• Supreme Court replacements

SupremeCourt

Retirements, replacements and refections

BY CRYSTAL QIAN AND BENNIE CHANG

Liberal Justice Stephen Breyer announced his retirement after 27 years on the Supreme Court, granting President Joe Subsequently, Johnson nominated Justice Abe Fortas, a gamble that was confronted with a conservative filibuster, derailed on Biden his first high court selection. With Biden nominating Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, Breyer’s calculated decision preempts a further imbalance from the current 6-to-3 conservative majority, one that has undertaken salient judicial precedents. Unlike Breyer, however, liberal justices have a history of illtimed retirements resulting in ideologically dissimilar replacements. These surrendered liberal court seats, coupled with modern Republicans’ tactical use of Senate power, have been instrumental in shaping the Supreme Court’s conservative dominance.

Since 1960, Democrats and Republicans have controlled the presidency for a similar number of years, yet Republican presidents have appointed nearly twice the number of justices.

“Every justice wants to be replaced with Judge Jackson has all the someone who shares credentials that you would their views,” said Ryan want for a Supreme Court Snyder, former law clerk justice. She is exceptional, to Chief Justice John incredibly smart and a Roberts and fellow at the Stanford Constitutional wonderful human being. Law Center. “What happened with Justice Ginsburg is obviously Amanda Tyler, UC Berkeley Law Professor something that Breyer and all of the justices probably think about.”

The death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg in September 2020 occasioned the fourth time in the past six decades for which a liberal relinquished a court seat to a conservative. Since justices are nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate, liberal activists recognized the inherent advantage to Ginsburg resigning during liberal Barack Obama’s presidency amid a Democrat-controlled Senate. Being in her 80s, battling cancer and receiving retirement pleas, Ginsburg nonetheless remained on the court — an epoch-making decision that cemented the court’s conservative skew. When she passed away during conservative Donald Trump’s presidency, Trump supplanted the civil rights giant with conservative Justice Amy Coney Barrett, Ginsburg’s antithesis who champions overturning landmark rulings such as Roe v. Wade, abolishing affirmative action and terminating climate legislation.

For such schismatic political subjects, 5-to-4 Supreme Court decisions are the norm. Thus, the ideological flipping of court seats is momentous, especially because justices serve lifetime appointments.

In the case of liberal Chief Justice Earl Warren, who presided over the Supreme Court in the 1950s and 60s, the ramifications have persisted for decades. Convinced that conservative Richard Nixon would win the 1968 presidential election, Warren deliberately announced his retirement in the waning months of liberal Lyndon Johnson’s presidency. ethical grounds and eventually withdrawn. Warren’s belated resignation allowed Nixon to appoint conservative Chief Justice Warren Burger, leaving an indelible imprint on U.S. jurisprudence: 54 years later, the chief justice chair is still in conservative possession. “I think it boils down to one word: timing,” Government teacher David Pugh said. “From a Democratic perspective, if some of the more ‘liberal’ [justices] retired just a little earlier, they would have had a president of their party nominate their replacement. Earl Warren was one of the most influential justices in terms of civil rights, and when Nixon ended up replacing him, that’s when the court began to shift.” Another case study concerns Justice Thurgood Marshall, an anchor of the court’s liberal wing. He spurned pressure to retire during liberal Jimmy Carter’s presidency in the late 1970s, only to experience a Republican-held White House for the following 12 years. Citing health concerns, Marshall retired during conservative George H.W. Bush’s presidency, begetting a conservative successor. “I think Thurgood Marshall’s retirement is not talked about enough,” said Amanda Tyler, former law clerk to Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Shannon C. Turner Professor of Law at the UC Berkeley School of Law. “When you sit here in 2022 and look back, Thurgood Marshall is big because that’s a huge swing with respect to that seat.” Aside from bungled Supreme Court transitions, partisan polarization has also played a role: The U.S.’s fractured political landscape has spurred Republicans to capitalize on high court openings, exploiting their Senate dominance to selectively push through conservative nominees. More than ever, confirmation battles have grown partisan, and politics and the American judiciary have become intricately and inextricably intertwined. “Some of the reasoning behind the Supreme Court’s conservative majority is the accident of history,” said Erwin Chemerinsky, D e a n of the UC Berkeley School of Law. “Some is the manipulation of the process by Republicans, such as blocking t h e consideration of Merrick Garland and rushing through the confirmation of Amy Coney Barrett.”

