Today's Must-Read

Digby has a transcript of Elizabeth Warren's speech to the American Constitution Society -- the one where she ripped Donald Trump a new one. Here's the beginning:

Four simple words are engraved above the doors to the Supreme Court: Equal Justice Under Law. That’s supposed to be the basic promise of our legal system: that our laws are just, and that everyone — everyone — will be held equally accountable if they break those laws.

We haven’t always fulfilled that promise — but it is the absolute standard to which we hold ourselves even when we fall short.

A vital part of that struggle is the fight for a truly professional, independent, and impartial judiciary. A place governed not by politics, not by money, not by power — but by those four simple words: equal justice under law.

Three years ago, I came to the American Constitution Society to deliver a warning about how that promise is under threat.

I talked pretty bluntly about how we are losing the fight over whether our courts will remain a neutral forum, faithfully interpreting the law and dispensing fair and impartial justice, or whether rich and powerful interests will completely capture our judicial branch.

I talked about how year after year, for more than thirty years, powerful interests have worked to rewrite the law and tilt the courts to favor billionaires and giant corporations. Cases that protected giant businesses from accountability. Cases that made it harder for individuals to get into court. Cases that gutted longstanding laws protecting consumers from being cheated. And cases like Citizens United, which unleashed an avalanche of billionaire SuperPAC dollars and secret corporate money in a mad dash to tilt the rest of the government in favor of the wealthy.

Today, I’m here to update that warning. Because what we’ve seen over the past three years — accelerating over the past three months, and even the past three weeks — is alarming. Powerful interests are now launching a full-scale assault on the integrity of the federal judiciary and its judges.

And there's video:

I've said before that the radical right hates the idea of an independent judiciary. They've called for terms limits and retention ballots for federal judges, and I'm sure that's just the beginning. As Warren quite rightly notes farther on in her remarks, the Republicans' refusal to expedite judicial nominations is more than just Obama hate: they don't really want the courts to be functional. At least, not until they can stack them with more Antonin Scalias, or worse. (Yes, there are worse, believe it or not. How about Roy Moore?)

As for calls for Hillary Clinton to select Warren as her running mate, I think that would be a big mistake. Digby pretty much has it:

Sen. Elizabeth Warren should stay right where she is in the Senate. She would have less of a platform as the Vice President. Yes, VP candidates are often given the attack-dog roll, but Warren needs no loftier position for doing that. Warren's speech to the American Constitution Society’s national convention takes your breath away.

And in the Senate, Warren can actually do something besides make speeches.