The Supremes and Personal Attacks — What Happened to Dignity?

By Elayne Savage, PhD

 

What a shame recent history-making decisions by the Supreme Court are being tainted by animosity between the justices.

Will they ever again be able to sit down to tea together? Can they survive the recent rancor and disrespect?

What a contrast between Justice Robert’s restrained, reasoned and respectful dissent of the Marriage Equality decision and the irreverent dissents by Justices Scalia, Thomas and Alito – especially the public shaming of Justice Kennedy.     

This blog is not intended to be a political statement. My need to write about this reflects my uneasiness about the disrespect shown by these Justices to each other. As many of you know, I see things through the lens of rejection and taking things personally and these disrespectful exchanges trouble me a lot. Some of you may be affected by this as well, and I hope you'll take part in this conversation.

 

And yes, I guess I am taking it personally that my trust in the dignity of the highest court in our land has been shattered by undignified behavior.

The ‘Diss List”

These written dissents are chock-full of descriptions from the “Diss List” I use as an author and speaker.

“Diss” of course is short for “disrespect,” but there are dozens of words that begin with ‘diss’ including dismissing, discounting, disparaging, disregarding, dishonoring, and disgracing.

Each of these describes a rejecting behavior. They arise from and can lead to taking things personally.

Justice Scalia, joined by Justices Thomas and Alito, wrote a blistering dissent calling The Affordable Care Act majority opinion written by Chief Justice Roberts “absurd” and proclaiming, “We should start calling this law SCOTUScare."

Justice Scalia, famous for his over-the-top writing and witticisms, seems to have overstepped this time. Perhaps he isn’t aware that cynicism and sarcasm are anger based — and his anger surely shows.

Do you think Justice Scalia’s insulting responses to the majority opinions could be because he felt betrayed by the usually conservative Chief Justice Roberts and Justice Kennedy?

Did he take it personally? Is he overreacting?

Taking Things Personally – Let Me Count the Ways

Taking things personally has lots of colorations:

-  Taking offense at and overreacting to perceived slights.
-  Tending to believe there is intent even if there is not.
-  Taking things the wrong way, or taking things the right way but 
your feelings get easily   hurt.
-  Believing folks are taking sides -- for you or against you.
-  Feeling betrayed because you think someone is being disloyal. 
-  Getting upset when other people don't see things the way you do.
-  Feeling unfairly criticized, blamed or disrespected.
-  Feeling slighted or wronged or attacked.
-  Developing hurt feelings and misunderstandings and even resentment.

Politico.com Wrote this Blog for Me!

Just as I was starting to write this blog using vivid examples of sniping and disrespect in the dissents  . . . Politico.com did it for me! (Politico, read by both Democrats and Republicans, is for the most part considered unbiased and a bit edgy.)

Here are some quotes from the Politico piece using words like “bitterness,” “invective,” “ridiculing” and “accusatory.”

“The gloves came off, with the justices hurling especially nasty words at each other, shattering the illusion that they are all good friends.”

“Scalia pulled no punches, blasting the majority decision in the same-sex marriage case as a ‘judicial Putsch,’ and leveling attacks that seemed directed squarely at Justice Anthony Kennedy, who penned the court’s majority opinion.”

(I had no clue what putsch means and had to look it up in Merriam-Webster: “a secretly plotted and suddenly executed attempt to overthrow a government.” Imagine. One Justice accusing another Justice of trying to overthrow the government!)

“Scalia called Kennedy’s opinion ‘often profoundly incoherent’ and declared that its ‘style is as pretentious as its content is egotistic.’"

“At another juncture, Scalia ridiculed Kennedy’s language as sounding like an aphorism from a fortune cookie.”

These mocking words from one justice about another, makes my head spin. Where is the decorum one would hope to expect from Supreme Court Justices?

(You’ll find the link to the thought-provoking Politico article below.)

Isomorphism and Projection

I wonder if this SCOTUS turmoil is a reflection of similar in-fighting in Congress and between Congress and the White House. And is it a mirroring of the polarization in the country? The term for this is isomorphism or parallel process.

Could there be some psychological projection going on as well where one person’s unacceptable thoughts, needs, feelings or fears are unconsciously attributed to others?
(See the link below for more about isomorphism and projection.)

Will this dissension trickle down to the rest of us? Or has it already?

What a shame it would be if this acrimony affects future behaviors of The Supreme Court, Congress, The White House and We the People.

The positive side here is that some recent opinions have included a large dose of humanity from  the Justices. Wouldn't it be refreshing if SCOTUS could each find their way to feel passionately, yet respectfully and with dignity.

Would love your ideas about all this. Let’s have a discussion . . .

© Elayne Savage, PhD

Until next time,

Elayne

More reading:

From Politico.com: Supreme Court Justices Stop Playing Nice
http://www.politico.com/story/2015/06/supreme-court-justices-antonin-scalia-samuel-alito-119486.html

On Isomorphism and projection:
From TipsFromTheQueenOfRejection: Nasty and Personal: When is Political Nastiness Psychological Projection?
http://bit.ly/1GH3ZDB

Elayne Savage is the author of ground-breaking relationship books published in 9 languages.

Both books are now available on Kindle!



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