After conservative Justice Antonin Scalia’s death in February 2016, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell wielded his power to deny Judge Merrick Garland, who was appointed by Obama to the Supreme Court, both a hearing and a vote. This unprecedented obstruction of Obama’s authority gifted Republicans a plum platform to galvanize their base for the upcoming general election.

“The nomination process has always been political, but there’s a difference in the way Trump appointed his justices, the way McConnell blocked the Scalia replacement and the way it’s been much more overt that they have an agenda now,” said Rebecca Talbott, fellow at the Stanford Constitutional Law Center.

The ramifications were staggering, as Trump won the presidency and Republicans secured absolute control over Capitol Hill. McConnell swiftly delivered conservative Judge Neil Gorsuch to the high court, the first of many measures that guaranteed a generation of conservative judicial legislating. Gorsuch and subsequent Trump nominees are long-term justices likely to serve for decades.

“It’s been a couple of centuries since the life-term was put in place, so there should be changes to the term lengths and the nomination process,” freshman Calvin Zhou said.

In 2018, moderate Justice Anthony Kennedy vacated his seat, a momentous retirement that bestowed Trump with a second nomination. While most political scientists concur with the move’s apolitical nature, accused sexual assaulter and right-wing Judge Brett Kavanaugh replaced the groundbreaking Kennedy, solidifying a conservative majority.

While Chief Justice John Roberts sought to safeguard the court’s impartiality by siding with liberal justices in several cases, Ginsburg’s death prompted McConnell to speed through Barrett’s confirmation and secure a 6-to-3 conservative supermajority.

“The Barrett nomination laid bare that the American process of confirming justices to the Supreme Court is very political,” Tyler said. “Politics has been a major aspect of nominations throughout American history, but the contrast of holding up Merrick Garland and rushing through Amy Coney Barrett underscores the enormity of politics as an overlay on the confirmation process.”

Even as Roberts continued to side with liberals in controversial cases, the five other Republican-nominated justices ruled. Taking on challenges ranging from abortion and affirmative action, they may roll back and even overrule precedent.

Within four years, t h e adverse court

Liberal Earl WARREN

Replaced by Warren Burger, Conservative

composition promoted liberals to seek stability within the liberal block. Following Biden’s election and Senate Democrats’ surprise upsets in Georgia, some on the left began pressuring the aging Breyer to retire, fearing Stephen BREYER a n Liberal To be replaced by Ketanji Brown Jackson, Liberal

untimely passing may allow for another Republican nomination like Barrett’s. While initially hesitant, Breyer caved in following a damning 2021 off-year election f o r Ruth Bader GINSBURG

Liberal Replaced by Amy Coney Barrett, Conservative

Democrats. If Republicans regain the Senate in 2022 as expected, McConnell could, once again, block Supreme Court selections.

“A lot of people are predicting that there will be this 6-to-3 court for decades to come, but it is good to recognize there is a lot of luck involved,” Snyder said. “Justice Thomas is 73, Justice Alito is 71 and health issues happen. It very well may be that five years from now, things look a lot different from what we are expecting.”

Antonin SCALIA

Conservative Replaced by Neil Gorsuch, Conservative

Thurgood MARSHALL

Liberal Replaced by Clarence Thomas, Conservative

Moderate Anthony KENNEDY

Winter guard: Dancing with fags, rifes and swords

BY CHELSEA LEE AND LAUREN LIU

Fluttering flags spin through the air and over the heads of the winter guard members who threw them. In the blink of the eye, the guards move seamlessly into the rest of the choreography. Such a maneuver is only one of the many skills winter guard performs, and winter guard’s well-choreographed performance captivates the audience by telling a story with vivid visual aspects.

As a part of the marching arts, the guards specialize in tossing and maneuvering colorful flags, rifles and sabres while performing leaps, spins and pirouettes similar to lyrical dance.

Known as color guard in the fall, winter guard competes alongside the marching band as an ensemble and performs at football games. After the football season ends, they compete independently as winter guard in the California Color Guard Circuit.

