Gorsuch dissents
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This person's fears are on the tribally neurotic/irrational end. Count on him being one who considers Republicans to be an existential threat to democracy on any number of fronts.
But I'm sure Gorsuch has a reasonable bipartisan point just the same.
One name that looms over this dispute about whether judges can initiate prosecutions is Matthew Kacsmaryk, a Trump-appointed judge in Texas who is widely expected to issue a decision any day now seeking to remove a common abortion drug from the US market. Kacsmaryk has, to put it mildly, a record of reading the law creatively to advance conservative causes. He also has a record of asserting jurisdiction over cases and parties that he does not have any lawful authority over.
Armed with the additional power to initiate prosecutions, even if this power is limited to contempt of court cases, a partisan judge like Kacsmaryk could potentially issue a nationwide injunction prohibiting anyone from performing an abortion, even in states where it is legal. Then, because anyone who violates a court order can potentially be held in contempt, Kacsmaryk could appoint his own hand-picked prosecutors to target anyone who violates his self-imposed abortion ban.
If Kacsmaryk, or a similarly partisan judge, attempted this move today, Attorney General Merrick Garland would almost certainly fire any prosecutor that Kacsmaryk appointed. But, in a Republican administration, the attorney general would likely be much more reluctant to exercise such authority. Indeed, a Republican-led Justice Department might welcome the appointment of an array of new prosecutors focused solely on prosecuting abortion providers.
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I kept looking through the article for something that justifies the headline "Worst Supreme Court Justice...."
Did I miss something?
Anyhow, I have to disagree with the SCOTUS decision in Young. Courts judge, executives execute. "Inherent authority?" My ass.
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See my post for rationale about why this writer would consider a 'conservative' (read: constitutional) justice to be the worst one. That author is also a Vox contributor who specializes in writing about threats to our democracy. My guess is that his bloodhound nose has never sniffed a threat from his own tribe.
