As you’re probably aware by now, the Supreme Court yesterday ruled in the RICCI ET AL. v. DESTEFANO ET AL case, overturning a decision by Sonia Sotomayor. I’ll leave it to others to debate the pros and cons, goods and bads of this decision – I don’t have enough knowledge of the law in this area to express an opinion. You might try this, this, or this for more analysis.
What I found positively amazing (even though I should know better) is that pundits on the Right have turned a 5-4 decision into a 9-0 decision in less than half a day.
Seriously.
Via Media Matters:
Less than an hour after the Ricci decision was announced on June 29, conservative Ed Whelan wrote a post for National Review Online’s Bench Memos blog headlined “9-0 Against Sotomayor.” Whelan noted that Ginsburg did say “if final adjudication by this Court is indeed appropriate, New Haven should be the prevailing party.” Linking to Whelan’s post, NRO’s Kathryn Lopez tweeted: “9-0 Against Sotomayor.”
Similarly, Laura Ingraham tweeted: “Re. the SCOTUS Ricci opinion…ignore spin that case not impt bc 5-4…it was 9-0 on Soto’s summary judgment of firefighters claims!”
Shortly after noon, Rush Limbaugh claimed on his radio show: “If you read Ruth Bader Ginsburg, you’ll find out it’s a nine-zip decision because even those in the minority found that the 2nd Circuit botched this totally by not even having a trial.
I understand the frustration experienced by conservatives right now. We progressives have been there, we’ve felt that feeling that nothing ever seems to go right for us. But the conservatives pretty much WON on this one. Nearly every right-wing, conservative group, pundit, blogger or politician that has weighed in on this case was hoping it would be overturned.
And it was.
So why go through this ridiculous charade of saying it was 9-0? It wasn’t. They are twisting the words of those that dissented to make it look as if the dissenters were somehow forced to rule in her favor (in their judicial minds) but that they felt in their heart of hearts that she was wrong. Or something. I don’t get it.
Ed. Kathryn. Laura. Rush. Dudes, you won. You don’t have to exaggerate it. You won. Get it? SCOTUS ruled the way you wanted them to. Are you so twitchy lately, so bereft of any sense of self-esteem that even in victory you have to puff yourself up to appear more powerful, more victorious, more RIGHT???
I wonder if you realize how positively pathetic and lame that makes you look.
I’m just sayin’…
