The traditional motto of the United States is “In God we trust”. Is there now a new motto: “We trust nothing”?
For many reasons, most Americans have been very suspicious of large institutions for years. The congress? Thumbs down. The presidency? About. Americans are also wary of big business, unions, public schools, and organized religions. Indeed, they have a very bad opinion of the very functioning of democracy.
The Supreme Court had been something of an exception. Historically, the only branch of government that does not depend on public opinion enjoyed higher public esteem than branches elected by the people. His reputation above the fray, cultivated with exquisite care, once served him well.
Now the judges face trial following the bold leak of a first draft opinion that eliminates the constitutional right to abortion, an episode that has deepened suspicions that the main court, with all its decorum, is made up of politicians in robes. .
Republican members of Congress hint at a sinister plot on the left to sidetrack the outcome of the final decision. Liberals claim right-wing machinations to lock justices into their preliminary vote. With so much speculation, neither party knows who leaked the blueprint to Politico or why.
What is clear is that the affair has burst the bubble of deference around the court.
“My confidence in the court has been shaken,” Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski, one of the few pro-choice Republican senators, said with alarm. Vice President Kamala Harris accused the justices of mounting a “direct assault on liberty” if they pass the ruling. Senate Democratic Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has accused Trump’s nominees of lying to Congress regarding their views on abortion during their hearings.
Elected officials don’t usually talk like that regarding judges. But now, it seems, the jurists are being targeted, just one more contingent of the powerful players in Washington’s nest of vipers.