The fierce 2008 battle over anti-gay marriage Prop 8 seems like it was eons ago. But the fight in California was so profound it left scars and visceral memories of what was at stake in losing, then winning back, equality. Prop 8 forced politicians and voters to take a public stand for or against LGBT rights. It’s doing that again, this time in the form of a pro-Prop 8 federal judicial President Trump nominee. But in 2018, with so much chaos happening every day, few are paying attention to the far right wing stacking of the judiciary, the third branch of government in the democratic system of checks and balances.
On Friday, a potential day of reckoning drew closer. The New York Times reported that the highly regarded Rachel L. Brand, the No. 3 ranking official behind Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein, is leaving the DOJ after nine months on the job with unrelenting attacks.
This is critical since Trump has often decried as a “witch hunt” Special Counsel Bob Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election and has made clear his “disappointment with Sessions for recusing himself and Rosenstein’s hiring of Mueller. If Trump fired the two, at least Brand would be the safety net for the investigation and perhaps the country. With her gone, Trump could make a recess appointment to avoid Senate confirmation and make Watergate’s “Saturday Night Massacre” seem like a kiddy party.