Worst Supreme Court decisions in Two Decades

What’s the worst thing the U.S. Supreme Court has done in two decades?

Bush v. Gore? The very name evokes tragedy.  Thousands dead in Iraq for a war we shouldn’t have fought. Thousands more dead in Afghanistan because the Supreme Court’s choice for president sent military support to Iraq instead. The Court’s presidential choice also encouraged savage, predatory business behavior that we’re still paying for. It put off any reckoning with the environment for a decade, more if you include the House of Representatives’ current intransigence.

That’s quite a record for a single U.S. Supreme Court decision. You might have to go back to Dred Scott v. Sanford which helped bring on the Civil War to match the impact of Bush v. Gore, although if we go back that far, disasters you’ve probably never heard of, like U.S. v. Cruikshank and the ironically named Civil Rights Cases, were responsible for a century of murder and mayhem with impunity in the segregated south. But Bush v. Gore certainly ranks with the biggest – and worst.

What Makes American Democracy Successful?

We are justly proud of democracy in America. But what makes a democracy morally great and what makes it successful?

Many countries have elections but aren’t successful democracies. Their elections are about which families will reap the spoils of election victories. Successful democracies focus on taking care of the whole peoples of their countries. Lincoln spoke about government “of the people, by the people and for the people.” Speaking about democracy, we often concentrate on government “of … [and] by the people.” But Lincoln’s last clause – “for the people” – defines the difference between success and failure; between government and kleptocracies; between governments that get things done and governments that imitate the evil Sheriff of Nottingham, robbing from the poor to pay the rich. 

Metro-North Had Neither Featherbedding Nor Safety

On Sunday, December 1, Metro-North reported an “accident occurred just before 7:30 a.m. … [A] southbound, Hudson Line train with about 120 passengers on board derailed just north of the Spuyten Duyvil station in the Bronx. All cars derailed.”[1] We now know four people died and many were injured.

On Friday, December 6, the Federal Railroad Administration issued an Emergency Order (EO 29) to Metro-North Commuter Railroad “to provide two qualified railroad employees to operate trains where major speed restrictions are in place until the signal system is updated.”[2]

Let’s absorb what that means.

Mandela by Comparison

 I want to explore an important comparison that has not been addressed about Nelson Mandela.

There have been many great twentieth century leaders. Some like Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King and Aung San Suu Kyi never became presidents or prime ministers. But three did – Mandela in South Africa, Jawaharlal Nehru in India and Franklin Roosevelt here. Nehru and Roosevelt held onto power until they died in office.

In Roosevelt’s case I’m glad he did.

The Palestinian Question

There was an interesting event at Albany Law recently.

To open, Rabbi David Gordis explained that thoughtful supporters of Israel actually agree with thoughtful supporters of Palestinians that a solution to their conflict is essential for both of them, that pro-Israelis like Gordis and pro-Palestinians like Columbia history professor Rashid Khalidi were not merely old friends but old allies.