Gorsuch: A Pill We Can’t Afford To Swallow
Today the Senate begins confirmation hearings for Judge Neil “I’m-awful but-the-media-acts-like-I’m-moderate” Gorsuch, Orange 45’s pick to replace Antonin Scalia on the Supreme Court. Conservatives reeeally want another Antonin Scalia, an “originalist” who interpreted the constitution as it was written.
Wanting another Originalist Justice makes perfect sense, if your goal is to ignore all progress and innovation inevitable in an ever-changing nation:
- An America that has grown into something the Founding Fathers could never have imagined.
- An America where a musket has evolved into an AK-47.
- An America that granted women and black folks full autonomy and the right to vote. I mean, that would have been unimaginable. What would happen if they exercised their rights? (Exactly!)
Those kinds of ideas were not even a consideration back then! Hell, a lot of the constitutional issues that are now coming before the court were unimaginable even 20 years ago.
So what happens when we have judges currently serving on the Supreme Court who hear cases involving today’s advancements in science, technology and privacy, yet they have no idea how it works? If they don’t understand how people actually live in the modern world, how can people actually achieve justice in a modern world?!
Take one SCOTUS case heard in 2010 about whether an employee had a right to privacy when sexting from an employer-issued pager. (Insert nostalgic pager sigh here, aghhhhhh, life pre-emojis!) Some of the Justices asked questions that sounded less like oral arguments, and more like your grandparents asking if they can take “Facebook” out from the library. I mean these people are so out of touch they might as well think there are cameras in microwaves.
At one point, Chief Justice Roberts (who is known to write his opinions by hand), asked what the difference is between a pager and email. I MEAN COME ON! Even Nana knows that. Justice Scalia asked if someone could “Print out these spicy little conversations and then send them to his buddies?” Sorry what?!
The result? The dial tone deaf Justices ruled unanimously that since the audit of the pager messages was work-related, it didn’t violate the sexter’s 4th amendment protection against unreasonable search and seizure. It also left vague explanations of how The Court will view privacy and technology issues in the future. One could argue that this ruling might have been due to a lack of understanding about how basic modern communication works.
BUT! When the constitution was written there were no pagers or email, so why progress! Thank goodness we don’t see any constitutionally questionable technology cases arising anytime soon…
But seriously, this isn’t just about technology and the judicial branch. This kind of fundamental lack of knowledge about how people and things operate in the 21st century has become prevalent in all branches of government. In the area of legislating reproductive rights we have witnessed an explosion of fake facts and blatant ignorance.
Daily, anti-choice extremists are proposing or passing unconstitutional laws designed to circumvent, challenge, and eventually overturn Roe v. Wade. Oklahoma sent a bill to Governor Mary Fallin that would jail doctors who perform abortion. An Idaho state rep asked, “Why can’t a woman swallow a camera for her gynecological exam?” (That’s a real thing a man said, a man in government.) An Iowa lawmaker said that women don’t need Planned Parenthood and offered up a dentist office as a place to get pap smears. I’m sure there’s a cavity joke here, but I’m not going to make it. #VaginaTeeth
Which brings me back to Neil Gorsuch…
I have no idea if he understands how sexting works, but in his past rulings he has shown he lacks an understanding of basic science, for example, how pregnancy happens or birth control works. Since these ill-equipped, reproductively challenged, DEfundamentalist politicians don’t seem to be going away anytime soon, it is imperative that we don’t fill our Supreme Court with judges whose working knowledge of the reproductive system is akin to their working knowledge of pagers.
Before becoming the Big Cheesie’s nominee Gorsuch was on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit. One may recall the coup d’decoupage Hobby Lobby case that came through the 10th before heading to the Supreme Court. Essentially Hobby stated, Hey, we’re a corporation, and corps are people now! Even though we aren’t a religious institution and we are for profit, we want to impress our religious views on our employees by not covering their birth control. Even though we probably cover Viagra and a lot of women take birth control for other health reasons like fibroids, we don’t care! (Not a direct quote but an accurate summation.) And Gorsuch was like, YES, I agree, that makes sense. (Does it Neil?!)
The Hobby Lobby case moved to the Supreme Court where it ruled in favor of Hobby Lobby’s claims by a narrow 5–4 majority. But unlike the case of the sexting pagers, the Female Justices actually knew something of these matters and offered insights like, “There are quite a number of medical treatments that could be religiously objected to… Everything would be piecemeal, nothing would be uniform.” And, “What happens to a non religious minority of a corporation?” The other Justices listened and then completely disregarded them. (You know, women and facts, who wants ‘em?!) It’s no coincidence that Hobby Lobby lost the “Female SCOTUS Justice” demographic by 3–0! The women on the Supreme Court (and Justice Stephen Breyer) correctly understood the concepts of how pregnancy and birth control work, and that a woman, not her boss, should control her reproductive life.
We don’t need another vote on the Supreme Court that bases decisions about our junk on junk science!
So in order to help Judge Gorsuch and all the legis-haters out there understand some basic fundamentals about what is and is not a pregnancy, Lady Parts Justice League created this handy video. (It’s easy to understand — it’s a cartoon!)
Check out the video HERE and share it with a politician or judge you know who could stand to learn a thing or two, as too many of them seem to have missed out on sex ed. They need to learn this stuff! If they’re going to force their beliefs on the rest of us, at least let’s have those beliefs be based on actual facts.
- Lizz Winstead, Co-founder and Chief Creative Officer of LPJ League
