Let me start with this. I am outraged by the leak of a preliminary draft (written in February) of a Supreme Court decision that would overturn Roe vs. Wade. I cannot imagine that any of the Justices would be the source of the leak. That would leave the clerks of the Justices, and other Court employees. The clerks are generally new attorneys. If one of them is responsible for the leak that person should lose their license to practice law.
The draft decision was authored by Justice Alito, with Justices Thomas, Gorsuch, Kavanaugh and Coney-Barrett joining. Between February and June, when a final decision will issue, Justices may change their vote, and the reasoning of the decision may be altered. I completely agree with a Wall Street Journal editorial suggesting that all nine Justices issue a joint statement deploring the leak.
I question how long our society can last with these non-stop assaults on our basic institutions. Just in the last few years. A cop knelt on the neck of George Floyd, and much of the country decided that all police were no good. Are there bad police? Of course. But there are bad members of every profession. Who is in favor of ending the medical profession because there are some bad doctors? We have seen the result of undermining the police, with the defund movement, with the lack of political support, and with district attorneys who refuse to prosecute. It should surprise no one that crime is up everywhere.
No one on the left needs to write to me about January 6. I said that I was appalled by what I saw. I said that I immediately accepted that Joe Biden won, and that Trump should have done the same after the Electoral College vote. And no one on the right needs to tell me about some new evidence of voter fraud. At this late date the 2020 election results are not going to be reversed.
Let's not forget the actions of the Majority Leader of the United States Senate, Chuck Schumer, threatening (yes, threatening!) sitting Justices of the Supreme Court, telling them they will "pay the price" if they do not decide how Schumer wanted them to decide. Now, as with the Capitol building, we have a fence around the Supreme Court building. We even have protesters outside the homes of some of the Justices.
Schumer, proving once again how little he knows, said it comes with the territory, because he has had protesters in front of his house. He is a politician, and people have a right to seek a redress of grievances from their elected officials. Although I do not favor politicians even being harassed in front of their homes either.
But the Courts are different. We should not want Courts being pressured to decide cases a certain way. Cases should be decided on the facts and the law. If anyone disagrees, tell me this. If you were a criminal defendant, and a mob outside the courthouse was shouting "hang him (or her)" would you want the jury to find you guilty in order to appease the mob? Or, would you like the jury to decide based on the facts and the law?
I am not naive. I understand that the Justices are human, that they have a view of how the world should be. And while those personal beliefs do, at times, guide their decisions, there are many times when the results are not so predictable.
I know that when I attended public school, the teachers instilled a sense of patriotism, a love of country, a respect for the flag. We were taught about our founding documents, about how the Founding Fathers created the greatest system of government in the history of the world. (Again, no need to tell me about slavery, and women's lack of rights.) Our original governing documents created the bases for the freedoms and rights later given to blacks and women. How much people want to keep America will be up to later generations.
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