My take on Gorsuch is that he is a serious textual judge who gets led down into some very strange rabbit holes by his readings of the text and his libertarian, as opposed to conservative, instincts. He clearly has great distrust of government power and has voted to preserve what he sees as the rights of individuals against the tyrannical actions of government. That is what guided his decision in Bostock v Clayton County – it was a DUMB decision, for sure, because his vote ensured that LBGTQWTFISTHISSHIT “rights” take precedence over the rights of individuals and employers.

But he has made it very clear that his philosophy of the law does not guarantee a liberal or conservative outcome. He simply follows the text and views the Court’s role as one of defending “the man on the street” from government power. That’s all fine and dandy, until one thinks through the consequences of that philosophy.

Those consequences form a large part of the body of reasons why I am no longer a libertarian or an atheist, for example.

In most matters, Gorsuch is reliably conservative, but in matters where individual rights of free people are at stake, he seems to be willing to buck the conservative wing.

If Breyer does leave & both his & RBGs replacements are indeed Constitutional conservatives (ala Thomas/Alito/Scalia), that would do it.

Possibly. I’m expecting that a Justice Barrett – assuming that she gets the nod – will be a bit squishy, as women tend to be in positions of power. She even looks like a Karen, though her judicial record is apparently excellent. But she has the pedigree, and she clerked for Scalia himself, which has to be one hell of a training ground.

Ultimately, the composition of the SCOTUS isn’t worth two cents past, oh, 2028 or so. The destruction of the USA is pretty much guaranteed within our lifetimes. But it’s going to be pretty damned interesting to watch what happens in the meantime.

I was never a big fan of hair metal, so I never got into bands like STRYPER from back in the day. That’s a bit unfair given that STRYPER is in fact a Christian metal band, though. Honestly I haven’t listened to anything from them except probably their rendition of “Battle Hymn of the Republic”, which I quite like.

I do like Christian metal in general. I particularly like IMPELLITTERI and Rob Rock – “Kingdom of Light” and a couple of other tracks come to mind. Some of the stuff in that realm gets a bit cheesy and over the top, especially the power metal side of things – to be expected, really – but overall I think that, as long as we keep that stuff out of Mass, it’s all good.

Sure ))

4 definite liberals: Breyer, Sotomayer, Kagan and Roberts. (I’m a little surprised at how many people have only finally realized that in the last year or so….)

3 Constitutional conservatives: Thomas and Alito have been shown to be anyway, & Kavanaugh seems to be so far.

Then there’s Gorsuch. He’s a pretty big wild card. While he seemed conservative initially, he was all in with the 6-3 liberal decision on “Bostock v Clayton County” this year. A case that helped (further?) enshrine mental illness (aka LBGTQXYZWTF…) as a protected civil right per court opinion.

Gorsuch keeps me from believing that RBGs replacement will bring in a 5-4 conservative majority, regardless of who the replacement is. IMO, best case looks like it would be a 4-4-1 court.

If Breyer does leave & both his & RBGs replacements are indeed Constitutional conservatives (ala Thomas/Alito/Scalia), that would do it.