The tyranny of the Supreme Court and outdated constitutional provisions are dangerous to us all.
The Supreme Court has become a clear and present danger to us as well as certain provisions of the Constitution. We must mitigate them all now.
Recently, I have been getting into various debates about the constitution. I have always respected the portion of the document that attempted to create a Democracy. While I understood that the founders considered me subhuman — I am a black man — and did not even consider women as worthy, I understood that the construct they made for themselves if applied to all would make it a worthwhile governance document.
All said I could never revere men who compromised me into 3/5 of a person even as I could not cast a 3/5 vote. The ability to amend the constitution allowed us to correct its mistakes, a good call by the founders. More and more it is clear that good people were responsible for adherence to a benevolent interpretation of the constitution. Unfortunately, when we empower those with ill-intent, the constitution can be made into an oppressive document.
The document was never a bastion of democracy as it made small state citizens’ votes more powerful than populous states’ citizens. It also made the election of a president fairly undemocratic. Our current Supreme Court is comprised of Conservative Justices appointed by presidents who did not win the votes of most Americans. Their appointments were constitutional. Even their rulings were constitutional given the letter of the law.
Corporate personhood, money as a form of free speech, removal of a woman’s right to her body, denying the EPA the ability to regulate polluting industries, and many other rulings are terrible for Americans. Yet, they are all plausible interpretations of the constitution. More and more the statement by Rosa Brooks, Georgetown University Law Professor, is becoming more prescient.
“We are essentially slaves to a document that was written more than 230 years ago by a tiny group of white slave-owning men,” Brooks said. “And we cannot break out of the bondage that we’ve imposed on ourselves from feeling like we have to. Everything by our part is decided in reference to this ancient document, which is just not serving as well. It is causing enormous problems and enormous tragedies at this point.”
Historian Michael Beschloss lambasted the Conservative Supreme Court Justices in the attached video. More concerning is his most prescient statement.
“This week the Supreme Court ominously announced,” Beschloss said. “And that is they’re going to take on a case during the next year that may give the right to decide presidential elections much more strongly to state legislatures. There’s a possibility that we may have seen our last fair and free presidential election.”
And this is why we must debate the constitution. It works when good people govern. But it is not sufficiently robust to protect us against evil people. It is essential that we go to the polls to elect good people who can make the necessary changes to protect our institutions.