Privileged Catholic Cabal Takes Away the Constituional Rights of Women

Let me start by quoting Frederick Douglass from his October 22, 1883 speech on the occasion of the United States Supreme Court’s 7-1 infamous ruling that the Civil Rights Act of 1875 was unconstitutional.

The Supreme Court is the autocratic point in our National Government. No monarch in Europe has a power more absolute over the laws, lives, and liberties of his people, than that Court has over our laws, lives, and liberties . . . We cannot, however, overlook the fact that though not so intended, this decision has inflicted a heavy calamity upon seven millions of the people of this country, and left them naked and defenceless against the action of a malignant, vulgar, and pitiless prejudice. It presents the United States before the world as a Nation utterly destitute of power to protect the rights of its own citizens upon its own soil. It can claim service and allegiance, loyalty and life, of them, but it cannot protect them against the most palpable violation of the rights of human nature, rights to secure which, governments are established . . . In the name of common sense, I ask, what right have we to call ourselves a Nation, in view of this decision, and this utter destitution of power?

In a cruel and insular act that will almost certainly stain his dubious legacy on the court, Samuel Alito led the court's Catholic cabal in authoring the shameful ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization that undoes 50 years of established law protecting the rights of women in our country.  (six of the justices were either raised Catholic or educated in Catholic schools).  It's widely recognized that these folks have a misguided philosophy on the role of the constitution in today's society.  But it's also fair to say that these privileged judges lack the empathy and worldview to be making such weighty and impactful decisions affecting everyday peoples' lives.

Today, Harvard University Law professor Laurence Tribe issued a statement saying that the conservative Supreme Court justices misleadingly quoted him to justify their decision to throw out Roe v. Wade.  “Don’t be fooled,” warned Tribe, an expert on the Constitution. “The writings from which the Court cherry-picked my quotes were totally supportive of the result in Roe,” he added.

Tribe also called out Alito for not bothering to fix inaccuracies in his “shoddy” ruling that had been pointed out by historians in his draft of the opinion released last month.  Alito was criticized at the time for justifying his decision by repeatedly quoting someone he characterized as a “great” and “eminent” legal authority: Sir Matthew Hale.  But Hale was hardly that-- the English judge, who lived from 1609 to 1676, sentenced “witches” to death, and wrote an infamous treatise warning authorities to distrust women who reported being raped. He also declared that in marriage, a woman placed her body under her husband’s “permanent dominion,” rendering any marital rape accusation illegitimate.  In the 21st century, this is the kind of jerk that Alito looks up to in his vision of a "Handmaid's Tale" America.

Yesterday's decision, a 6-3 ruling to overturn Roe v. Wade, also does away with the optimistic mythology that Chief Justice John Roberts ever truly cared about the Supreme Court’s “legacy.” Roberts, like the majority of the Court, earned his lifetime appointment to make decisions affecting the majority of Americans’ lives by being nominated by a Republican President who did not receive the popular vote of the country. These minority rule-appointed justices also included Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, and Barrett.  January 6 conspirator Ginni Thomas’ husband, Justice Clarence Thomas, added in his “concurring opinion” on the ruling that the Court should also reconsider the cases that established federal protections for contraception and same-sex relationships and marriage.

It isn’t over. It’s just beginning. The ruling triggers almost a dozen state anti-choice laws, with another dozen set to pass in the coming weeks and months. And they're coming for LGBTQ and bi-racial couples next.   People (I'm talking to women, especially) need to stop voting for assholes like Trump and stick with candidates who empower women (and minorities) and will work to re-establish women's constitutional right to control their bodies.  If Alito and his Catholic cronies have decided that the Supreme Court is no longer bound by precedent ("stare decisis") then we need to work to get 21st-century, right-minded judges back on the high court and reverse this tragic mistake.