraw whatever insignificant support my Bar membership might seem to provide.
Please remove my name from the rolls.
With deepest regret,
James Dannenberg
This is a huge huge BFD in legal circles
Native
(5,942 posts)Frustratedlady
(16,254 posts)Today seems to be a turning tide with many areas of government. This is another good example.
It seems the media is really going after this administration and Trump/Pence, in particular. They have also earned the criticism. I think we've reached a point where people are fed up with the lying and poor performance. It is now more "personal" than ever with the virus threats to our lives, the loss of our retirement funds and being treated like a banana republic.
May CJ Roberts wake up and fly right. If he resigns, may he take the last two imposters with him.
Hermit-The-Prog
(33,341 posts)blm
(113,052 posts)malaise
(268,969 posts)Scathing and beautifully written.
I love old judges and adore phrases that are rarely used like sheer casuistry.
Note to self - use casuistry more for Don the Con's lies.
leftieNanner
(15,084 posts)"The use of clever but unsound reasoning, especially in relation to moral questions..."
I had to look it up. Excellent word. And excellent letter.
malaise
(268,969 posts)Last edited Fri Mar 13, 2020, 07:26 PM - Edit history (1)
A truly great letter - very important
MyOwnPeace
(16,926 posts)"You know, that last guy - he thinks he's so smart. But he NEVER used casuistry.
But me? I know casuistry - I use the best casuistry - THE BEST! - Not like that other guy.........."
DEbluedude
(816 posts)Dictionary app is the first thing I put on any new device!
irisblue
(32,971 posts)He has got to be pissed.
riversedge
(70,204 posts)Thomas Hurt
(13,903 posts)Haggis for Breakfast
(6,831 posts)And he has already shown that he cares deeply about that.
Couple this with Elizabeth Warren's question to him during the Impeachment hearings and he's got to be reaching for those Tums.
napi21
(45,806 posts)see if he adjusts his behavior in the future.
JudyM
(29,236 posts)pandr32
(11,581 posts)bucolic_frolic
(43,146 posts)Mutiny on the Bounty!
This will upset the applecart. It's almost notice that a just society will reverse this nonsense ASAP ex post facto no quid pro quo and Hallelujah!
This will be remembered in legal circles 150 years from now, if we still are all in this together.
malaise
(268,969 posts)Absolutely correct - every law professor of any worth will cite this letter
MyOwnPeace
(16,926 posts)to see another 1,000 judges and constitutional lawyers sign on with that.
Talk about "it" hitting the fan!
malaise
(268,969 posts)That would be great
japple
(9,823 posts)whole SCOTUS and POTUS!
Cyrano
(15,035 posts)As will the five partisan "conservative justices" who are currently infecting the Supreme Court.
The letter will demonstrate that decent people recognized reality, truth and justice.
The five "conservative justices" will be recognized as partisan whores who didn't care about the constitution. History will not be kind to them.
Nitram
(22,794 posts)Telling Truth to Power!
Golden Raisin
(4,608 posts)appointed by a Republican. I'm not expecting any revelations or changes from him.
euphorb
(279 posts)irisblue
(32,971 posts)From the Slate Article -"James Dannenberg is a retired Hawaii state judge. He sat on the District Court of the 1st Circuit of the state judiciary for 27 years."
More at source
Thank you, I have retitled it.
Lonestarblue
(9,981 posts)And as the lead article in their online news. Roberts has carried Trumps robes in his procession to a coronation as King of the former Republic of the United States. Its time someone called him out.
burrowowl
(17,640 posts)rzemanfl
(29,557 posts)NBachers
(17,108 posts)bluecollar2
(3,622 posts)What happens when I do that?
mercuryblues
(14,531 posts)bluecollar2
(3,622 posts)alwaysinasnit
(5,066 posts)Guy Whitey Corngood
(26,500 posts)Ligyron
(7,632 posts)liberalla
(9,243 posts)Bravo James Dannenberg!
Bluesaph
(703 posts)We are left with the bad. 😢
MyOwnPeace
(16,926 posts)with so many honorable people trying to serve their country in the White House staff, the Cabinet*, and so many necessary administrative positions throughout the government.
*Not that he started with a great bunch, but it has only gone downhill from day 1.
Scarsdale
(9,426 posts)We need lots more just like him. Roberts showed his true colors at the impeachment hearings. He allowed Moscow Mitch to decide the outcome even BEFORE the trial began. He HAD to have noticed how serious the democratic reps. were, sincere in their words, yet he ignored the evidence. He allowed the gop reps. to act like kids at school, ignoring what was going on. Then he showed up at the S of U grinning like a cat that got the canary. Truly disgusting. No respect for him whatsoever. Time for term limits on these judges.
trof
(54,256 posts)the use of clever but unsound reasoning, especially in relation to moral questions; sophistry.
https://www.google.com/search?q=casuistry.&rlz=1C1SQJL_enUS874US874&oq=casuistry.&aqs=chrome..69i57&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
B Stieg
(2,410 posts)JHB
(37,159 posts)A tool to embed radically-conservative political operatives in the federal judiciary, disguised as a "professional" group.
It may actually act in that latter capacity among its general membership, but the entire reason for its formation -- and central purpose for its leadership -- was the former.
njhoneybadger
(3,910 posts)Shame on you Chief Justice John Roberts
BlancheSplanchnik
(20,219 posts)mountain grammy
(26,620 posts)There should be many more.
Hekate
(90,674 posts)canetoad
(17,154 posts)Everyone should read this. Thank for posting.
crickets
(25,969 posts)soryang
(3,299 posts)defacto7
(13,485 posts)benld74
(9,904 posts)nt