Today is the last day of the current session of the US Supreme Court. It’s a day we will long remember and live to regret. Four of the many rulings handed down will touch everyone of us. Of course, the most infamous was the decision to overturn Roe v. Wade and the right to abortion and the corruption of our right to privacy. While many saw this coming from this conservative court, this astonishing decision targeting a woman’s very basic right to privacy was a gut punch to most Americans and a day of rejoicing for many others. It will further divide the country that has people on either side of the political divide screaming at each other. This has resulted in chaos across the country as blue states try to pass laws and state constitutional amendments to protect abortion rights and red states are passing laws to turn women and doctors into criminals.
This conservative fight to overturn Roe has been going on since the 1973 decision. We have the Bushes, and even Joe Biden, to thank for putting two of the most extreme anti-abortion justices on the court. It was George HW Bush who nominated Clarence Thomas to the court to replace Thurgood Marshall. There couldn’t have been two more different views of the law and rights of citizens. Marshall, a champion of civil rights, was the first black justice appointed by Lyndon Johnson. Bush had to keep the black seat and he dug up Thomas. Thomas’s confirmation hearings transfixed the nation when Anita Hill came forward. Hill worked under Thomas at the Department of Education and the EEOC. He asked her out. She turned him down. She testified Thomas sexually harassed her with bizarre comments about “pubic hair” on a coke can and talk of pornographic movies and his own sexual prowess. She was brow beaten by the all male Judiciary Committee chaired by Joe Biden who let it happen. Thomas was confirmed. One of the things he’s most famous for as justice is never asking a question of lawyers during Supreme Court oral arguments.
We can thank George W. Bush for Samuel Alito, the driving force behind the decision to overturn Roe. The mess has been made. Today, Biden has changed his position on the Senate filibuster the rule that requires sixty votes for legislation to move forward. Biden, a Senate traditionalist, has long opposed eliminating the filibuster. Now, he wants to drop it to pass a federal law protecting the right to abortion. Good luck with that.
If all this wasn’t bad enough, the court ruled on three other cases that makes the country a more dangerous place. It overturned a New York State law that restricted who could carry a concealed weapon. The law said a person had to prove why they needed to carry a concealed weapon in public. The court said it violated the Second Amendment and anyone can carry a concealed weapon without special permission. We should all remember this as we go about our daily lives. When someone thinks you cut them off in traffic or took the last bunch of bananas before they could, assume they may have a gun to make their argument.
The court ruled a Washington state high school football coach had the right to kneel on the fifty yard line of a public high school field to say a silent prayer after a game. Kids started joining in. The coach said he never asked them to join but they were free to do whatever they wanted. What will the court rule if a teacher takes a knee in the classroom in silent prayer?
To make sure the court invaded every aspect of our lives, they ruled to limit the EPA’s ability to regulate carbon emissions from existing power plants. A huge blow to the fight against climate change. There are still people who believe climate change isn’t real.
These changes to our lives come in a year from hell. Inflation, huge price increases for everything, the tanking stock market, and live testimony about an out of control delusional president who tried to overthrow the government. We still don’t know if that president and those around him will pay for what they did. We do know about the court he helped create and the justices who will make decisions about our lives for decades. This is just the end of the beginning of our long road into a strange new land.
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