Checks and Balances

 I have always rejoiced in the checks and balances the founders built into the Constitution. They are meant to protect everyone from excesses by the majority while preserving government by we the people. Many of those checks just slow things down to help us be sure we are on the right track. Therefore I have opposed "stacking the courts" as FDR sought to do when his reforms were stymied by a right wing court.

Today I have changed my mind. We have a Supreme Court with four, very right-wing, very political, relatively young justices all appointed by presidents who achieved their office against the wishes of a plurality of the voters. (Roberts fits description that as well, but at least has some respect for precedence and the reputation of the court) Three of them were appointed by a man twice defeated in the popular vote and who only squeaked by in the Electoral College thanks to covert intervention by the world's current greatest war criminal.

The current Supreme Court of the United States is morally and ethically illegitimate. 

This morning's ruling weakening protections for our precarious worldwide ecology is the final straw. These extremists cannot continue to tear apart our nation, threaten our environment, and weaken our voting and privacy rights.

Therefore I now support the following actions:

1. Enlarge the court. Their workload is too large anyway.  And the people have favored Democrats to appoint judges for 28 of the last 32 years and yet, during that time Republicans have appointed a majority of the current justices! Republicans deliberately stole (IMO) two positions on the court -- stonewalled an appointment by our first black president and rammed through an appointment by a president about to be defeated soundly. Enlarge the court to balance the court to something approaching the ideology of the nation at large.

2. Do away with the filibuster. The filibuster is NOT the Founder's idea. The founders created a Senate that is already a brake on the majority. With the extreme filibuster instituted in the 1900s a small minority have a veto virtually any legislation. It has crippled our legislative branch. It was always a bad idea, and under unethical folks like McConnell, it is tyrannical. I personally would favor a return to the true "talking filibuster", but at this point ax it altogether.

3. Impeach Clarence Thomas. His refusal to recuse himself from votes involving issues his own wife is neck-deep in is unforgivable in an American jurist. Impeach him.

Unless we take back our rights, the Republicans will further erode them. Some are actively seeking to make a nationwide ban on abortion.  Thomas would revoke all SCOTUS rulings based on a right of privacy. (He is a black man married to a white woman; would he strike down Loving v. Virginia?)

Americans have decided:

- we want the voting rights of minorities (and everyone-else) protected

- we believe personal decisions like abortion, who we love, how we express that love in private, belong to the individual(s) not the state.

- the earth belongs to all of us and We the People have a right to protect it from the profit motive of corporations.

These six individuals are a clear and present danger to my children and grandchildren and my beloved former students. At 75 years of age, I pray to live long enough to see these six either gone from the court or in its minority again.

And by the way, if one of my children or grandchildren ever decides that she needs an abortion, I will be honored to provide her transportation, and if she likes, hold her hand through the procedure, regardless of what the vile Trumpists say or do or any unConstitutional laws they get through this illegitimate Supreme Court. As the Declaration that we celebrate next week proclaims, some rights are self-evident, and God-given.