Jo Freeman: Kavanaugh Redux: "Unfit to Sit"

Reclaim the Court

Exactly one year after Brett Kavanaugh was sworn in as the newest Justice on the Supreme Court, about three hundred of his opponents came to DC for one more demonstration. This time the theme was Reclaim the Court.

Sponsored by WomensMarch, Demand Justice and the Center for Popular Democracy, they rallied in front of the Supreme Court after noon on October 6. Their signs were less concerned with sexual harassment than last year (though that was still a theme) and more with Kavanagh as a man "Unfit to Sit."

Before the rally began numerous people posed for photo ops in front of the court. One of the most vocal groups came from Maine to promote their opposition to the re-election of Sen. Susan Collins. One of the last progressive Republicans, Collins has served since 1997. Because she has long supported women and women’s issues, she was expected to vote against Kavanaugh’s confirmation. When she didn’t it raised a lot of ire.

Some seventy participants spent three hours in a morning training session before walking to the Supreme Court. A good deal of that training focused on the legal consequences of planned civil disobedience. Of the different possibilities, it was obvious that the crowd wanted most to mount the steps to the doors of the Supreme Court, as they had done at the end of the 2018 demonstrations.

When they reached the Court, they quickly saw that that was not going to happen.

The Court has its own police force, one of many in the District of Columbia. Its jurisdiction is the one city block on which the Supreme Court building rests, plus the people in it. The Court is closed on Sunday, even to tourists, but most of its 125 police officers were working this Sunday. Their primary task was to keep all protestors off of the Court plaza and steps. Toward that end they put up barricades and kept everyone else off as well.

The closest the protestors could come to occupying the court steps was to wrap yellow hazard tape around the barricades with #RECLAIMTHECOURT printed on it.

After two and a half hours of speeches by women from many different organizations, about a hundred protestors flowed into the street in front of the Court. While the DC police kept cars away, they sat and chanted.

To end they day, they marched to the nearby home of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R KY), and wrapped his door with hazard tape.

Reclaiming the court is not a task for one demonstration, or even a lot of them. There is a process by which federal judges are chosen, based more on convention than law. The right-wing learned long ago how to game the system. It looks for those with conservative views it can groom for appointment to the federal bench and raises them through the system. The Federalist Society in particular identifies and lobbies for conservative judges and justices. Kavanaugh is just one of five current Justices who rose with its support. Until the Left understands the long game, it will do more ranting than winning.

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Jo Freeman: Kavanaugh Redux: "Unfit to Sit"

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