While reading the driveling, self-serving excuse for a brochure of a SCOTUS judgment that overturned the right to abortion, you might start to think, hard. You won’t like it. A judicial crime against America has been committed in plain sight.
You’d only have one thing to think about, though. What happens next? Typical of ultra-conservative opinions on everything, it heads for the nearest cliff and goes over.
That’s a judgment?
Six people have effectively overturned the First Amendment.
The judgment dawdles and justifies itself continuously. As a work of fiction, it’s pretty grim. The thing is – It only mentions the First Amendment twice. The gigantic Constitutional herd of elephants in this ruling is otherwise pretty much ignored.
The main reason for mentioning the First Amendment is to say in stilted long-winded phraseology that Roe vs Wade and Roe vs Casey rulings were “wrong” and “distorted First Amendment doctrines”. It’s a justification, and a truly lousy one, for the majority decision.
Given the instant sheer fury of the nationwide response, the country doesn’t see it that way. I’ve even seen pro-lifers against it on social media.
The country sees it as a religious coup sabotaging their Constitutional rights under the First Amendment.
The country happens to be right.
The First Amendment is one of the most advanced bits of constitutional law you could ever wish to see. It broke the chains when it was enacted, and it’s been doing so ever since. It is absolutely critical to American democracy. It directly confers inalienable rights on the American people.
Just as well those rights are inalienable. Otherwise, you’d be living in the Middle Ages in more ways than you can imagine.
This is the First Amendment:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
You’ll notice that the First Amendment specifically states “ shall make no law”. That’s exactly what it means. It defuses so many explosive issues specifically by conferring those rights.
This appalling, illiterate ruling has made a law. It has done so without Congress, without a vote, and without even the pretense of considering “free exercise thereof”. It imposes the exact opposite of the intent of the First Amendment.
Using Christianity as an excuse for religious intolerance is nothing less than obscene. The state laws effectively create an actual, legally empowered. functional Inquisition against pregnant women. The Texas laws say it all.
As a legal precedent, it’s much worse.
This “illegality by judicial prejudice” is far more destructive than it looks. If you can ignore free exercise thereof”, you can ignore all basic rights. Whatever you may think of the (ignorant) Western stereotype of Sharia law, this is much worse in too many ways.
You could regulate anything and any social group on the basis of judicial prejudice. You could be subject to generations of bogus “legal interpretations” prohibiting anything.
This ruling is pure blatant oppression in its most unambiguous form. It undermines the First Amendment at its most fundamental level. Congress can’t tell people what to believe or infringe on their freedom of belief, but the Supreme Court can?
The hell you say. This is the definitive antithesis of Constitutional rights, right here, right now. It’s the definitive form of anti-democracy, too.
What ARE you going to do about it, America? Your rights are going down the drain.
The big test here will be how ferocious and how effective the backlash will be. There’s been a gigantic uproar since the ruling was made. According to one source, only two Senate seats are required to codify Roe vs Wade. Can that happen? In theory, of course, it can. In practice, expect “voter fraud” cases ad nauseam.
Also notable here is a lot of hypocrisy. The libertarians, self-proclaimed opponents of government in any form, have been predictably silent on the subject of abortion, guns, and everything else. The anti-big-government Republicans/QAnon are of course saying nothing much. They’re already oppressed by their own side, so not a lot can be expected from there.
The mid-terms probably will see a massive backlash against the conservative sponsors of this repulsive ruling. A few geriatric cheerleaders may lose their seats.
That’s not enough:
The power to overturn Constitutional rights must be destroyed and utterly obliterated, once and for all. It’s not up to courts to create their own version of the Constitution whenever they feel like it.
Do it.
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Disclaimer
The opinions expressed in this Op-Ed are those of the author. They do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of the Digital Journal or its members.
