Anthony Kennedy decidiu se aposentar. Era um “moderado” que servia como fiel da balança numa Suprema Corte dividida entre “progressistas” e “originalistas”, ou seja, aqueles que encaram a Constituição como um “documento vivo” e acreditam na justiça “achada nas ruas”, buscando utilizar seu cargo para legislar mesmo sem votos, e aqueles que respeitam as intenções dos “pais fundadores” e entendem que mudanças na Carta Magna precisam passar pelo crivo da própria Constituição.
Boa parte da imprensa está tratando a questão como uma disputa partidária, alegando que a Suprema Corte será mais republicana agora que Trump pode apontar mais um juiz. Mas, no fundo, trata-se de uma questão mais essencial e acima de disputas partidárias. Se a coisa assumiu contornos políticos e partidários demais foi só porque o Partido Democrata abandonou qualquer resquício de apreço pela própria Constituição.
Trump marcou um golaço ao indicar Neil Gorsuch no começo de seu mandato, um originalista de peso que tem o respeito da comunidade jurídica. Se ele seguir essa linha, poderá fazer outro golaço e resgatar ainda mais os valores tradicionais da América, que fizeram dela a potência que é hoje. Justamente por conta desse “risco” é que a esquerda está em polvorosa, sem conseguir esconder o pânico.
O NYT, jornalzão de esquerda, é um ótimo exemplo dessa choradeira. São vários textos de opinião e editoriais publicados como se os Estados Unidos tivessem se transformado num regime nazista agora, só porque Trump poderá indicar um nome mais fiel aos pilares constitucionais do país. Ou seja, o grau de inversão é absurdo e trai a patologia dessa turma de esquerda. Eis alguns exemplos:
Kennedy Is Gone. Now Vote.
If the last few days hadn’t been dispiriting enough for those who believed the Supreme Court could still stand for reproductive freedom, equal rights for all Americans, a check on presidential power, a more humane criminal justice system and so much more, Wednesday afternoon brought the coup de grâce.
Everyone knew it was coming sooner than later, but Justice Anthony Kennedy’s retirement, which he announced in a letter released hours after the court had issued its final rulings of the term, is still crushing. It sends a stark message to the tens of millions of Americans who have long turned to the court for the vindication of many of their most cherished rights and protections: Look somewhere else.
Trump Remakes America
Donald Trump, a lying, bullying, womanizing autocrat-idolizer, is fundamentally transforming America in very real and lasting ways, in ways that have left decent people slack-jawed, enraged and exasperated.
He has overtaken and destroyed the structure of the Republican Party, unleashing its ugliest elements to chant his praise and stroke his ego like drunken apostates dancing around a golden calf.
He has attacked American institutions that seek truth and justice, like the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the press, because he wants to weaken America’s faith in truth and facts themselves.
He has shunned and denigrated America’s traditional allies and cozied up to America’s traditional enemies, in one of the most bewildering presidential postures the country may ever have seen.
And now, with the retirement of the Supreme Court moderate Anthony Kennedy, Trump will be able to solidify the court’s conservative majority for a generation.
The Roberts Court Protects the Powerful for a New Gilded Age
Faith in courts runs deep in the American liberal imagination. Remembering Brown v. Board of Education, Roe v. Wade and the recent marriage-equality decisions, we keep hoping that wise and fair-minded judges will protect the vulnerable and lead the country toward justice.
Recent decisions upholding President Trump’s travel ban and Texas’ racially skewed voting districts are body blows to this optimism. They are unhappy reminders that for much of American history, the Supreme Court has been a deeply conservative institution, preserving racial hierarchy and the prerogatives of employers.
When it comes to economic inequality, today’s Supreme Court is not only failing to help but is also aggressively making itself part of the problem in a time when inequality and insecurity are damaging the country and endangering our democracy.
[…] Just hours after that decision, Justice Anthony Kennedy announced his retirement. With this “swing” vote gone, Chief Justice Roberts is now likely to take even more control over the direction of issues related to economic inequality — a direction that is earning him a legacy as chief justice of bosses, not workers.
After Janus, Unions Must Save Themselves
Conservatives on the Supreme Court have been signaling for years that they would like to destroy public-sector unions. On Wednesday, they handed down a ruling that aims to do just that. But the justices and right-wing groups that pushed for this outcome could soon find that it will not be so easy to suppress teachers, social workers and other government employees who in recent months have taken to the streets to demand raises and better working conditions.
Overturning a unanimous 41-year-old decision, the court ruled 5 to 4 that state governments could not force public employees who don’t join unions to pay fees that support collective bargaining. More than 20 states require these so-called fair-share or agency fees, which the court has upheld several times since that earlier ruling.
[…] Historically, unions played a crucial role in lifting living standards for millions of workers and creating a middle class. Many economists believe that their decline in recent decades contributed to anemic wage growth and rising income inequality.
We’re About to Find Out How Bad It Will Get Without Justice Kennedy
For more than a dozen years, Justice Anthony Kennedy stood at the center of the Supreme Court. He moved the court to the right, but while he often provided a crucial fifth vote to the court’s conservative wing, Justice Kennedy sometimes voted against it. And he picked a few causes that liberals cherish, making him their occasional, if fickle, guardian angel.
Among other things, Justice Kennedy was the bulwark against legal assaults against abortion, perhaps the one issue, more than any other, where the court’s influence and public attention so clearly intersect.
With Justice Kennedy on the bench, the thinking among liberals went, how bad could things get? Now that he’s gone, we’re about to find out.
Chega a ser constrangedor! Como enxugar tantas lágrimas? Por outro lado, os que respeitam o legado constitucional da América festejam, e já indicam nomes fortes para substituir Kennedy. A esquerda trata a questão como um duro golpe ao seu projeto revolucionário, e é mesmo. Foi para isso que Trump foi eleito, diga-se de passagem: para virar a mesa contra a pauta globalista de esquerda que vinha desconfigurando a América.
Os revolucionários “progressistas” podem espernear à vontade. A Suprema Corte americana não terá um juiz como Luiz Roberto Barroso agora. Não no que depender de Trump.
Rodrigo Constantino