We Ain't Seen Nothing Yet, by Groff Schroeder: Freethought Views, September 2022

We Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet

by Groff Schroeder

US Presidents, members of Congress, Supreme Court members, and many others in American law enforcement and government swear a solemn oath to support and defend the United States Constitution. Yet in 1991, George H.W. Bush (41) and right wing politicians in Congress replaced the legendary civil rights lawyer Justice Thurgood Marshall on the Supreme Court with Clarence Thomas - who was both poorly qualified to be a Supreme Court Justice, and deeply hostile to the Constitutional civil rights and human freedoms Thurgood Marshall and countless others literally fought and died to obtain.

Thomas was the sworn Chairman of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission who was directly responsible for prosecuting illegal workplace sexual harassment – and who had been quite believably accused by four separate women of illegal workplace sexual harassment. By nominating and confirming Justice Thomas, George Herbert Walker  and the “conservative” politicians in the Senate who confirmed him, apparently directly violated both the spirit and letter of their oaths of office. During the Supreme Court nominations of Robert Bork, Samuel Alito, Antonin Scalia, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney-Barrett; Presidents Reagan, Bush (43), and Trump, and numerous right wing senators also apparently violated their Constitutional oaths by nominating and confirming candidates who were unqualified, demonstrably dishonest under oath, apparently involved in illegality, or were openly hostile to our Constitutional civil rights and human freedoms. All of these anti-freedom nominees were confirmed by Republican politicians except Robert Bork, due to Bork’s key role in executing Richard Nixon’s infamous Saturday Night Massacre.

Abortion literally saves women's lives in obstetric emergencies including ectopic pregnancy, trauma, maternal hypertension, and late term fetal death, and about 12% of abortions are spontaneous (aka “miscarriages”), and anti-abortion states are enacting Draconian sexual mandates and religious (sharia) laws that punish women and physicians, and enslave women to rapists.

By “reconsidering” (destroying) the Roe v. Wade precedent to allow individual states to revoke their citizen’s civil rights and human freedoms and literally enslave women to rapists and the state, the reactionary members of the Supreme Court have not only abrogated their oaths of office and destroyed numerous founding civil rights and human freedoms guaranteed by the United States Constitution, they have also reversed key legal outcomes of the Revolutionary and Civil Wars. Specifically, the Dobbs decision summarily revokes our 1st Amendment right to freedom of religion, our 1st Amendment right to freedom of association, our 4th and 14th Amendment right to privacy, our 5th Amendment right not to be forced to incriminate ourselves, our 8th Amendment right not to endure cruel and unusual punishment, our 14th Amendment right to equality under the law, and our 13th Amendment right not to be held in involuntary servitude.

In his concurrence to the infamous Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization Decision, Clarence Thomas advocated also “reconsidering” (destroying) other long standing precedents protecting our civil rights and human freedoms, including the landmark 1965 Griswold v. Connecticut ruling that prevents politicians and state governments from penalizing married couples for using birth control. Thomas’ concurrence makes it crystal clear. Not only was today's exceptionally extreme and openly partisan Supreme Court intentionally and immorally stacked by Mitch McConnell and right wing politicians in violation of their oaths of office to legislate our religious beliefs; revoke our most precious civil rights and hard won human freedoms; and micromanage our sex lives and reproductive processes - we ain’t seen nothing yet.

 

Original version (see below) published in the Freethinkers of Colorado Springs Freethought Views column in the September 7-13, 2022 issue of the Colorado Springs Independent with the quotation below.

 

"The Supreme Court must never be viewed as a partisan institution."

Brett Kavanagh

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Original version

 

 

We Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet

by Groff Schroeder

 

US Presidents, members of Congress, Supreme Court members, and many others in American law enforcement and government swear a solemn oath to support and defend the United States Constitution. Yet in 1981, Ronald Reagan and right wing politicians in Congress replaced the legendary civil rights lawyer Justice Thurgood Marshall on the Supreme Court with Clarence Thomas - who was both poorly qualified to be a Supreme Court Justice, and deeply hostile to the Constitutional civil rights and human freedoms Thurgood Marshall and countless others literally fought and died to obtain. Thomas was the sworn Chairman of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission who was directly responsible for prosecuting illegal workplace sexual harassment – and who had been quite believably accused by four separate women of illegal workplace sexual harassment. By nominating and confirming Justice Thomas, Ronald Reagan and the “conservative” politicians in the Senate who confirmed him, apparently directly violated both the spirit and letter of their oaths of office. Subsequently, during the Supreme Court nominations of Robert Bork, Samuel Alito, Antonin Scalia, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney-Barret; Presidents Reagan, Bush (43), and Trump, and numerous right wing senators also apparently violated their Constitutional oaths by nominating and confirming candidates who were unqualified, demonstrably dishonest under oath, apparently involved in illegality, or were openly hostile to our Constitutional civil rights and human freedoms. All of these anti-freedom nominees were confirmed by Republican politicians except Robert Bork, due to Bork’s key role in executing Richard Nixon’s infamous Saturday Night Massacre.

 

Abortion literally saves women's lives in obstetric emergencies including ectopic pregnancy, trauma, maternal hypertension, and late term fetal death, and about 12% of abortions are spontaneous (aka “miscarriages”), and anti-abortion states are enacting draconian sexual mandates and religious (sharia) laws that punish women and physicians, and enslave women to rapists. By “reconsidering” (destroying) the Roe v. Wade precedent to allow individual states to revoke their citizen’s civil rights and human freedoms and literally enslave women to rapists and the state, the reactionary members of the Supreme Court have not only abrogated their oaths of office and destroyed numerous founding civil rights and human freedoms guaranteed by the United States Constitution, they have also reversed key legal outcomes of the Revolutionary and Civil Wars. Specifically, the Dobbs decision summarily revokes our 1st Amendment right to freedom of religion, our 1st Amendment right to freedom of association, our 4th and 14th Amendment right to privacy, our 5th Amendment right not to be forced to incriminate ourselves, our 8th Amendment right not to endure cruel and unusual punishment, our 14th Amendment right to equality under the law, and our 13th Amendment right not to be held in involuntary servitude.

 

In his concurrence to the infamous Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization Decision, Clarence Thomas advocated also “reconsidering” (destroying) other long standing precedents protecting our civil rights and human freedoms, including the landmark 1965 Griswold v. Connecticut ruling that prevents politicians and state governments from penalizing married couples for using birth control. Thomas’ concurrence makes it crystal clear. Not only was today's exceptionally extreme and openly partisan Supreme Court intentionally and immorally stacked by Mitch McConnell and right wing politicians in violation of their oaths of office to legislate our religious beliefs; revoke our most precious civil rights and hard won human freedoms; and micromanage our sex lives and reproductive processes - we ain’t seen nothing yet.