Everything You Want To Know about the American Crisis

Turkey is in mourning for a woman whose name it just learned of a day earlier. For at least a few days, a broad swath of social media users, influential people and stars have shared the grief they feel over the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg. If you ask them who the members of the Turkish Constitutional Court are, they would not know, but this time, I have no objection. That’s because the death of RBG, who achieved iconic status as a U.S. Supreme Court justice, is important enough to have an impact on the entire world.

It is especially important because many developing countries are enacting domestic reforms using the United States as an example. For instance, in countries that have changed their system of government, such as Turkey, which justified switching to a presidential system by saying, America is like this, too. Of course, because America has become the leader in defining social and political trends throughout the world, its retrenchment from these ideals can easily influence other places, and many changes are justified by saying America is like this, too.

What Does the Supreme Court Do and Why Is It So Important?

For a long time actually, the nine-member Supreme Court, America’s highest judicial authority, has moved beyond being an institution that decides whether or not laws are constitutional. It has transformed into an extension of the executive branch and moved away from being an independent institution. The ineptness of politicians and the political stalemate have influenced this change, because sometimes, politicians are unable to keep up with the pace of social progress, and occasionally, their incompetence is to blame.

The Supreme Court’s transformation from a judicial body into an arm of the executive no doubt signals a distortion of the system. But, as politicians are unable to agree among themselves, the court has taken on this role for itself.

Many important reforms that have an impact on our daily lives have come from the court, such as school desegregation, abortion rights for women, the right of legal counsel for those who cannot afford it, the right of transgender individuals not to be fired because of their sexual identity, and marriage equality.

A 1971 ruling by the court set a standard for freedom of the press that the entire world could aspire to: the justices ruled in favor of publishing information leaked by The New York Times and The Washington Post, known as the “Pentagon Papers,” and affirmed the people’s right to know about the Vietnam War’s secret history. In many countries, freedom of the press has certainly not reached this level, but all of us dream of achieving this ideal one day. (See the film, “The Post.”)

Why Was RBG Such an Important Figure?

Ginsburg’s legacy as the second female justice to serve on the court made its mark on history with the struggle for gender equality. For example, she wrote opinions in favor of admitting female students to military schools and against employers engaged in wage discrimination based solely on a person’s gender. In particular, Ginsburg carved out her position in the mid- 2000s when she was the only female justice on the bench, and became a symbol and voice for progressives. But of course, like every revolutionary, she was alone from time to time.

In 2000, when the court rejected the recount in the presidential election and handed the presidency to George W. Bush, it was also Ginsburg who wrote a dissent. Under normal circumstances, justices conclude their dissent with the words, “Respectfully, I dissent.” As a student of Vladimir Nabokov in college, Ginsburg learned from him how to write, the power of words and even how the ordering of words produces different effects. She concluded her objection to the recount decision solely with “I dissent” because it was not really possible to respect the court’s decision.

Why the Hurry for a Judicial Nomination?

The Supreme Court’s decision in 2000 changed the world because Bush and his administration’s interest in war engulfed the entire Middle East, including Turkey. We are still feeling the effects. Twenty years later, the possibility of the presidential election ending up in the court again is strong because, in many states, there is the possibility that votes will not be counted, votes sent by mail will not arrive in time, and the results will not be clear on election night. To whom will the Supreme Court entrust this year’s election in Ginsburg’s absence?

As before, the court’s decision will affect us all directly.

Donald Trump and the Republicans are in favor of an immediate nomination to the court. Legally speaking, they have the right to do this and are seeking to use this right to the fullest extent. It is expected that Trump will nominate Amy Coney Barrett this week, a conservative female judge, as a right-wing RBG.* Heading into the election, the president and his base are in favor of nine vacant seats on the nine-member court.

Currently, there are eight members on the bench and five are conservatives. However, Chief Justice John Roberts has voted with the liberal wing on the last few cases. In the event that the election goes to the court before a new justice is appointed, a 4-4 split will lead to a constitutional crisis. For this reason, Republicans want to establish a conservative majority by naming a nominee as soon as possible.

The Main Goal Is To Take Over the Court Completely

For years, the constant ideal of the American right has been to take control of the Supreme Court, confine it to a conservative majority, and leave an imprint on future generations. The weight of the court is more important than who is in the White House because the court will be able to render opinions that will have influence for decades.

Conservatives have waged war on reforms including abortion rights, resegregation of schools, redrawing electoral lines in favor of Republicans, women’s rights, LGBTQ rights, affirmative action, and, most importantly, universal health care and have dreamed of destroying them for years. Having nominated two conservative justices to the court already, Trump can give right-wing supporters and religious fundamentalists what they want. It is only because of this that Trump will be able to win the Nov. 3 election.

Why Do Conservatives Hold onto Trump?

Conservatives, the devout, and religious fundamentalists are not actually fond of Trump, who is uninterested in religion, foulmouthed, accused of rape by his former wife and of harassment by 20 women, grabs women “down there,” has married and divorced several times, and has cheated on his wife with porn stars. However, only Trump gives them what they want. So much so that, when he entered the presidential race in 2016, his evangelical base (this group is, in a sense, as influential as our FETÖ) helped install Mike Pence by his side. Pence, a religious extremist whom Trump did not know and who had never crossed his mind, was suddenly made vice president. This alone is a sign of the relationship between Trump and his evangelical base.

Some people construe Trump as a flawed intermediary who bears God’s message. Mythology aside, it is clear that Trump has divine luck.

How Will the Election Turn Out?

The issues that will determine this election are COVID-19, police brutality, the protests against racism, and mail-in voting. Moving into the last weeks of the election, only the vote of increasingly blue-collar white male workers in Pennsylvania can alter the election result. Likewise, whoever takes Florida will become president. Trump has concentrated on swing states in the middle of the country and has begun to organize rally after rally in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Minnesota.

Everything changed on Friday night.

These days many people think that the moment Ginsburg died, the election results became clear, and they are not wrong.

*Editor’s Note: President Trump nominated Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court on Sept. 26. Her nomination must be confirmed by the Senate.

**Author’s Note: You can watch the documentary “RBG” on beIN Connect [https://www.beinconnect.com.tr/film/rbg]. I was not able to find the film “On the Basis of Sex” about the life of the justice on a Turkish platform. Was it immediately removed because “sex” was in the title? In fact, the movie’s title is itself ironic. “Sex” does not just mean what you think, it also means “gender.” When Ginsburg argued before the court on the issue of discrimination, she was objecting to discrimination “on the basis of sex.” However, she changed the word to “gender” after an employee warned that the connotation evoked “sex” in the minds of the court’s all-male justices.