Supreme Court ignores the law in favor of idealogy
COMMON SENSE SAYS: The Supreme Court is supposed to follow the law, and Roe v Wade is the law of the land. They failed in their responsibilities miserably and are endangering our rule of law. It’s time to add more Justices to the Court.
A conservative Supreme Court majority that barely bothers to pretend that it cares about precedent, the Constitution, the law, or anything other than remaking America to conform to its ideological agenda is a danger to democracy. This week the Supreme court has essentially nullified the constitutional rights of millions of American women without so much as an argument.
Abraham Lincoln warned that “if the policy of the government upon vital questions affecting the whole people is to be irrevocably fixed by decisions of the Supreme Court,” then the people “will have ceased to be their own rulers, having to that extent practically resigned their government into the hands of that eminent tribunal.”
Via the NY Times, “In the past five months, the Supreme Court has used the shadow docket to strike down Covid restrictions on group religious activities in private homes, force President Biden to reinstate the Trump-era “remain in Mexico” policy for asylum seekers from Central America and block the extension of an emergency federal ban on evictions, putting countless Americans at risk of homelessness”.
Adding justices to the Supreme Court is a terrible solution to a majority problem that is so radicalized it assented to Texas’s scheme to outlaw abortion in the state, basically. It is also the only actual solution when a court does not abide by the law.
Texas’s ban on abortions is illegal. Having Texans report others to the authorities is akin to people reporting Jews to the government in Nazi Germany. I loved the Constitutional Law class in law school because you understood what the founding fathers were trying to say. How the Justices in the Court could refuse to rule the Texas law unconstitutional is a threat to us all.
It’s easier in Texas to buy a gun, carry it into a store or other public place than it is for women to have control over their bodies. Governor Abbott has moved the state hard, right and all Democrats can do is express outrage?
Republican-run states are rushing to create a far-right dystopia where every customer at your local supermarket is packing heat, school boards and election boards are run by QAnon lunatics, mob rule is valorized and institutionalized, voting rights are dramatically restricted, and abortion is outlawed. And they’re doing it with the help of a conservative Supreme Court majority that barely bothers to pretend that it cares about precedent, the Constitution, the law, or anything other than remaking America to conform to its ideological agenda.
We’re seeing what a profound difference there is in how Democrats and Republicans view power. When Democrats have it, they’re often apologetic, uncertain and hesitant to use it any way that anyone might object to. Republicans, on the other hand, will squeeze it and stretch it as far as they can. They aren’t reluctant, and they aren’t afraid of a backlash. Whatever they can do, they will do.
Washington Post
President Biden said he would fight the Texas law, but that’s going to take time. It’s ultimately going to be up to voters in Texas to vote these bastards out of office. In a way, they maybe have done a favor to Democrats by giving them a rallying cry against the right, but I still want Democrats to fight tougher and meaner.
Originally published at https://commonsenseandpolitics.com on September 4, 2021.
