Our nation has survived several weeks now beyond this summer’s run of so-called conservative Supreme Court decisions. But things aren’t cooling down; they’re heating up. The radical leftist group ShutDownDC recently tweeted bounties on the locations of any of the (again so-called) conservative Supreme Court justices so that they could be further targeted for harassment. (1) Talk of stacking the Supreme Court if Democrats hold the senate in November abounds. The country seems ready to tear itself apart over the court’s recent decisions.
In decades past, all Americans whether conservative or liberal, Democrat or Republican, at least understood the structure of our government. People worked within the bounds of the system to affect changed – not anymore. The left in this country either doesn’t know how our government works, doesn’t care, or both. They apparently don’t understand the three coequal branches. They can’t fathom why the constitution means anything at all. And they have demonstrated a willingness and a desire to burn the whole thing down unless they get what they want.
I hate to have to give a civics lesson here, but I see no alternative. If you’re a leftist, progressive, Democrat voter, or less than 35 years old PLEASE read this short section so you can understand the rest of the article. If you’re a conservative, feel free to skip down to the next heading.
How the US Government is Structured
Our government consists of three co-equal branches. The President (The Executive Branch) which is not the boss of Congress (The Legislative Branch) which is not the boss of the Courts (The Judicial Branch). None of them are the bosses of any of the others. (2) They are co-EQUAL.
The United States is NOT a democracy. We do not have majority rule, and God willing we never will. Just because something is popular does not make it legal or unpopular illegal. The law does not and should not bend to fit the current whims of the majority in power, at least not easily. Additionally, federalism forms the foundation of our government. We don’t have (and we don’t want) one uniform set of laws for the entire nation. Most governmental power in this country belongs to the states (or the people), or it would if we functioned as designed.
The Constitution constitutes the United States of America. If we as states don’t agree with it, we have no reason to be united. No Constitution, no United States.
The Lie of Conservative Activism on the Supreme Court
The difference between this court and courts past is that the justices currently seated are originalists. Please, leftists, hear this FACT. If you believe that the most recent rulings reflect conservative judicial activism, you don’t have a leg to stand on! You are wrong, and you need to learn why you are wrong.
The Supreme Court has only one role in our government: “…the only power the judicial branch has is to try controversies related to the Constitution, where the United States is a party or between states or citizens of different states.” (2) Everyone really MUST grasp this. To act in any way beyond what the Constitution literally says violates their proper constitutional role. It doesn’t matter if decisions are popular, helpful, or harmful to the people of the republic. Only one thing matters. What does the Constitution say about the controversy in question? No amount of protesting can change the minds of the justices of the court if they do their jobs correctly! Protesting does NOT put words in the Constitution that are NOT there or delete words that are.
Protesting Supreme Court justices puts the left’s ignorance on full display. Full stop. Anyone and everyone whose face appears on the news protesting the Supreme Court should be considered ineligible for any decent role in our society, and that especially includes our elected officials. Every person in those protests is either ignorant or stupid. Protesting legislators makes some sense but not justices.
We do not currently, nor have we ever had, conservative activism on the court because no such thing can possibly exist. By definition conservatism means “to conserve.” We conservatives embrace the constitution AS IT IS WRITTEN and work hard to respect the intent of the framers – because we’re CONSERVING it. We place members on the court that will do the job correctly. That is not activism.
The Rulings
Let’s look at what the current justices ruled and why.
Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organization
The court overturned Roe v Wade and Casey v. Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pa with this ruling. In short, the current SCOTUS determined that these previous rulings never had any Constitutional founding from the beginning. This should be neither surprising nor controversial. Ruth Bater Ginsberg herself expressed misgivings on the foundations of these old rulings, even though she fully supported a woman’s right to choose. The Constitution doesn’t say the word ‘abortion’ anywhere in it; nor does it say the word privacy. (8) The Bill of Rights enumerates several “privacies” within it, but they are specifically described. (5) Only liberal judicial activism accounts for how additional rights to privacy were assumed to exist based on those enumerated.
Therefore, the passage of Roe v Wade in 1973 was a mistake. I feel sorry for people who thought this was never going to change, but they need to grow up and get over it.
New York State Rifle and Pistol Association v Bruen
This ruling struck down New York’s “proper cause” requirement that held (basically) that citizens must provide a good reason to obtain a concealed carry permit to carry a gun outside their homes. New York’s requirement clearly violates the 2nd Amendment that permits people to “keep and bear” arms, but the court based its decision on this law’s violation of the 14th amendment which guarantees equal protection under the law. In other words, every citizen has the same right to self-protection as every other citizen. (4) Again, in this case the court seemed to have properly found what was literally there in the Constitution and applied it. (7)
Kennedy v Bremerton school Dist.
In this case, the court ruled that the Bremerton School District had, in fact, violated Coach Kennedy’s first amendment rights in “both the Free Exercise and Free Speech Clauses of the First Amendment.” (7) Again, this is another case of literally reading what the Constitution says. “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;” (7) Nowhere does this suggest that religion must be practiced privately or cannot be practiced by public employees. (6)
None of these decisions indicate any judicial activism whatsoever. The problem rests in that the progressive left has benefited from judicial activism for so long that they took activism in their favor for granted. They refuse to accept that the court has a right and proper responsibility to interpret the Constitution as it is written in ink on parchment. Justices act improperly when they rule based on their own liberal fantasies about what they would like the Constitution to say.
Originalism not Activism
Originalism represents what this country is. Activism represents what some think they want it to be.
Anyone that has a problem with these rulings has a problem with the Constitution. If they have a problem with the Constitution, they have a problem with the United States. A process exists for amending the Constitution, but the left seems to prefer rage. Why? Because trying to pass a pro-abortion or gun control amendment would be futile. Everyone on the left likes to bark about how the majority of American are pro-choice. In a popular vote, that may well be true. This country does not work by popular vote for the whole nation, however. The majority in each state is what matters. The deep imbalance in populations in liberal bastions accounts for the difference. Abortion may be wildly popular in New York and California, but those states should not be able to impose their philosophies on other states.
Many Democrat politicians have rushed to microphones to call for their party to “stack the court.” If all Justices of the Supreme Court did their jobs correctly, it shouldn’t matter whether there are 9 or 90 Justices, they should come to the same conclusion on virtually all cases. Simply put, the Constitution says what is says and doesn’t say what it doesn’t say. Stacking the Supreme Court would be ACTIVISM, and it’s treasonous if you just think about it.
Referenced Articles
(1) Leftist Group Offers ‘Bounties’ for Conservative Supreme Court Justices (westernjournal.com)
(2) Do We Have Three Co-Equal Branches of Government? – The Constitution Study
(4) Supreme Court Case Quick Updates (americanbar.org)
(5) Right to Privacy – US Constitution – LAWS.com
(6) Supreme Court rules for former coach in public school prayer case (nbcnews.com)
(7) The Constitution – Full Text | The National Constitution Center