The social-conservative movement seen across America today has been years in the making. With the Supreme Court striking down Roe v. Wade, the court’s six Conservative justices have shown they will act with extreme urgency to make their worldview a reality.
In his concurring opinion overturning Roe v. Wade, Conservative Justice Clarence Thomas laid out his vision of what he would like to get rid of next – envisioning the demise of contraception, same-sex marriage, and LBGTQ rights.
Just one day before the Roe decision, the Supreme Court struck down a New York law that banned carrying concealed weapons, proclaiming the law was unconstitutional.
“Within a 24-hour period the Supreme Court ruled on the one hand that abortion rights are a local issue to be decided by each state independently, while on the other, states are barred from making local decisions about how to regulate guns,” said Katherine Franke, a professor at Columbia Law School, according to the Financial Times.
The growing power of the Conservative movement
The Intelligencer says the Conservative movement in the U.S. traditionally has consisted of three main political ideologies: foreign-policy hawks, anti-statist libertarians, and social conservatives.
Social Conservatives focus on the preservation of traditional values and beliefs, as well as moral and social values. But while on multiple occasions, the economic conservatives have seized the party’s agenda, resulting in political disaster, the social Conservatives waited their turn.
In the United States, one of the largest forces of social conservatism is the Christian right. This movement goes as far back as the 1940s in America when its core members were evangelical Protestants and Roman Catholics.
Social Conservatives have strong opinions on issues like school prayer, embryonic stem cell research, LGBT rights, comprehensive sex education, abortion, and pornography, to name just a few.
The Christian right has taken its payment in the form of judicial appointments, playing the long game. But now, cemented by former president Donald Trump’s three appointments, the justices have become very brave.
Michele Goodwin, professor at the University of California, Irvine School of Law, said the court, in its decision on Friday, has accepted “Mississippi’s invitation to rid the country of a national right…such that these issues will now devolve to something that is closest to the time that we had in American slavery, where there were free states and there were states in which people’s . . . independence [and] freedom were not recognized.”
Now, Goodwin’s assessment paints a stark picture, but one that appears to be coming true today. The conservative movement’s well-funded effort to groom a generation of conservative lawyers, elevate reliable allies to the Supreme Court and reshape American life in fundamental ways is evident.
The SCOTUS ruling has shattered the public’s confidence in the American legal system, according to a Gallup poll released earlier this week. But even worse, it is frightening to ponder what rights will be next to be axed in America.
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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.
