Are people supposed to be thankful that the highest court of the land actually did its job? Before leaving on summer break, the U.S. Supreme Court deigned to uphold the 14th Amendment, affirming birthright citizenship. But don’t worry, frat-boy-turned-justice, Brett Kavanaugh, gave his racist cronies in Congress a roadmap on how to overturn the decision.
Those who believe SCOTUS saved us miss the point. This session the hard-right majority eviscerated the Voting Rights Act and legitimized racial profiling by ICE. They removed Temporary Protected Status (TPS) from Haitian and Syrian immigrants, which will send thousands of economic and war refugees back to tenuous, life threatening situations.
They upheld a cruel ban on trans girls and women’s participation in sports. And they ruled that the First Amendment gave political parties (read: Democrats and Republicans) the right to spend as much as they want on any candidate.
The far right spent decades using both violence and lawsuits to attack abortion, trans, immigrant, and labor rights … and more. It’s just “rinse and repeat” with this latest bigoted assault on the citizenship rights of millions of Americans.
In short, one good decision was just a smokescreen to cover up the rest. The Supreme Court will not save us from fascism; it is enabling its rise. The power of working people is the only thing that can truly put a stop to authoritarian attacks coming from all branches of government.
