THAT'S WHAT HAPPENS WHEN ALL OUR PRESIDENTS ARE REPUBLICANS,,,:

"[T]he latest developments suggest a possible 3-3-3 pattern, with [Chief Justice John] Roberts, Barrett and Kavanaugh at the center-right, putting a check on their more conservative brethren who regularly push to overturn precedent," wrote CNN legal analyst Joan Biskupic. Despite Mitch McConnell's multiple heists of various seats, and fears that total Democratic mismanagement of the Barrett confirmation had given the GOP a judicial proxy to overrule the Democratic agenda, maybe, the theory goes, everything is fine. Liberal judicial analysts have seen in this session assurances that the tricky business of Court reform, which Democrats were too timid to pursue anyway, is thankfully not necessary.

Of course, the notion that the Supreme Court has cleaved into a 3-3-3 split--with Justices Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas, and Neil Gorsuch making up a hard-right sect; Justices Barrett, Kavanaugh, and Roberts as the sober, center-right moderates; and Justices Elena Kagan, Stephen Breyer, and Sonia Sotomayor the counterbalancing liberals--is nonsense, and anyone finding solace in these recent rulings is doing so at great risk. The Court, in its most recent decisions especially and in the entire body of work of the Roberts Court broadly, is much closer to a 9-0 corporatist supermajority than some evenhanded triad. Liberals may be desperately hoping for some conservative wedge that will solve their problems without having to do anything, but that won't solve the many problems of our unbalanced judiciary.

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