An Opening on the Supreme Court

An Opening on the Supreme Court

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This morning, President Bush said he will make a quick decision on a nominee to replace retiring Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor and issued a thinly veiled warning to the US Senate not to block his choice. In response, public interest groups and concerned citizens are sounding the alarm on what could be Bush’s biggest opportunity yet to cement his reactionary agenda for years to come.

As Nan Aron, executive director of the Alliance for Justice, said today, “The impact of Justice O’Connor’s replacement will affect the lives of all Americans not just for four years but for forty. A new justice–a lifetime appointee–has the awesome power of deciding critical issues affecting our workplaces, our civil rights, our environment and our privacy”

The Alliance as well as the People for the American Way are both working to rally opposition to what is widely expected to be a divisive, far-right appointment by the President. Check out their websites (here and here) for info on what’s expected next and what you can help do about it.

The Daily Kos, one of the world’s preeminent liberal bloggers, also has a very useful checklist of things you can do today to help in the first Supreme Court nomination battle in more than a decade.

Finally, for more on what’s at stake in this impending battle, read new weblog posts by my colleagues David Corn and John Nichols.

We cannot back down

We now confront a second Trump presidency.

There’s not a moment to lose. We must harness our fears, our grief, and yes, our anger, to resist the dangerous policies Donald Trump will unleash on our country. We rededicate ourselves to our role as journalists and writers of principle and conscience.

Today, we also steel ourselves for the fight ahead. It will demand a fearless spirit, an informed mind, wise analysis, and humane resistance. We face the enactment of Project 2025, a far-right supreme court, political authoritarianism, increasing inequality and record homelessness, a looming climate crisis, and conflicts abroad. The Nation will expose and propose, nurture investigative reporting, and stand together as a community to keep hope and possibility alive. The Nation’s work will continue—as it has in good and not-so-good times—to develop alternative ideas and visions, to deepen our mission of truth-telling and deep reporting, and to further solidarity in a nation divided.

Armed with a remarkable 160 years of bold, independent journalism, our mandate today remains the same as when abolitionists first founded The Nation—to uphold the principles of democracy and freedom, serve as a beacon through the darkest days of resistance, and to envision and struggle for a brighter future.

The day is dark, the forces arrayed are tenacious, but as the late Nation editorial board member Toni Morrison wrote “No! This is precisely the time when artists go to work. There is no time for despair, no place for self-pity, no need for silence, no room for fear. We speak, we write, we do language. That is how civilizations heal.”

I urge you to stand with The Nation and donate today.

Onwards,

Katrina vanden Heuvel
Editorial Director and Publisher, The Nation

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