June 28, 2018
Yesterday we received the devastating news that Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy will retire on July 31, 2018, handing Trump an opportunity to lock in a hard right majority on the highest court in the land for another 40 years. Although Kennedy was a conservative justice, he was critical in establishing LGBT civil rights as the law of the land. Kennedy authored the opinions in Lawrence v. Texas, 539 U.S. 558 (S.Ct. 2003) (holding that laws criminalizing consensual sex between LGBT adults were an unconstitutional deprivation of their rights under the 14th Amendment); U.S. v. Windsor, 570 U.S. 744 (S.Ct. 2013) (striking down the Defense of Marriage Act as unconstitutional); and finally, Obergefell v. Hodges, 576 U.S. ___ (S.Ct. 2015), (holding that same sex couples had a fundamental right to marry under the 14th Amendment). In addition, Kennedy was a key swing vote who delivered majorities on important decisions upholding abortion rights and affirmative action.
Despite this track record as a moderating force protecting “discrete and insular minorities ” from the worst excesses of the majority, Kennedy’s parting gift to America was to cast the deciding vote in a dispiriting trifecta of cases. First, in Trump v. Hawaii on Monday, Kennedy voted to uphold the travel ban as an appropriate exercise of presidential power that did not violate the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment (Source: “The Supreme Court Travel Ban Ruling: A Summary,” by Hilary Hurd, Yishai Schwartz, Lawfare.com, 6/26/18). In NIFLA v. Becerra, 585 U.S. ____ (2018), the Supreme Court gave crisis pregnancy centers the right to dupe desperate women by holding that a law requiring them to tell the truth about the availability of free and low cost health services, including abortion, violated their First Amendment rights. Lastly, in Janus v. AFSCME, the conservative majority dealt a blow to public sector unions by eliminating required fair share payments from non-members.
These decisions, combined with their decisions allowing Ohio’s voter purges, and their willingness to leave Wisconsin’s and North Carolina’s gerrymandered districts undisturbed, expose the Supreme Court as nothing more than the judicial branch of the extremist cult that is the current Republican Party. By providing the legal justification for the denial of voting rights to people of color; bodily autonomy for women; civil rights for LGBT people and organizing tools for working people, they are paving the way for the Republican Party’s plan to transform our country from a flawed representative democracy to a white supremacist patriarchy.
Although we focus much of our anger on Trump, we should never forget for a moment that the true architect of this disaster is Mitch McConnell. Through his theft of Merrick Garland’s Supreme Court seat and his traitorous insistence that Russia’s interference in our election not be revealed prior to the election, McConnell laid the foundation for our headlong rush into authoritarianism. Make no mistake, McConnell and his spineless House counterpart, Paul Ryan, are committed to establishing a corrupt oligarchy and have found in Trump a useful idiot who absorbs all of our ire, draining and distracting us.
This is a war over the very idea of America and nothing less than the freedom of every American who isn’t a straight, white, Christian man is at stake. So, turn your despair into determination and your rage into resolve. Volunteer every week in swing districts (go to swingleft.org to find the closest one). Fight voter suppression (sign up with www.letamericavote.org to work in your state). Contribute to the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. Lawyers, volunteer with the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law (https://lawyerscommittee.org/). Be ready to fight like hell. I know I am.
#Fightvotersuppression
#Protectdemocracy
#VOTE