Rusty Strait
Where I grew up we were taught to respect the United States Supreme Court because that was the word of truth. Over the years I’ve watched the court hand down decisions that widened our scope of freedom. Stari decisis was something etched into marble.
Brown vs. the Board of Education; Roe vs Wade, contraception, gay rights, same sex marriage, freedom to marry across color lines. Suddenly, the whole thing is blowing up in our faces. The leaking of the first draft to overturn Roe vs. Wade was the precursor of more, much more to come. Perhaps some or a lot of us are naive. They wouldn’t do that. Of course not. Didn’t the three judges appointed by President Trump sit before a Congressional committee and say it was settled law and didn’t need to be changed.
How hypocritical can a court get? There is an old adage that tells us that what you say and what you do might be two different things. Well now, isn’t that the truth. Who do you believe? The lying justices or President Trump who stated quite emphatically that he would only nominate justices to the Supreme Court who would vote to reverse that decision.
Folks, I believe we have been hoodwinked. It is only the beginning. We will soon (men and women alike) no longer have control of our bodies, beliefs and actions. You think not? This movement has already begun to erase at least a hundred years of fighting for freedom to manage our own lives without political interference.
Maybe we all missed the message. In March of this year, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas spoke at a function sponsored by Utah Senator Orrin Hatch. He said political rhetoric about rigging the court’s structure to produce specific political outcomes is damaging. He was against such actions then, but isn’t that exactly what the Republican appointees to the court have done and will continue to do until we are thrown back into the middle ages?
He said that a court structured to be a rubber stamp is “no court at all.” He apparently doesn’t subscribe to that suggestion today because the 6 to 3 Republican Majority on the court has totally politicized it to be a rubber stamp for right-wing and religious beliefs. Anyone who believes the Supreme Court hasn’t been politicized is smoking something way beyond pot.
The Supreme court is supposed to protect our rights, not rip them out of our being with a vote. We have rights that were given to us by the courts as times changed, as has society.
Justice Thomas now has cohorts to help him decide what rights we should be allowed. Justices Stephen G. Breyer, Sonia Sotomayer and Elena Kagan noted in their dissent against the overturning of Roe, stated, “No one should be confident that this majority is done with its work.”
What else is on Justice Thomas’ bucket list? Restrictions on contraception? Same-sex relationships? Same-sex marriage? The current court could possibly weaken Congress’ ability to make new laws.
As I have written many times, you will not appreciate the freedoms you have until you don’t have them anymore. So beware. Vote wisely.
And by the way, there was a time when one could not cross the color lines in the United States. No co-habitation. No weddings. I wonder if that is also on Justice Thomas’ list of laws to repeal? Just sayin’
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