Tuesday, May 3, 2022

Losing America (3)

     Let me be extremely clear and precise as to what makes today’s Supreme Court draft so threatening.  It is one thing to reinstate state’s rights over some culturally divisive issues, and then say, cavalierly, it is up to the local voters to generate a political decision they are comfortable with.  But this only makes sense with a full acceptance of the post-Civil War amendments to the Constitution.  The 14th explicitly demands, “No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws”and the 15th amendment asserts, “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.”  Thus, only if the USSC fully took on the restrictions to voting being imposed by the mainly Southern Republican states, could we even begin to justify that detailed decisions regarding privacy rights should be decided at the state level.