Libertarian Party presidential candidate Jo Jorgensen released her Supreme Court wishlist yesterday. The list has several celebrity picks, such as Judge Andrew Napolitano, a television figure of fun who would bring the Fox Business News swagger to the Supreme Court, and former ACLU president Nadine Strossen, whose commitment to free speech earned friends and enemies across the political compass. The most spectacular pick, though, is Alan Dershowitz, the law professor who is never not in the news.
Once famed for his constitutional advocacy, Dershowitz is now better described as a twitter explainer of his association with billionaire Jeffrey Epstein (for whom he negotiated a sweetheart plea deal after Epstein was charged with sexually abusing underage girls) and his own belief that the age of consent should be lowered—a typical final straw for small-l libertarians wary of voting for the party that wants to represent them.
Dershowitz, moroever, is snarled in a legal fight with Virginia Roberts Giuffre, one of Epstein's victims, who told The New Yorker's Connie Bruck that "she'd had sex with Dershowitz at least six times, in Epstein's various residences, on his island, in a car, and on his plane." Dershowitz accused her of lying and challenged her to sue him. She did so, and his subsequent countersuit and attempt to have the lawsuit dismissed have resulted in an awe-inspiring legal mess.
Dershowitz was in the news just last week, suing CNN and claiming it painted him as an "intellectual who has lost his mind." He's also suing Netflix, too. It is quite unclear, in fact, just how much litigation Dershowitz has on the go.
Courts are the government too, my friends.
It's Dershowitz's use of litigation to silence and intimidate people that—all else aside—marks him as an inappropriate libertarian pick for the highest court. But I wonder if anyone in the party gave that a second thought.
Jorgensen's most prominent opponent during the primaries was Vermin Supreme, a performance artist who often poses with a large boot on his head. Maybe next time, Libertarians!
UPDATE: They removed him from the list. — Rob.
