The draft opinion of Roe V. Wade has been released. If the draft holds up, all good little Americans will kowtow to opinions crafted by five of the accomplished jurists who know stuff we don’t. Except they don’t.
Flawed opinions are part of the stock and trade of the Supreme Court. As Charles Blow in the New York Times wrote, the “we the people” part was written at the time that white women weren’t equal and blacks weren’t even considered citizens. So who are the “people?” Mostly white men who crafted these opinions:
Ruling: Dred Scott. Believed blacks to be “beings of an inferior order.”
Ruling: Plessy vs. Ferguson. “Separate but Equal.”
Ruling: Heller. 2nd Amendment. Interpreted the amendment to ignore the connection between gun ownership and being part of a militia.
Ruling: Upheld the internment of Japanese Americans.
Ruling: Upheld sodomy laws in Georgia.
Ruling: Forced sterilization of the disabled.
Blow: “The court is a permanent council that answers to no one. It can behave as it chooses. The robes can go rogue. This is the power Republicans want — the power to overrule the will of the majority — and the courts are one of the only areas where that power can be guaranteed.
Republicans don’t hide their agenda. They denied Obama his right to appoint a justice, then jumped at the chance to enshrine Amy, exposing themselves for the hypocrites they are. No matter. The President is inconsequential except insofar as he/she can appoint judges to a lifetime of politically skewed decisions.
So what’s next for the Unsupremes? What other precedents are at risk?