Freeing State Power
After the Second World War, the United States Supreme Court has been following a single star. Individual liberty is stronger than state power. Millions of Americans from all walks of life had risked their lives, and the nation honored their service with individual liberty.
The new conservative Supreme Court is on the verge of empowering states once again. The issue is abortion, but the principle is much broader. A secret draft opinion declares “It is time to heed the Constitution and return the issue of abortion to the people’s elected representatives.”
States, not individuals, will have the power to decide medical issues. States will have the power to strip minorities of their rights. States will have more power. We will not.
The conservatives on the Supreme Court have already rolled back voting rights. In the March election Texas trashed 12% of mail in ballots. The Supreme Court has been silent as millions of ballots remained uncounted.
Seniors lost their Right to Vote. Our disabled neighbors lost their Right to Vote. Veterans lost the Right to Vote. Soldiers, sailors, marines and airmen serving overseas lost their Right to Vote.
The conservative Supreme Court also gave the green light to partisan gerrymandering. They gave politicians the power to pick their voters and obstruct the will of the people.
Now on the chopping block is the Right to Privacy. The Right to Privacy requires a state to justify its intrusion into your most personal decisions. It protects your decisions in the doctor’s office. It protects your actions in the bedroom.
The conservatives on the Court reject the Right to Privacy because it is not mentioned in the Constitution. They belittle the literal meaning of the Ninth Amendment.
The Founders placed this broad limitation on government: “The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.”
Conservatives justices point to history to deny and disparage a woman’s Right to Privacy. They are correct. Both the Federal and the State governments routinely denied and disparaged women’s rights. Do we really want to go back to those days?
Next on the Conservative wish list is government prayers in public schools. Justice Clarence Thomas has already written that banning government prayers in schools violates the constitution.
Greg Abbott and Dan Patrick can’t even fix our broken property tax system. They raise our taxes every year. How can they teach our children to pray? That’s a parent’s right, not a state power.
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