Appearing as a guest Friday night during MSNBC coverage of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg's passing, New York Times contributing opinion writer (and from 1978 to 2008, Supreme Court reporter) Linda Greenhouse fretted that a more conservative U.S. Supreme Court would facilitate "voter suppression" against felons and support "phony" complaints about racial discrimination against whites and Asians in college admissions.
At 10:26 p.m. Eastern, after MSNBC host Rachel Maddow asked Greenhouse what horrors to expect if Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell succeeds in confirming Ginsburg's replacement quickly, Greenhouse related what she viewed as "troubling" and "very worrisome" possibilities from the right-wingers:
Well, you know, one very troubling straw in the wind, I think, was a decision that came down from the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals the other day involving voting rights for former felons in Florida, and the court split 6-4, I think, and I believe all the judges -- all the appellate judges -- five of the six appellate judges in the majority were Trump appointees. And so, you know, there's a template for certainly of a lack of regard for a right to vote -- voter suppression being the name of the game today. So that's very worrisome.
The Times story on this explained Florida requires former felons to pay back any court fees before they can vote, and they began with white voter Jeff Gruver: "He was planning to vote for Joseph R. Biden Jr. in November until he found out on Friday he would not be voting at all. A federal appeals court ruled that Floridians with felony criminal records like himself would be ineligible to vote unless they paid back all their outstanding court fines and fees — in his case, at least $801. He does not have the money."
Turning her attention to race-based college admissions, she lamented Asian students filing discrimination suits about racial quotas:
We had an appellate argument this week in the case involving Harvard admissions and a phony claim which was rejected by the district judge that Harvard is using racially discriminatory tactics in building a diverse class of students, and I think the ability of universities to take race at all into account in building their student body is certainly in jeopardy. It's been in jeopardy for a long time. It was Justice Kennedy, you know, who retired two years ago that kind of kept that alive.
Greenhouse naturally threw in abortion:
The right to abortion really is hanging by a thread, so you kind of, you know, pick your case. And, to the extent that things have only happened incrementally in recent years instead of sweeping decisions -- that's because the conservative side couldn't always quite count on five votes. If they get one to replace Justice Ginsburg, I think a lot of this will be a foregone conclusion.
MSNBC's Friday night liberal bias was sponsored by Etrade. Their contact information is linked.
