SUPREME COURT 101

I'm now in my 21st year of retirement, euphoric, and even in quarantine, really enjoying my life.  Then there is May Lee, who in July of this year was honored for being the oldest worker in California.  She is 100 years old.  Still works.  She was the person who wrote a letter in 1945 saying it was unconstitutional for government to prohibit someone of Chinese ethnicity to work for the state.  Congress passed a law in 1955 rescinding that restriction.  We both have had incredible lives.

From Worldometer:

           DAY USA  WORLD  Brazil     India   South Africa

June     9     1093    4732        1185       246         82

July    22     1205    7128         1293     1120        572

Aug    12     1504     6556       1242       835        130

Sept     3     1094     5886        830    1083        174
             9     1208     6222       1136     1168          82

Oct      8      957     6420          730      967        160

            9      909     5806          658      929       139

          10       723     5162            544      921        126   

          11       325     3874            270       813       107

          12       316     3757            203       710        83

Summary:  For a Tuesday, surprisingly low number of new deaths.  Something, though, is not quite right, for there is a definite new wave forming in both the U.S. and World.  We'll see how the rest of the week goes.

The Supreme Court currently has eight justices.  When Amy Barrett gets confirmed, the number will be increased to nine, one being Chief Justice John Roberts, who is 65 and was appointed by Republican President George W. Bush.  When that occurs, there will be six conservative and three liberal judges

The Constitution does not address the matter of how many justices there should be.  Historically the number has been kept at nine since 1869.  Prior to that there have been as few as five to as many as 10.  The changes had everything to do with partisan politics.

In the 1930's Franklin D. Roosevelt proposed allowing him to name six new justices to reach 15.  The Senate voted 70-20 against this change.

The United Kingdom, the model used by our founding fathers, has 12 supreme court justices.  India has 30 of them.

Chances are that if Joe Biden becomes president and the Democrats have at least 50 members in the U.S. Senate, they will add two more associate justices.  John Roberts would still have the controlling vote, but he has been fair and logical in his position as chief justice.

Without that adjustment, the odds are high that the Supreme Court will:

• Abolish abortion:

Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113 (1973), was a landmark decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in which the Court ruled that the Constitution of the United States protects a pregnant woman's liberty to choose to have an abortion without excessive government restriction.

• Do away with Obamacare:

Obamacare – also known as the Affordable Care Act, or the ACA – is a law enacted to ensure that all Americans have access to affordable health insurance. It does this by offering consumers discounts (known as tax credits) on government-sponsored health insurance plans, and by expanding the Medicaid assistance program to include more people who don't have it in their budgets to pay for health care.

• Soften gun controls, or at least prevent stronger measures to be enacted.

The dilemma facing Republican senators about confirming Amy Barrett before November 3 is that (from the New York Times today):

• Two-thirds of Americans are against overturning Roe vs Wade.
• 60% today favor same-sex marriage.
• 65% want the federal government to address climate change.
• 80% favor tougher restrictions on power-plant emissions.
• 21 million of Americans will lose their health insurance if Obamacare is voided, and most Americans want the law to stay in place.

Amy Barrett will endanger all the above.  It is crucial for Republicans to retain control of the Senate.  Chances are, then, that if they end up with 50 or fewer senators and Biden gets elected president, this vote will occur in November or December.  In any case, absent an incredible bombshell, she will become this 9th justice.

The Supreme Court:

• Provides the Judicial check and balance to the Executive and Legislative branches of government
• Justices are appointed for life.
• In 1869 the 14th Amendment gave this body authority over states.
• It is the court of last resort.
• Protects civil rights and liberties:
• freedom of speech
• freedom of religion
• due process of law

#78 is Maybellene by Chuck Berry, released in 1955.  While Rock Around the Clock in 1954 became the first popular rock and roll song, in many ways Maybellene epitomized the emotion of those days.  In most ways he was the original poet of R&R.

At the age of 29 Berry caught a show by Muddy Waters, and at the end went over to seek his autograph.  He then asked how he could get in touch with a record company.  Waters responded, go see Leonard Chess over on 47th.  So Chuck went to Chess Records and got an audition.  They liked Ida Red, but had problems with that title.  Chess himself suggested Maybellene.

Berry went home, where he worked for his father's construction company and was studying to be a hairdresser.  Nothing from Chess Records, but weeks later he happened to hear it playing on the radio.  In two weeks it made it up to #1 on the R&B charts.  At radio station WINS in New York, Alan Freed played the song for two hours straight one night.  An unknown singer down south, Elvis Presley, began to include Maybellene in his own performances.

However, when he got a hand on his record, he saw that both Alan Freed and someone named Russ Fratto were also listed as songwriters.  Trading air play for pay, know as payola, was common in those days for black artists,  But Berry got a royalty check and went on to become the first black hitmaker.  It took him several lawsuits and 30 years to in 1986 become the song's sole composer,

Mind you, he was not your model good citizen, as I reported in my posting on the roots of rock and roll:

The inimitable Chuck Berry's Maybellene came in 1955.  By then he had already been convicted of robbery and been to jail, and in 1959 of the Mann Act, and again jailed.  

He hit the charts 28 times, and of all the songs, his only #1 was My Ding-a-Ling.  He was said to be a pedophile.  He died at the age of 90 in 2017, and received the same string of accolades accorded to Little Richard, who passed away this past week at the age of 87.

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