The courts: from worst to even worse yet
The assault on the Constitution and civic life continues to issue from the Supreme Court. Today (June 23), the Supreme Court literally invented a constitutional right -- the virtually unlimited right to carry arms any time they want – that doesn’t exist in the Constitution
Clarence Thomas’s claim that the states may not set limits on any other constitutional rights so it’s unfair to single out the Second Amendment, may be the single most ridiculous sentence ever written in any Supreme Court decision. I guess Clarence Thomas never heard of libel, slander, and defamation (limits on free speech) or the requirement for a permit before using your 1st Amendment guaranteed right to assemble. And I guess he slept through the law school class – and subsequent cases – going back to Mapp v. Ohio – elaborating endlessly on search and seizure. Does this guy have law clerks?
The “historical analogue” test they invented is more dangerous even than the basic decision. Forget semi-automatic AR-15s. I don’t see any precedent that the Founders wanted to regulate private ownership of machine guns or Stinger missiles. And why stop with guns. I don’t see any evidence the founders wanted to allow women to take birth control … provide federal aid to schools or highways ...permit interracial marriage … subsidize wind and solar power … pay for poor people to have a lawyer … allow people to form labor unions … regulate worker and product safety.
So, if there was any doubt: EVERYTHING is on the table. Not just “you have the right to remain silent …” Not just “if you cannot afford a lawyer…” Not just Medicaid and food stamps and other instruments of the Great Society. The Securities and Exchange Commission. National monuments. Federal aid to housing, highways, and education. Restrictions on drilling offshore, or in national wildlife refuges. The 40-hour work week … or, back further, Humane slaughter of animals, pure food and drug laws. The Federal Reserve. Think of something that offends big business, the Christian right, or white supremacists? Count on it, there is some “conservative” law firm somewhere, already working on the test case to bring to the Supreme Court. Or a state legislature, working on a law that will get them to the Supreme Court.
Liberals and progressives don’t yet know that everything they accomplished since the Progressive era is up for grabs. They love to dream about a magical solution that they don’t even have to work hard for, like the delusional idea that we’ll just ‘expand the courts.” Here’s a start. Vote for Democrats this fall so Biden gets another two years to make appointments. That’s a start.