Van, thank you for joining.
I wanted to get your, kind of what David is talking about, totality, and reflecting on
the totality of what we have seen in the past two days, and the impact, the historic impact
that these opinions will have on American life.
>> Well, look, this is a tragedy, if you care about inclusion and equal opportunity and
care about folks who don't have much, and trying to make it today, it is a tragedy.
It is a tragedy that is a result of a strategy, and this is what we forget.
It is a deliberate effort on the part of conservatives to hijack the court, and the federalist society
was organizing on the campuses, getting the law students together in the '80s and the
'90s and Mitch Mcconnell focused like a laser to focus on the courts, and you have three
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the courts, and you have three trump appointees remaking America as they will.
All of the things that I taught in law school, they are out of the door.
You used to have standing, and I wanted the supreme court to tell me what is right, but
that is what happened with the lgbtq rights.
Literally this woman had not been sued by anybody, and she had no reason to be in court
at all, and standing used to be important, and that is out of the window.
Precedent, and earlier decisions used to matter, and it is out of the window, and the supreme
court used to narrowly decide, what is the most narrow approach to decide an issue, and
nope.
We will entertain any theory to go after issues.
This is a legitimacy crisis brought on by a movement that was losing movement to a more
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was losing movement to a more inclusive generation.
And now they are using supreme court to slam closed the door
of inclusivity.
If you are a young gay or lesbian person, you should not see your opponent, but a referee
to call it fair or unfair, because it is now a first amendment being used as a shield as
bigotry, and the first amendment is being used a shield for discrimination.
There were people in my father's day, and mother's day that said that the bible separated
the races, and after Noah, we were separated.
It was ordained by god say they are back?
That a man of religious faith, I
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That a man of religious faith, I can no longer serve the view of diversity?
This is all nuts.
It is a result of strategy, and we have the wake up, and realize it is a serious political
fight.
>> We have to wake up, and those were your words, and it is a political tenet that the
supreme court was an mated issue for the conservatives, and the Republican can, and maybe that is
the strategy, van.
But the question is for Democrats, can it be an animating issue, and what evidence have
you seen that the Democrats will rally to this at the polls?
>> The midterm elections.
The fact that after the supreme court struck down "Roe V. Wade" you saw a huge part of
the constituency to stand up, and moderates saying, wait a second, it is settled law of
50 years,
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it is settled law of 50 years, and you are going to change it, because you have new people
on the bench?
I think that you going to be seeing a lot of people standing up, because when you have
a legitimacy crisis for the court, you have a legitimacy crisis for the country.
Because now you have a generation of younger people who are with the court, and you have
made affirmative action not helpful to me, and it is harder for me to get one, and now
if I can get one, it is harder to pay off my student loan, and if I go into a store,
I may not be served.
And so now, looking at the presidential elections, the Progressives wins it by millions of votes.
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of votes.
But the electoral college is not on my side.
And Montana has as many senators as California.
And California has neighborhoods bigger than Minnesota.
Is this country stacked against me?
You didn't want that.
You want a system that is responsive and fair so that they feel that America is their country.
It is on their side, and so their values are rubbed in dog pooh over and over again.
If you think they are not watching, it is not true.
So it is a very, very bad moment for the country.
Obviously, if you reason a Asian parent, you might breathe a sigh of relief, because there
is a sense that they have to had to work harder than others, but to pit black and brown kids
against other kids, but to believe you
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other kids, but to believe you may be there because your parents were there.
And the level of strategy and scheming, and stopping Obama from appointing his own justices
is bad looking forward.
So this a moment where, Yo yes, you will see a political reaction, because suddenly people
are realizing that when we elect folks and pass laws, there is a supreme court willing
to strike it down, and strike down precedent and standing and all of the things
that have made the supreme court to be very suspect legally.
>> And so, now, the issues, you name it, abortion or whatever
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name it, abortion or whatever faction, and conservatives say, this is what we have been
feeling like, and now we have been able to get our justices on the court.
>> That is their argument, and why they focused so much on the courts, but don't forget it
is one thing when you win it fair and square.
It is one thing when you are stopped to get your appointees, and then rush yours on.
It is when Obama got an appointee on, and then trump rushed one of his on.
So using hook and crook to get there, and then once you get there, it is going to be
using hook and crook to get the decisions that you want.
And standing, to have an and you can't say that the supreme court
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can't say that the supreme court passed a law, and it might hurt me, and so I will throw
standing in the garbage can.
Usually when you are going to move in a certain direction, you do it step by step by step.
You don't have judicial revolution every year overthrowing 50 years' precedent.
So the problem that you have is that of course, the people have felt and at least the Democrats
were putting the people on court by the rules.
The rules have been changed to stack this court, and the court is acting in a way that
is contrary to not just black votes and liberal, but it is going against 200 years of supreme
court precedent in termsf how it conducts its own business.
So if you are a true patriot, and conservative, you would want the supreme court even if it
is moving in your own way, that rmt
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moving in your own way, that rmt is owned with core principles, and this is not conservative,
but it is anti-revolution that flies in the face of conservative values.
>> Van Jones, thank you.
As Elie Honig says, standing is there until they decide it is not going to be there.
>> There is political impact,