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Edited by Mrph1 on Nov 30th 2023 at 11:03:59 AM
Cruz's was at least an Associate Deputy Attorney General for W. Bush and Solicitor General for the state of Texas. A large number of court cases defended by the state of Texas in the mid-2000 were helmed by him. He was also Bush's domestic policy advisor during the 2000 presidential election and was part of the team to build Bush's legal team for Bush v Gore, including recruiting now Chief Justice John Roberts.
Hawley was the former Mississippi state Attorney General. He also clerked for Chief Justice Roberts and a judge for the US 10th Court of Appeals, and was admitted to the Supreme Court bar.
Cotton has the least qualifications since he was only a clerk for a judge on the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals.
"We're all paper, we're all scissors, we're all fightin' with our mirrors, scared we'll never find somebody to love."![]()
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That's all Mitch and Senate Republicans have been doing these past two years. They've basically tabled all legislative stuff to fast track every single judge they can - Trump has filled more positions than Obama in his two terms. And Lindsey Graham is out there urging older judges to retire so they can get young people on the court.
There's not much court packing left to do at this point. It's already happened.
A distressing amount of the oh so vaunted "checks and balances" system of American governance runs entirely on the honor system.
Well, basically they assumed that Congress would hate the President/Supreme Court by default and vice versa, and didn't seem to consider that they might collude together against the American people.
Regarding arson, this page explains the California code for reckless burning.
It's either a misdemeanor or a felony, depending on whether anything important gets burned (check), whether there's any serious bodily injury, and whether the prosecutor is feeling merciful accepting a plea deal. Which means that since it's a bunch of white guys being put in for assembly-line justice, it's a misdemeanor, particularly because recklessness as opposed to negligence is hard to prove.
(not a lawyer, just someone with strong google-fu)
Edited by Ramidel on Sep 10th 2020 at 11:40:52 AM
Cruz's was at least an Associate Deputy Attorney General for W. Bush and Solicitor General for the state of Texas. A large number of court cases defended by the state of Texas in the mid-2000 were helmed by him. He was also Bush's domestic policy advisor during the 2000 presidential election and was part of the team to build Bush's legal team for Bush v Gore, including recruiting now Chief Justice John Roberts.
Hawley was the former Mississippi state Attorney General. He also clerked for Chief Justice Roberts and a judge for the US 10th Court of Appeals, and was admitted to the Supreme Court bar.
Cotton has the least qualifications since he was only a clerk for a judge on the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals.
@tclittle Thanks for the information - it sounds like Hawley and Cruz are both not fully qualified for the position and more qualified than I thought they would be. (Of course, ideologically they're all awful.)
Edit:
Just a rumor, but I heard there were Republicans trying to get Thomas to retire so he could be replaced with someone younger.
The Kentucky guy is the state Attorney General who's been described as Mitch McConnell's protegee
Edited by nova92 on Sep 10th 2020 at 4:46:38 AM
The Hill:
Trump said he didn't have responsibility to understand pain of Black Americans: 'No, I don't feel that at all'
In response, Trump reportedly says, "No ... You really drank the Kool-Aid, didn't you? Just listen to you. Wow. No, I don't feel that at all."
Washington Post:
As U.S. air war in Afghanistan surged, investigations into civilian harm plunged
In the same period, allegations of civilian casualties reviewed by the Pentagon doubled. But the number of in-depth investigations into those allegations dropped by half. Hundreds of charges of Afghan civilian deaths and injuries as a result of airstrikes received only an initial assessment.
Edit: Sorry, missed the date on an article
Edited by nova92 on Sep 10th 2020 at 6:36:38 AM
We already know Trump has none. For anyone.
Also, Sen. Ben Sasse (R-NE) thinks the answer to our current problems is... less democracy. He wants to repeal the 17th Amendment (direct election of Senators) and give Senators 12-year terms. Omaha World-Herald
It would be nice if our Representatives could spend more time representing than campaigning, in my opinion at least
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Honestly, he'd be no less guilty if he actually didn't know better. Not that there's anything that will stick to him, but anyone in a lesser position would be sentenced with criminal negligence.
The President is not subject to criminal prosecution for acts performed (or not performed) in the course of executing his office. In other words, presidential decisions: what to do, what not to do, etc. about any particular event or crisis, cannot themselves be culpable acts. Of course, if he actually does something illegal that is not in his official duties, that’s something else.
Edited by Fighteer on Sep 10th 2020 at 10:01:44 AM
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"@Septimus Heap US senators are elected for 6 years (only a third of them come up for reelection every cycle - and, afaik, the 2 seats for a given state come up in different cycles). The ones with 2 year terms are US representatives.
He can be impeached for it, at least in theory. But the impeachment process is very much broken.
I think a flexible lower term limit would make more sense. Give congress the ability to remove a bad president and hold early elections. But of course for that you'd need to fix congress first, and for that, you need to get rid of parties hostile to democratic government (basically, the republicans).
Edited by Redmess on Sep 10th 2020 at 5:29:12 PM
Hope shines brightest in the darkest timesOf course. As we found, the President can be impeached for anything. Barack Obama was almost impeached for being too black ... I think.
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"

Can we even trust these Covid numbers on the US? They are probably much higher than that at this point.
Hope shines brightest in the darkest times