Insight

“Of all the tyrannies on human kind the worst is that which persecutes the mind.” —John Dryden (1631-1700)

SCOTUS Observations

“[Democrats] are trying to use [Justice Stephen Breyer’s retirement] to distract from what is their failed agenda. The American people are all concerned with inflation and crime and COVID and CRT and the wokeness and the lockdowns and the mandates and Russia and Ukraine. And now they are trying to do this. They do think it will gin up their base, but it also is going to galvanize conservatives going into the election, especially if Joe Biden does what he has been doing for the district and circuit judges, which is to nominate people that are far to the left, they are outside of the American mainstream.” —Senator Marsha Blackburn

“By saying he is only picking a black woman, Joe Biden is excluding 94% of all Americans for the job of Supreme Court justice. It’s the very definition of racism and sexism, choosing someone not based on their actual qualifications but on their cosmetic diversity instead.” —Clay Travis

“Ironically, it is against federal law to begin a job search by announcing that only people of a certain race will be considered and that all people of other races will be rejected. The Supreme Court itself has been clear on that matter. As Justice Lewis Powell wrote in the 1978 Bakke case, ‘Preferring members of any one group for no reason other than race or ethnic origin is discrimination for its own sake. This the Constitution forbids.’” —Gary Bauer

“On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court finally granted a writ of certiorari in two now-consolidated affirmative action cases. … But by Wednesday afternoon, Monday’s propitious step forward toward an America no longer obsessed with race and identity politics was abruptly undermined by a severe step backward toward a race-centric polity. … President Joe Biden affirmed that he intends to fulfill his 2020 campaign promise to nominate a Black woman — not a Black man, not a Hispanic woman, but specifically a Black woman — to replace the retiring Jewish male justice. … The juxtaposition of the Court’s colorblind certiorari grant on Monday and Biden’s color (and sex)-centric announcement on Wednesday is nothing if not ironic.” —Josh Hammer

“Hate to break it to you but the only black person serving on the Supreme Court today was personally attacked, defamed and slandered by Joe Biden before he voted AGAINST him.” —Benny Johnson

“Joe Biden will nominate a black woman for the Supreme Court because he said he would select someone based on race and sex, and then we will be told that noting that this is definitionally affirmative action and race discrimination is itself racist. Also, there’s a reason Democrats never miss with their SCOTUS picks: they overtly choose wild Leftists. That’s the only real qualification. They wouldn’t care whether Biden nominated an HLS grad who clerked for Breyer or Cardi B, so long as that person voted reliably Left.” —Ben Shapiro

SCOTUS Demagoguery/Race Bait

Racist litmus test: “While I’ve been studying candidates’ backgrounds and writings, I’ve made no decision except one: [The] person I will nominate will be someone with extraordinary qualifications, character, experience, and integrity. And that person will be the first black woman ever nominated to the United States Supreme Court.” —Joe Biden

Projection: “What I’m looking for is a justice who can be fair and impartial and who does not have an ideological axe to grind, which is what we saw — as far as I’m concerned — in President Trump’s nominees, including to the Supreme Court.” —Senate Judiciary Committee member Mazie Hirono

“You could make the case that somebody like Amy Coney Barrett was put in there because she’s a white woman who they say, ‘Well, she’ll go against abortion rights.’ … [Republicans] put [Clarence Thomas] in there thinking, ‘Oh, a black man will go against voting rights,’ which is what he does.” —"The View’s" Joy Behar

“The Supreme Court is like this dictatorial branch of the government. … I always feel like that particular branch of government is so anti-democracy. The fact that there are no term limits. The fact that you can put your people on because they agree with you, and then they’re there forever, influencing maybe three or four generations of Americans. To call that a democratic institution seems an oxymoron.” —Joy Behar

“Ahead of the midterms, I look forward to watching every Republican Senator oppose the first black woman to the Supreme Court.” —CNN analyst Joe Lockhart

“I don’t know this for a fact, but I am pretty sure that Joe Biden will not nominate somebody who has been credibly accused of trying to rape somebody when they were in high school. I am pretty sure, I don’t know this for a fact, that Joe Biden will not nominate somebody who has been accused of perjury in front of Congress over a previous confirmation hearing.” —The Nation legal correspondent Elie Mystal

Non Compos Mentis Awards

“Build Back Better is paid for. Entirely.” —White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki

“I seem to remember Glenn Youngkin campaigning, in a fleece vest, in Virginia. He was running as a different kind of Republican. I was told there was going to be a vest, not a Soviet-style police state across the Potomac from Washington.” —CNN’s Jim Acosta

Paradox Award

“Because it goes to a very fundamental principle of all nations, which is that our borders should be inviolate, that our sovereignty should be respected.” —White House Deputy National Security Adviser Jonathan Finer when asked, “Why should Americans care about what’s happening [at the U.S. southern border] in Ukraine?”

And Last…

“Joe Biden should threaten to resign as president unless Joe Rogan is removed from Spotify.” —Frank J. Fleming