For the 2021-22 winter guard season, the team chose to compete with a program more conceptual in nature backed by “Neon Medusa,” by The Midnight. Instead of focusing on Medusa’s dark reputation of turning people into stone in Greek and Roman mythology, the performance highlights her alluring effect to draw in the audience, making them so invested in the performance that they are held stonestill.

Traditionally, color guard performs to more lyrical music in the veins of Sam Smith and Adele. However, instructor Rebekah Kiggins, who is coaching her first year at Lynbrook, chose an unconventional soundtrack from the 80s to challenge the team with a positive beat: the synthwave song, “Neon Medusa”.

“I wanted to have a bit more fun with the show, especially since they came back from being closed off from COVID-19,” Kiggins said. “I feel like they’re enjoying it too. They have their hard moments, but once you get past that it becomes way more enjoyable.”

While costumes and makeup play no formal role in the scoring process, they are still important in the visual aspect of the performance and showcase the team’s creativity beyond choreography.

“Costumes are a really large part of the performance because they put the audience into the mood and immerse them into the experience,” senior and co-captain Anya Hung said. “With the costume, you can really perform your character, and people understand the story more.”

This year’s winter guard has taken advantage of costumes in their program for the current season with unique 80s-inspired outfits for each guard to coordinate with the style of “Neon Medusa.” Each guard wears snake-themed jewelry and uses fishnet tights to apply rainbow makeup around the eyes to emulate snake scales.

In addition to their unique costumes, winter guard also uses custom-made flags. Although flags are usually reused from previous years, this year’s flags feature two new designs. One is a hand-drawn line illustration of Medusa’s side profile in bright pink and blue to coordinate with the neon, kaleidoscopic theme of the costumes. The other is a wavy grid pattern that depicts the unconventional style of music.

Color guard and marching band’s fall program based on music from the video game Undertale also ventured into innovative territory. The story follows the character arc of a hero that tries to save the day with a magical sword and learns of the responsibility that comes with the power to do good and evil.

“The underlying theme of the year was, ‘Hey, let’s go for it regardless of results. Let’s just have fun,’” marching band director Jeff Facun said. “What I wanted the members to get out of it was: ‘We’re in this pandemic, and I know you guys have not been outside your homes for quite a while. Let’s just do what we can to give you the experience that you guys want.’”

Lynbrook’s marching band and color guard placed first at two competitions in their division, which was based on the number of members, and third once out of a total of four competitions. For winter guard, the division in which they compete in is determined based on the skill of the guard, and they can move up as they improve. Currently, winter guard competes in the Scholastic Regional A division for novice programs and performers, in which the focus is on simple and foundational skills.

In the fall season, winter guard placed third in their class at both CCGC Independence and CCGC James Logan. Two more competitions will take place in March before the CCGC Championships in April.

With competitions taking place bimonthly, the winter guard team focuses on their passion for their sport and self-improvement and is careful not to let competitiveness overtake their goals.

“I don’t necessarily care about placement,” Kiggins said. “I care a lot about the work that the guards are given and whether they feel confident coming from the performance. Successwise, I’m seeing a lot more kids more willing to try new things. If they’re uncomfortable trying something, I want them to feel comfortable through training and asking the right questions, so they can learn to do anything.”

GRAPHIC ILLUSTRATION BY AMISHI CHNADRA AND JASON SHAN CHELSEA LEE––THE EPIC

Tom Brady retires after 22 seasons, leaves lasting impact

BY CRYSTAL QIAN

“The mentality he brought to the field is what makes him someone a lot of people look up to. He taught me a lot — not just about football, but also about perseverance, hard work and sacrifice.” — Shaheer Mohamed, senior

“Tom Brady has definitely changed a lot about football. He made every team he played with win Super Bowls and overall made a major impact on the NFL.” — Deniz Genc, freshman “Tom Brady is the undisputed GOAT. He’s definitely had his fair share of Ws, and I think he’s had a spectacular career. I really wished he played longer!” — Akshat Dhingra, junior

“I’ve admired Tom Brady and his greatness. From a sixth-round pick to one of the best athletes of all time, he showed how consistently backing yourself in life can really go a long way.” — Arnav Dixit, senior