The death of the us supreme court, as we once knew it?

A leaked draft opinion in a case from the State of Mississippi could mark the end of the U S Supreme Court as we have known it for my lifetime. It now appears as an instrument of overt Republican political and cultural reversal that turns half a decade of settled jurisprudence on its head. Forget about abortion. This is the end of the Ninth Amendment as a legal foundation for rights not enumerated in the first eight amendments (such as the right to personal privacy). It is an example of a politically motivated minority taking our legal system on a wild ride that is reminiscent of the movie “Back to the Future.”

I hate abortion. I would love there to be far fewer abortions in this country. But what we are seeing now is authoritarian insertion of government into the most private decisions of women and families. Trump failed in his attempt to kill our democratic republic, but he colluded with his Senate allies to pack the Supreme Court with justices who were groomed for just this day. A Catholic law professor who had never served as a judge, a blue blood elite with a history as a sexual predator who lied under oath to ascend to the court, to team up with a former federal official credibly accused of gross and animalistic sexual harassment…and at the same time deny former President Obama’s nomination of a respected moderate justice a hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee (on the patently improper premise that there were only a few months left before the next presidential election).

Wake up America! As a follower of Jesus Christ for over 65 years, I deeply resent the political role that Republicans have fashioned for the church for which Jesus died. Is there no Bonhoeffer to call out the leaders of today’s church? As I have written before, it is undeniable that at the time Roe v Wade became the law of the land, the position of the largest Protestant denomination in the country was that abortion, while best to be avoided or minimized, was ultimately a private matter to be addressed within families and their medical care providers. And that view was consistent with conservative Republican philosophy about keeping big government out of private family issues. But when Republican operatives finally realized, in about 1979, that racial segregation was no longer a viable legal or political rallying cry for engaging church leaders in Republican political strategies, they had a flash of brilliance. They chose outlawing abortion as the new rallying cry. What had previously been a primarily Roman Catholic issue gradually became a new litmus test for whether one was truly a Christian.

Notwithstanding the fact that the leaked opinion is a draft, it sounds the death knell for any claim that the Supreme Court had to being above politics and respectful of sound judicial precedent. Let’s just face it. A majority of the court is acting as if it is just another political instrument wrapped in black robes. I say this with deep regret, and as a lawyer for over half a century and former judge.

There is only one path to preserving our democratic republic and the past half century of development of individual freedoms. That path is clear. Freedom loving Americans from all walks of life must mobilize to get out the vote for the 2022 Congressional elections as well as elections at the state level. Once a majority is secured in both the Senate and House of Representatives, legislation must be enacted to add four additional justices to the Supreme Court, and President Biden should nominate four new justices with a record of judicial experience that reflects the proper respect for established precedent and moderate judicial temperament. The President should also nominate one of the justices to be the new Chief Justice. Congress should enact laws that essentially replicate the balance struck by Roe v Wade, and the Mississippi case will eventually be relegated to a footnote in our judicial history.

Make no mistake about it. Many Republican stalwarts of “pro-life” on Capitol Hill don’t really care about abortion. If they impregnated a young staffer, they would not hesitate to fund a quiet abortion. This is hypocrisy gone amuck. It’s akin to the recent disclosure that one legislator who was a staunch gay basher was in fact a homosexual all the while.

Now I do appreciate that many of my Christian brothers and sisters view this recent revelation as a gift from God, an answer to many prayers. To which I say, be careful what you pray for. If you are seeking a white Christian America that legislates or validates your core religious beliefs, protects your property interests from a majority who seek to raise your taxes, marginalizes racial and religious minorities, and kicks the poor to the curb, you are not following Jesus. You are following Caesar. You are successors to the German Christians who saluted Hitler and turned a blind eye to genocide. Your champion, former President Trump, will eventually be unmasked as a Russian agent or at the very least, one who was effectively under Putin’s control. No, as many like to say, you didn’t elect a pastor. For political purposes, you repeated 1980 history and chose a patently immoral man over a practicing Christian.

So ring the church bells while you may, as young men and women continue to abandon the church amidst the tarnished witness of its leaders. You forgot the main teaching of Jesus, the law of love. That law tells us how to treat a young woman with an unwanted pregnancy. We are to come along side her, comfort her, lovingly guide her to make a Godly decision, and then help her financially and emotionally whatever decision she makes, hopefully as she gives birth to a baby that can be placed in a loving home. That is the opposite of persecuting her, her doctors and all others who might have advised her to end a pregnancy. She may have been raped, or the victim of incest. Such is not uncommon, especially at the lowest rung on the economic ladder.

This is a sad day for my country. It may be the spark for a political revolution. Like the idiot governor of Florida who takes on Disney, it will likely go down for Republicans as a self-inflicted wound of historic proportions. Stay tuned.