At this point in the history of the United States if our country were a radio station, its call letters might be WTF! Less than a week ago we witnessed a presidential debate that was like watching a boxing match between Mike Tyson and Mr. Rogers.
Then came the Supreme Court decision a few days ago on presidential immunity which feels like a sucker punch in the gut to what I believed was the bedrock principle throughout American history that no person, even a president, is above the law.
I’m hardly a Constitutional scholar, although in college one of the best classes I had the privilege of taking dealt with the history of that document taught by a man named Vincent Starzinger.
Of the many tributes from former students after his death I’ve picked out this one to sum up his particular gift to us.
“He was not there to make you think a certain way, he was there to make you think.”
So, here we are six decades later and I wish Professor Starzinger was still around to help my brain make sense of an ever growing number of decisions during the Roberts Court era that to my own thinking have not made our nation better, safer, fairer or stronger but are accomplishing the very opposite.
I’ve picked out some of them and applied the standard which has guided medical practice for centuries but apparently not our Supreme Court justices— First, do no harm.
District of Columbia v. Heller (2008) made it much harder to ban and regulate the ownership of guns.
The Impact: Since the decision, guns owned in the country now exceed our population and gun violence is epidemic with nearly 50,000 deaths from guns yearly by homicides and suicides. Guns are now the number one killer of American children. The fear of gun violence has unquestionably changed our sense of security if not our daily lives.
Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission (2010) made it possible for corporations, unions and wealthy donors to spend unlimited funds on elections.
The Impact: So called Super PACs have been able to hide the sources of their money— dark money —and in 2020 alone total election spending was $14.4 billion, up from $5.7 billion two years prior and yes, I know 2020 was a presidential election year. And I am also aware that election spending is a bipartisan problem and has led to the pervasiveness of negative advertising bombarding us from all sides that has created the distressing fact that American elections are often up for sale.
Shelby County v. Holder (2013) struck down the formula by which the 1965 Voting Rights Act required certain states with a history of discrimination against minority voters to get changes to their voting requirements cleared by the the federal government before they went into effect.
The Impact: Since the decision 29 states have passed 94 restrictive voting laws and while some have been blocked, most are presently in effect and since the 2020 election, 21 states have passed 33 more laws restricting mail voting access.
Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization (2022) determined that the Constitution does not confer a right to abortion and overturned a precedent of half a century of that right set by Roe v. Wade (1973).
The Impact: Within a month of the decision 43 clinics in 11 states stopped providing access to abortions. There are now no abortion providing facilities in 14 states that enforce total abortion bans. Nearly two-thirds of Americans polled believe access to abortion should be a legal right.
Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo and Relentless, Inc. v. Department of Commerce (2024) overturns a 40 year old decision Chevron v. Natural Resources Defense Council that established the law that federal courts defer to a federal agency’s reasonable interpretation of a statute when it is ambiguous.
The Impact: In all likelihood executive branch agencies will face increased difficulty in regulating the environment, cyberspace, public health, workplace safety and surely other areas. Judges may now exercise more power than experts.
Trump v. United States (2024) This highly controversial decision grants presidents presumptive immunity “from criminal prosecution for a President’s acts within the outer perimeter of his official responsibility”, meaning a president is presumed to enjoy immunity from prosecution if his action is related even by just a small amount to his official status.
The Impact: Consider a president writing checks in the Oval Office to Michael Cohen for his legal services to pay off Stormy Daniels as possibly a presidential act now permitted within his constitutional powers. More brilliant minds than my own both joyous and mournful will be parsing and pontificating about Trump v. United States for years to come but to quote a line that every movie horror film fan is familiar with “Be afraid. Be very afraid!”
And there’s this other quote that I’m thinking about more frequently from founding father Benjamin Franklin to the question of whether we have a republic or a monarchy to which Franklin answered “A republic if you can keep it.”
And did you know that once Benjamin Franklin had an understanding of the behavior of electricity, he invented the lightning rod to protect houses from destruction by lightning? I wish he were still around to come up with another such device to prevent America’s destruction by politics.
So, Happy 4th of July if you feel like celebrating!