July 4, 2024
No group of people have been more aware of the chasm between this country’s professed ideals and its ugly reality than Black Americans. We know that many Americans define “freedom” as the freedom to exploit and harm others without consequence in pursuit of their selfish goals. We know that American prosperity was built on the backs of our ancestors’ forced labor on land stolen from indigenous Americans. Yet we held out hope that we could use the ideals expressed in the Declaration of Independence as a cudgel to prod this country into recognizing that all people are “created equal and endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights … Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
It was far from an inevitable march towards greater freedom and equality. At every turn, progress by Black Americans was met with violent backlash, requiring us to gain, lose and regain the same rights that white Americans take for granted- the right to vote, the right to a public education, the right to a job and the equal right to buy or rent a home and not to be blocked by the color of our skin.
History is replete with examples of the viciousness that meets Black achievement, but rather than reckon with that history, those in power seek to erase it. We have long warned those moderates who sit on the sidelines, unwilling to disturb the status quo, for fear of losing some unearned advantage, that the forces coming for us are greedy and won’t be satisfied with cementing Black people at the bottom of the social hierarchy. These forces won’t stop until they have rolled back all of the gains of the last century, relegating all nonwhite people, all women and all LGBTQ people to powerless, disfavored status and leaving everyone without obscene wealth to lead “miserable lives of quiet desperation.”
As we know, those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it. Just as Reconstruction begat Jim Crow, the backlash to eight years of a Barack Obama presidency was swift and brutal. In 2016, Americans elected Barack Obama’s polar opposite— an incurious, insecure and corrupt vulgarian. It was as if America plucked its lottery-winning racist grandpa from the American Legion bingo hall and installed him in the Oval Office.
The results were as awful as many of us predicted. From the child separation policy to his disastrous Covid response, Trump’s presidency caused real suffering and death. Yet his most harmful legacy was his installation of three Supreme Court justices, Gorsuch, Kavanaugh and Barrett, creating a right wing wrecking ball empowered to eviscerate every law or policy that tried to level the playing field and create a more perfect union.
Not satisfied with stripping bodily autonomy from all women two years ago in Dobbs, or cutting off ladders of opportunity for Black, Brown and indigenous students in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, this term the rogue right wing majority arrogated more power for itself than at any point since it decided Marbury v. Madison in 1803.
First, in Loper Bright v, Raimondo, the Supreme Court struck down the 40 year old precedent of Chevron v. Natural Resources Defense Council, kneecapping federal agencies by eliminating the requirement that “if Congress has not directly addressed the question at the center of a dispute,” courts were required to “uphold the agency’s interpretation of a statute, as long as it as reasonable,” (Source: “ Supreme Court strikes down Chevron, curtailing power of federal agencies,” by Amy Howe, SCOTUSblog.com, 6/28/24). After Loper Bright, six unelected zealots will be the ultimate arbiter of highly technical decisions that require specialized knowledge, despite not knowing the difference between nitrous oxide, also known as laughing gas, and nitrogen oxide, a pollutant regulated by the EPA.
The worst and most consequential decision of the Term was handed down on Monday. A mere three days ago, on the eve of the day the nation celebrates its independence from the British monarchy, the Court issued an opinion granting Trump
partial immunity in the January 6th cases, holding that former presidents “can never be prosecuted for actions related to the core powers of their office,” and that they enjoy presumptive “immunity for their official acts,” (Source:
“Justices rule Trump has some immunity from prosecution,” by Amy Howe, SCOTUSblog.com, 7/1/24). As Justice Sotomayor pointed out in her scathing dissent, “no matter how you look at it, the majority’s official-acts immunity is utterly indefensible.” This decision exposes the right’s long vaunted veneration of originalism as nothing more than a convenient way to deny rights to anyone who was outside of the scope of the law’s protection in 1776.
The decision is even more frightening when combined with the Heritage Foundation’s 900 page blueprint for the next Presidential administration. Project 2025 calls for the replacement of career civil servants with MAGA loyalists, the elimination of reproductive freedom for women, rights for LGBTQ people and any mention of diversity, equity and inclusion, (Source: “Project 2025: The Trump presidency wish list explained,” by Mike Wendling, BBC.com, 7/3/24). Make no mistake, the goal of Republicans is to make this country a “post-Constitutionalist” Christofascist hellscape for anyone who is not a straight, white, Christian man.
Today, let us declare our independence from the thinking that women’s rights don’t affect men, that LGBTQ rights don’t matter to straight people, that stripping civil rights from Black people doesn’t affect white people. The last eight years has shown us that they won’t stop. Neither should we. We need to mobilize, organize and vote like our lives depend on it—- because they do. Happy Independence Day!
Thank you, Lisa, you always inspire me.