September 24, 2020

Lindsey Graham Isn’t Being Subtle About Why Republicans Are Rushing to Fill RBG’s Seat

Caroline Brehman/Congressional Quarterly/Zuma

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Senate Judiciary Chair Lindsey Graham said during a Fox News appearance on Thursday that he plans to get a ninth Supreme Court justice through the committee process before November 3 so that the court would be able to weigh in on the results of a contested presidential election.

“A 4–4 Supreme Court is not a good deal for America,” Graham said. “Now, we may have litigation about who won the election, but the court will decide, and if the Republicans lose, we will accept that result.” Graham suggests that a deadlocked court would harm America, but the ideological split is already a 5–3 conservative majority. If Graham were to have his way, in the case of a contested election, a third of the people deciding the next president would owe their seats to Donald Trump—not exactly a model of impartiality.

In an interview with CNN, Graham refused to acknowledge Democrats’ concerns that a ninth justice could unfairly sway the results of a contested election in favor of Trump:

Lest we forget Graham’s justification for refusing to hold confirmation hearings of Barack Obama’s Supreme Court nominee in 2016: “If there’s a Republican president in 2016 and a vacancy occurs in the last year of the first time, you can say, ‘Lindsey Graham said let’s let the next president, whoever it might me, make that nomination.’ And you could use my words against me, and you’d be absolutely right.” Plus, the Senate’s refusal to hold confirmation hearings for Merrick Garland in 2016 left the Supreme Court with exactly the 4–4 split Graham now says he fears—and an even divide of liberal and conservative judges.

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

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