"...the Supreme Court has no obligation to follow the popular will. It is charged with safeguarding the Constitution. But it is hard for any disinterested observer to have any faith in what the right-wing justices are doing. They are not acting very conservatively in overturning an abortion ruling (Roe v. Wade) that is 49 years old and a New York state gun-control statute that is 109 years old. In both cases, the justices rely on dubious readings of legal history that have been challenged by many scholars to overturn what had been settled law.
Conservatives can plausibly argue that liberal justices invented a constitutional right to abortion, but how is that different from what conservative justices have done in inventing an individual right to carry guns that is also nowhere to be found in the Constitution? The Supreme Court did not recognize an individual right to bear arms until 2008 — 217 years after the Second Amendment was enacted expressly to protect “well-regulated” state militia.
The Second Amendment hasn’t changed over the centuries, but the composition of the court has.
The majority conveniently favors state’s rights on abortion but not on guns. It is obvious that the conservative justices (who are presumably antiabortion rights and pro-gun rights) are simply enacting their personal preferences, just as liberal justices (who are presumably pro-choice and pro-gun control) do.
So, if the Supreme Court is going to be a forum for legislating, shouldn’t it respect the views of two-thirds of the country? But our perverse political system has allowed a militant, right-wing minority to hijack the law.
As an Economist correspondent points out, “5 of the 6 conservative Supreme Court justices were appointed by a Republican Senate majority that won fewer votes than the Democrats” and “3 of the 6 were nominated by a president who also won a minority of the popular vote.”
Public faith in the Supreme Court is down to a historic low of 25 percent, and there’s a good reason why it keeps eroding. We are experiencing what the Founders feared: a crisis of governmental legitimacy brought about by minoritarian tyranny.
And it could soon get a whole lot worse. In his concurring opinion in the abortion case, Justice Clarence Thomas called on the court to overturn popular precedents upholding a right to contraception, same-sex relationships and marriage equality.
So much for Hamilton’s hope that “the sense of the majority should prevail.”
7 comments:
Robert Pickett
@RobertP52819354
·
Jun 25
My whole family is 4th generation Republican. They are so outraged at seeing the 1/6 hearings and now SCOTUS taking away a woman’s right to chose that every last one is voting BLUE in November.
I can't count how many times I've read this exact sentiment on Twitter.
America's right wing is okay with Human Gods deciding for us all how to lead our personal lives and what personal freedoms and liberties we should have.
Rightwing Human Gods will, with joy in their hearts, gut civil liberties their reified religous beliefs inform them they should.
scotus would make the Taliban proud.
I wonder if Thomas will speak against interracial marriage?
Josh Hawley stated that Liberals are rioting and committing violence in the streets all over the country (he's a liar -- he's also a traitor to the United States).
But what does he think of this?:
BREAKING: Marjorie Taylor Greene calls on gun owners to use their weapons to "stop abortion, the trans agenda on kids" and "mass illegal migration," a clear call for Republicans to carry out mass shootings against political enemies.
Also, one of the most violent attacks on America and her democracy was perpetrated by Donald Trump's thugs at his incitement. These facts tend to forgotten when traitors like Hawley open their lying maws.
We are slowly and steadily devolving into a lawless society. Thanks not to liberals or progressives, but rather to tRumpublicans, cons, and religionists.
The end of freedom and liberty as we've known is soon to end.
The Supreme Court is completely and totally illegitimate. The underlying reason is the same as the reason for virtually every political problem in America, we are a failed republic.
When the minority of voters receive majority representation a country is, by definition, not a republic or representative democracy. This failure of the most basic principle of, and check on, a republican form of government has allowed and incentivized the radicalization of the GOP. The federal government for most of the last few decades, several state governments and the current SC are all unconstitutional as they are in violation of the guarantee clause.
While I'm not particularly optimistic about the chances of restoring our former republic, the only possible path in that direction starts by first acknowledging the reality of the situation. Journalists have a special responsibility in this regard and are so far failing miserably.
What do conservatives have to say now, or then, when their supporters assassinated abortion doctors?
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