Last week, the Supreme Court eviscerated a womanβs right to abortion, undermined Miranda rights, expanded gun rights and allowed border patrol agents to operate with even further impunity. Today, it ruled that a former Washington state high school football coach can pray on the field immediately after gamesβregardless of the religious backgrounds of the students.
The mostly conservative justices are using the Constitution as a smoke screen for their rulingsβwhich will continue to demolish even more human rights. The governing document was constructed during the Constitutional Convention that occurred in Philadelphia from May 5, 1787 to September 17, 1787.
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The primary authors consisted of: John Adams, Thomas Paine, Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison. The last two men on that list owned slaves. How can this set of laws still guide a nation when it was concocted by white men who looked at Black people as property and not as human?
The fact that a Black manβJustice Clarence Thomasβis working to erode the rights of millions of people is more than ironic: itβs downright pathetic. In a concurring opinion Thomas wrote Friday, he claimed that the Supreme Courtβs controversial June decisions aimed to weaken substantive due process which protects certain rights even if theyβre not listed in the Constitution.
βAs I have previously explained, βsubstantive due processβ is an oxymoron that βlack[s] any basis in the Constitution,ββ he wrote. He also said that itβs βlegal fictionβ that is βparticularly dangerous.β Even more ironically, how is it up to the states to decide a womanβs right to abortion yet not interfere with a personβs right to carry a concealed firearm?
In Justice Samuel Alitoβs concurrence, he stated:
βDoes the dissent think that laws like New Yorkβs prevent or deter such atrocities? How does the dissent account for the fact that one of the mass shootings near the top of its list took place in Buffalo? The New York law at issue in this case obviously did not stop the perpetrator.β
Does Alito realize that by that line of reasoning, abortion laws wonβt stop abortions from happening?
Seven of the nine Supreme Court justices were put there by presidents from a party who havenβt won a popular vote more than once in three decades. Shouldnβt the Twelfth Amendment, which established the electoral college, be revisited?
The Fifteenth Amendment gave Black people the right to vote. However, last year nineteen states passed laws that restricted access to voting. The Thirteenth Amendment outlawed slavery and involuntary servitude, but Americaβs mass incarceration problem proves this as untrue.
Why isnβt the Supreme Court clamoring to restore these rights or rectify systems that fail the people?
Itβs clear that the right will continue to twist and contort anything they can to carry out their agendaβan agenda that has and will always harm this countryβs most marginalized and vulnerable populations. And honestly, the Constitution will always be a hell of an excuse to oppress Black folks on behalf of white supremacy.
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