So, Kennedy was asserting that an American majority was eager to extinguish American liberty. Kennedy spoke just 288 days after he and 97 other senators voted 98-0 to confirm Antonin Scalia, Bork’s intellectual soulmate. Four years after the Senate rejected Bork, it confirmed Clarence Thomas, 52 to 48, after weighing last-minute accusations of past sexual misbehavior — talk, not touching. Since then, however, the five justices confirmed (John G. Roberts Jr., Samuel A. Alito Jr., Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, Neil M. Gorsuch) have had between 22 and 45 votes against them. Next week, the committee’s senators, most of whom are fungible and easily replaceable, should try to minimize the damage their theatrics do to the government’s least damaged institution.

Source: Washington Post September 22, 2018 00:00 UTC