{"id":8908,"date":"2014-07-14T16:26:13","date_gmt":"2014-07-14T16:26:13","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2014-07-14T16:26:13","modified_gmt":"2014-07-14T16:26:13","slug":"dahlia_lithwick_talk_radio_has_ruined_the_supreme_court","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2014\/07\/14\/dahlia_lithwick_talk_radio_has_ruined_the_supreme_court\/","title":{"rendered":"Dahlia Lithwick: Talk Radio Has Ruined the Supreme Court"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Listen<\/a><\/p>\n

RUSH: Dahlia Lithwick. Is that her name? I don\u2019t have my glasses on. It\u2019s Dahlia Lithwick. She\u2019s a journalist from somewhere. Moyers & Company. That\u2019s right. I couldn\u2019t believe he\u2019s still on the air. Bill Moyers. Oh. Moyers & Company. On his website, okay, he had a “web extra.”<\/p>\n

It was an “extended continuation of the interview he had with the senior editor at Slate, Dahlia Lithwick.” Moyers said, “You wrote recently that this is the most politicized and polarized Supreme Court ever on these 5-4 decisions, but is that any different from the way Congress is polarized or the country is polarized?” Listen to her answer…<\/p>\n

LITHWICK: It\u2019s not simply politically polarized. It\u2019s experientially polarized. Some of the justices are very proud of the fact that they get all their news from AM radio. Some of the justices are very proud of the fact that they don\u2019t read any newspaper of record. They… Some of the justices are proud of the fact that they only speak to audiences who agree with them. Uh, more and more the justices only hire clerks who agree with them. Gone is the era where justices would reach across the aisle and try to find clerks who would challenge them. So this court is polarized in terms of who they interact with, who they see, who they confer with, I — I think, that we have ever seen in history.<\/line><\/p>\n

RUSH: I have to take a break but of course we have some analysis and comment after this. <\/p>\n

BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n

RUSH: I wonder who she could be talking about. Some justices are very proud of the fact they get all their news from AM radio. That\u2019s not what the justices have said. There are some justices who have said that they really enjoy talk radio, not that it\u2019s their only source of things. And there are some justices who have said that they don\u2019t bother reading the New York Times. It\u2019s not that they don\u2019t read newspapers. It\u2019s that they don\u2019t read the New York Times. <\/p>\n

What does that have to do with what these guys do? They are dealing with legal issues and the events that are related to cases before them. They\u2019re not supposed to take into account the social concerns of things. They\u2019re not supposed to look at election returns, although it has long been thought that they do. <\/p>\n

How many of you have believed, like Lithwick says (imitating Lithwick), “And they don\u2019t even hire clerks that disagree with them. They don\u2019t even challenge themselves. They just hire a bunch of people that agree with them and they sit there and they pontificate and that\u2019s why there\u2019s a partisan divide.” And, of course, she\u2019s talking about the conservative justices. Do you think the libs have ever hired right-wing clerks to argue with \u2019em? It\u2019s absurd! <\/p>\n

How many of you have grown up or otherwise believe that when the Supreme Court first takes a case, that they sit in a room and discuss it and try to persuade each other that they\u2019re right and that they should agree with their take? How many of you believe that happens? I used to think that\u2019s what happened. I used to think that the Supreme Court was collaborative. After oral arguments or at some point during the decision-making period of the case that they would sit down and chat about the case and they would share their points of view and try to persuade each other. <\/line><\/p>\n

I had the chance one day to ask a judge, a justice, an actual justice of the US Supreme Court how that process worked. He looked at me and laughed and said, “It doesn\u2019t. There\u2019s no such process.” <\/p>\n

I said, “You\u2019re kidding.” <\/p>\n

“No. We don\u2019t try to change each other\u2019s mind. We take a vote, and that\u2019s it. We write the assent, the dissenting opinions are assigned, and the majority opinion is assigned, and that\u2019s it.” <\/p>\n

