The Supremes continue their inexorable rush to the Right. They're starting to look like the pre-New Deal Court that thought any guvmint regulation was evil and that the invisible hand of the marketplace belonged to God Almighty.
They're even siding with big business when considerations of judicial efficiency should be considered let alone truth, justice and the American way. Dahlia Litiwck knows a lot more about this than I do:
... the Supreme Court decided what may well be the most consequential case of the current term, Wal-Mart v. Dukes, a sweeping class action suit filed almost 10 years ago that has yet to be litigated on its merits. Filed on behalf of the more than 1.5 million women who have worked at Wal-Mart since 1998, the suit alleges that the company favored men over women in decisions about pay and promotion in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. Today, the Supreme Court told them all to go home.
Writing for the court's five conservatives—and all but one of its men—Justice Antonin Scalia found that the women seeking to be certified as a single class did not have enough in common to go forward with the lawsuit en masse. Wal-Mart, the nation's largest private employer, seems to have figured out that the key to low-cost discrimination lies in discriminating on a massive scale. In Scalia's words, all these disparate women with their multiple claims about "millions of employment decisions" lacked sufficient "glue" to be permitted to move forward together.A lot of critics are saying that this decision has created a new rule: Some companies are simply too big to sue. But that's only half the story. The other half is that in the court's eyes, sex discrimination is simply too pervasive to be a problem.
The conservative judicial counterrevolution is in full frenzy right now. Don't let their robes and stoic demeanor fool you: Alito, Thomas and Scalia are fanatics. And underneath Chief Justice Roberts' jovial facade beats the heart of a guy who cooked up some of the most retrograde legal policies of the Reagan Justice Department. John Roberts is Ed Meese with a handsome face.
The rightward momentum of the Court since Sandra Day O'Connor's retirement is why some of the horrible anti-choice being passed by state legislatures aren't being challenged in Federal Court. Absent some major personnel changes, this court is quite capable of overruling Roe v. Wade.
Batten down the hatches, y'all, we're in for a bumpy ride unless one of hardcore wingnut Justices retires or croaks.
One of the first blog-based books, the anthology Special Plans examines Feith's role in misleading America into war. Buy from 
My late dad had a response that I feel is appropriate for decisions like this: "Cocksuckers!!"
And not in a good way, either. Also. Too.
Posted by: Mass | June 22, 2011 at 20:26
Holy Al Swearingen, Batman.
Posted by: Adrastos | June 22, 2011 at 21:08
What a charming conceit. Women in America do not have enough in common to constitute a class.
Pay no attention to a couple hundred years of laws addressing women as a class.
Posted by: thebewilderness | June 22, 2011 at 21:57
oooh, oooh! I vote for "croaks"~! Can we have two please? Thomas with a stroke on the can... Scalia choking on a large piece of veal?
Posted by: drunken hausfrau | June 23, 2011 at 03:19
This court is one of the worst legacies of the Bush administration. It is packed with pure rightwing fanatics who never met a multi billion dollar corporation or wealthy white man they didn't like.
We will eventually work our way out of most of the shitpiles left behind by Bush but this court is the gift that will keep on giving for decades.
Posted by: OkieBlue | June 23, 2011 at 08:31
IOKIYAR activism.
Posted by: pansypoo | June 23, 2011 at 11:49