The Supreme Court
You’re far away from me my love.
And just as sure my, my baby as there are stars above,
I wanna say, I wanna say, I wanna say
Someday, we’ll be together,
Yes we will, yes we will.
Say someday, some sweet day, we’ll be together.
I know, I know, I know, I know.
Someday We’ll Be Together - Diana Ross and The Supremes (1969)
…..
The recent Supreme Court decisions have received a lot of coverage in all of the press. You don’t need me to regurgitate what the decisions were and the arguments supporting and opposing the rulings. But the aftermath of these decisions impacts more than just the plaintiffs and defendants and others in similar positions to those parties. There are two broader implications that I would like to explore with you.
The first are the political implications. When the court overturned Roe v. Wade a year ago, the outcry on the left was loud and strong. The reality of the decision was that the legality of abortions was left to the states. Since then, some states have restricted abortion and others have expanded it and gone as far as becoming “abortion sanctuary states” where the state will not only pay for the abortion and all expenses including travel and hotel, but will give the woman a cash bonus for coming from a restrictive state. The reality is that after the repeal, any woman in America who wants an abortion up to delivery can get one, although they may have to travel to do it. The red state of Kansas, for example, performed more abortions last year than they had in over a decade.
But never mind the facts and what the decision actually did. The left whipped up a frenzy that this was anti-woman (which is confusing since they now believe many “women” do not have a uterus) and would usher a return to coat hanger abortions. This drove huge turnouts amongst pro-abortion Democrats in the 2022 elections which swayed many results to the left. The Democrats loved this.
So, with the decisions this year, the left (which includes most of the media as you know), is already hyperventilating about how no blacks will ever get into college, students will be crushed by their loans and that SLGBTQAI+++ (they keep adding letters and plusses) people will be discriminated against and “hate” will be on the rise. Of course, none of this will occur. Colleges have already indicated that they will value “overcoming adversity,” and it just happens that being black is one of those adversities. Biden will likely suspend payments and interest on the student loans, and people with one of those letters or plusses will be able to buy cakes almost anywhere. (One decision involved a cake maker who did not want to bake a cake for a gay wedding.)
But the leftists aren’t thinking about that. What they are thinking is how they can use these decisions, and whatever ones come out in June 2024, to again whip up their base into a frenzy of voting, as they did with abortion in 2022. They really don’t have any accomplishments or good news to run on in 2024. So, they will manufacture these issues, basically using fear and hate to motivate their core voters.
And based on 2022, we should assume it will work.
The second issue is exactly what place in our system of government that the court has. For the last nearly 250 years, laws are made by the other branches of government. The court interprets and applies the laws as written. They don’t write laws or change them. Many times, when a “conservative” on the court sides with the “leftists”, it is because the law as written compels them to do so. They may not like the law and may wish it did not exist. But a conservative jurist will apply that law as written, assuming it is constitutional, even if they don’t like it.
The leftist justices don’t see it that way. This is why you never see a leftist justice rule against the decision that the left wants. The actual wording of the law or the constitution is immaterial. Their role is to achieve “justice” as they see it. If the language of the law doesn’t result in a “just” decision, overrule that language.
In her dissent from the affirmative action ruling of the court last month, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson cited amongst the reasons for her opinion, “for high-risk black newborns, having a black physician more than doubles the likelihood that the baby will live.” Taking aside the complete absurdity of the statement, what does that have to do with the law and the constitution?
Answer. Nothing.
What the left wants is to turn the Supreme Court into a super-legislature that is unelected and cannot be removed from office. They will invalidate any law with which they do not agree and replace it with their own law, taking the form of a court decision.
This is insanity. We do not need a 3rd legislative branch. The current system has worked well. As conservative justices often say, if you don’t like the decision, change the law or the constitution. Because doing those things is hard to do, the left wants to accomplish it through a court that only needs a few more leftists on it (by packing or otherwise) to create law and constitutional precedent that they could never get passed through the existing system.
The results of court decisions are rarely as draconian as opponents say. You can change the law, or work around it, or find a loophole in the decision. On the margins, they will make differences. But abortions are still occurring, blacks will still get into “elite”colleges at much higher rates than Asians, and SLGBTQAI+++ people will get cakes with whatever they want on it. Black babies will live with skilled doctors, regardless of their ethnicity. Some things will change. States that vote to have abortion restrictions are able to do so. Asians can make a case with higher scores and work ethic, and a baker who doesn’t want to make a drag cake will not be forced to make one.
This is as it should be.
The singing Supremes said that “someday we’ll be together.” I hope so. But right now, we are very much apart on why the Court exists and what its role is. Unfortunately, the left is so confident of their moral superiority, that the end, in their minds, justifies the means. And in this case, the means is the court.
I remain respectfully,
Congressman John Campbell
Drive Fast & Live Free