“I mean, you don\u2019t try to persuade one of the liberal justices?” <\/p>\n

“No, I don\u2019t need to waste my time. I\u2019m not gonna change their mind. They\u2019re not gonna change their mind. I\u2019m not gonna waste my time. It doesn\u2019t happen.” <\/p>\n

BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n

RUSH: Now, I\u2019ve mentioned this before, and you ought to see my e-mail exploding. “What do you mean they don\u2019t debate? What do you mean justices don\u2019t discuss cases with each other?” And then somebody said, “What about after the Obamacare vote?” ‘Cause people read that the conservative justices did everything they could to get Roberts to change his mind. That was reported and I distinctly recall it. All I can tell you is what I\u2019ve been told, and it was some years ago.<\/p>\n

Another e-mail said: “What about oral arguments? I hear justices disagreeing with each other and sometimes their questions seem to be aimed at other justices rather than the lawyers that are arguing before the court.” That may well be. All I\u2019m telling you is that if you believe that there is this collegial, roundtable discussion of each case where each justice or as many justices as wish offer their point of view and try to persuade disagreeing justices to change their minds, and if you think that each Supreme Court decision is the result of debate in chambers around the conference table and a consensus being arrived at, I\u2019ve been told that doesn\u2019t happen. <\/p>\n

The original, when the caseload or a case is presented to the court, they\u2019re all there to discuss whether to accept it, take a vote on that. But I could just tell you that I\u2019ve been told on more than one occasion that the assumption that this is what takes place behind closed doors is wrong. That a case is presented, oral arguments are heard, and a vote, just like in a jury room, is taken except there isn\u2019t any conversation. There may be further votes, don\u2019t know about that, and there ultimately at some point is the final vote. But it isn\u2019t collaborative. It may happen on a rare basis, but not according to what I\u2019ve been told. <\/p>\n

Look, the only reason I\u2019m bringing this up is because Dahlia Lithwick, in her sound bite, tries to portray only the conservative justices as closed-minded and only the conservative justices as ignorant, because, hey, some admit they proudly listen to AM talk radio, and they proudly admit that they don\u2019t read any newspapers and so and that somehow is supposed to equate or equal ignorance or stupidity or closed-mindedness or whatever. It has nothing to do with what they do, what their news sources are and what they enjoy to access in the media. <\/p>\n

It only applies, of course, to the conservatives \u2019cause there\u2019s no way that she would demand that a liberal justice have a clerk who disagrees with him or her, to challenge her and present points of view that she might not otherwise consider, \u2019cause that\u2019s not the way the left looks at things anyway. They\u2019re not interested in the other point of view. They\u2019re not interested in being open to it and perhaps having their mind changed. They\u2019re not interested in that. That\u2019s a totally different mind-set. Victory is what matters. They already know what they believe. It\u2019s etched in stone. It\u2019s like a religion. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

RUSH: Dahlia Lithwick. Is that her name? I don\u2019t have my glasses on. It\u2019s Dahlia Lithwick. She\u2019s a journalist from somewhere. Moyers & Company. That\u2019s right. I couldn\u2019t believe he\u2019s still on the air. Bill Moyers. Oh. Moyers & Company. On his website, okay, he had a “web extra.” It was an “extended continuation of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nDahlia Lithwick: Talk Radio Has Ruined the Supreme Court - The Rush Limbaugh Show<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2014\/07\/14\/dahlia_lithwick_talk_radio_has_ruined_the_supreme_court\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Dahlia Lithwick: Talk Radio Has Ruined the Supreme Court - The Rush Limbaugh Show\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"RUSH: Dahlia Lithwick. Is that her name? I don\u2019t have my glasses on. It\u2019s Dahlia Lithwick. She\u2019s a journalist from somewhere. Moyers & Company. That\u2019s right. I couldn\u2019t believe he\u2019s still on the air. Bill Moyers. Oh. Moyers & Company. 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