The horrible prospect of Supreme Court Justice Cass Sunstein

[Jefferson23]

Friday, Mar 26, 2010

By Glenn Greenwald



A media consensus has emerged that the retirement of Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens, the 90-year-old Ford-appointee who became the leader of the Court's so-called "liberal wing," is now imminent. The New York Times' Peter Baker has an article today on Obama's leading candidates to replace Stevens, in which one finds this strange passage:


The president’s base hopes he will name a full-throated champion to counter Justice Antonin Scalia, the most forceful conservative on the bench. . . . The candidates who would most excite the left include the constitutional scholars Harold Hongju Koh, Cass R. Sunstein and Pamela S. Karlan.


While that's probably true of Koh and Karlan, it's absolutely false with regard to Sunstein, who is currently Obama's Chief of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs. From the beginning of the War on Terror, Cass Sunstein turned himself into the most reliable Democratic cheerleaders for Bush/Cheney radicalism and their assault on the Constitution and the rule of law.

In 2002, at the height of controversy over Bush's creation of military commissions without Congressional approval, Sunstein stepped forward to insist that "nder existing law, President George W. Bush has the legal authority to use military commissions" and that "President Bush's choice stands on firm legal ground." Sunstein scorned as "ludicrous" the argument from Law Professor George Fletcher that the Supreme Court would find Bush's military commissions without any legal basis. Four years later -- in its Hamdan ruling -- the Supreme Court, with Justice Stevens in the majority, held that Bush lacked the legal authority to create military commissions without approval from Congress, i.e., the Court (and Stevens) found Bush lacked exactly the "legal authority" which Sunstein vehemently insisted he possessed. Had Sunstein been on the Court then instead of Stevens, that decision presumably would have come out the opposite way: in favor of Bush's sweeping claims of executive authority.

remainder in full: http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/

[Davis_X_Machina]

1. This Cass Sunstein?

[Jefferson23]

2. Yes, that is him. He has written many books. Greenwald is

expressing concerns about Sunstein, and that book lays none of those concerns to rest.

His opinion is shared by others btw.

[Davis_X_Machina]

3. As is mine. n/t

[Jefferson23]

4. Yep, we have to remain vigilant too, so much at stake.

[cascadiance]

5. How about none of these three! I'd like to see someone like Erwin Chemerinsky!

A real recognized constitutional scholar that has his priorities right! He'd definitely be a step in the right direction (or left that is) on issues like corporate personhood which is SORELY needed on the court now!

http://wallstcheatsheet.com/knowledge/interview-knowledge/exclusive-interview-top-constitutional-law-authority-erwin-chemerinsky-talks-corporate-speech/?p=2262/

http://www.reclaimdemocracy.org/nike/public_interest_briefs.html

http://www.reclaimdemocracy.org/nike/congress_brief_forkasky.pdf

Cal Irvine doesn't deserve him as the dean of their law school. We all DO deserve him as a SCOTUS justice!

http://articles.latimes.com/2007/sep/18/local/me-uci18

Perhaps down the road, put in a recent appointee of Obama's, Goodwin Liu, on a higher court like SCOTUS. Chemerinsky likes this selection as a more liberal selection by Obama for a change...

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5j8bJNmgkNXos7jmYkKGzZWbuSe6QD9EE12G01

[Maat]

7. Pres. Clinton attempted to nominate Prof. Erwin C.

He was told by key Senate members that it would never happen (Chemerinsky getting on the court, that is, by that body's vote).

I'd like to see him on the court also.

[salguine]

6. Why is that surprising? Obama has fully embraced many of those same positions and even

expanded some of them.