This is an extraordinary address that Senator Franken made to the American Constitution Society this week. Choice bits:
Tonight, we celebrate the rise of a new generation of progressive legal scholars and jurists.
Look to your left. Look to your right.
Odds are, at least one of the three of you will someday be filibustered by Senate Republicans.
Speaking of which, I’d like to give a special shout-out to all the filibustered nominees we have here with us tonight.
The Republican obstruction that is standing between you and the work you’ve agreed to do for your country is unacceptable. And we will continue to fight it.
I don’t think you need to be a lawyer to recognize that the Roberts Court has, consistently and intentionally, protected and promoted the interests of the powerful over those of individual Americans.
And you certainly don’t need to be a lawyer to understand what that means for the working people who are losing their rights, one 5-4 decision at a time.
There’s alot here (pdf transcript). You can see the video of the speech here (it can’t be embedded). It is worth every minute.
Senator Franken has been a real progressive surprise. For all of his admiration of the Clinton era, he hasn’t been given to triangulating measures either in words or in action. This is a fantastic rundown of How We Got Here — conservative judicial nonsense edition — and a fantastic place the draw a line in the sand from. If only. It is too bad this won’t get the circulation it deserves.