Originalists.

October 16: I heard that Sen. Whitehouse’s presentation on Oct 13 was very important to hear.  Here it is, very worth the time to watch.  It zeroes in on the issue as consideration of Judge Barrett races to likely confirmation.

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Monday, October 12, was day one of the consideration of Trumps third nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court.

I listened to the opening statements of the Committee, through Sen Amy Klobuchar.  Every word uttered Monday was extremely carefully crafted and recorded for use, now and later, by friend and foe, regardless of party.

This is being published as a blog Tuesday, Oct 13, before Day 2 convenes, but will not be publicized until after Election Day.

There will be no analysis in this post, other than the second sentence in the above paragraph.

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Ironically, one of my earliest blog posts at this space was May 17, 2009, when President Obama, in the first months of his first term, spoke at Notre Dame.  Doubtless the nominee was in the audience that day.  What I wrote then is here.  The links, there, are likely no longer accessible.  (My personal story about my brush with abortion is here.  ink in 1st paragraph.)

Amy Coney Barrett was most certainly in the audience that day in 2009, as part of the Notre Dame Law Faculty.  Fr. John Jenkins, had been President of Notre Dame University since 2005, and now is a Covid-19 veteran in the audience when Barrett was presented at the White House.

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Much talk will now be about how Law is interpreted in light of the original intention of the founders of this country, the people who wrote and signed the Constitution, as subsequently amended.  Thus the title of this post: “Originalists”.  Other words crop up with some frequency and are worth researching as well: “Textualists”, etc.

Just for reference, here is some data from the 1790 census, which was taken when this nation was age three.

3.9 million people, 700,000 slaves (counted as 3/5 of a person, 150,000 Native Americans (not counted), 6% of the population eligible to vote (essentially all white men of means).

The “good old days” (my opinion) were not all that good, and not at all reflective of today, with about 330,000,000 people, in one of the most diverse nations on earth.

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All the rest is argument.  The election is about three weeks from today.

October 13: Commentary on Day One, “Carefully Considering Nothing”, can be read here.

October 14: At one point in the hearings this week, chair Lindsey Graham acknowledged what has been obvious since before the nomination: once again, when the vote is taken, it will likely be straight party-line, reflecting the canyon that divides our country into warring camps.  About all I can do is offer the history of Senate confirmation of U.S. Supreme Court Justices, as compiled by the historians of the U.S. Senate.  Here it is.  Take some time to study it, and reflect on how we’ve gotten to this truly dismal place in our 233 year history as a country; and our own individual place in that history, and our country’s future.