Et tu, Brute? Democracy Assassinated at the hands of the US Supreme Court

Religious and political ideologies pierce the very soul of America’s Democratic Experiment

Photo by Ember Navarro on Unsplash

“Stunned,” “shocked,” “dismayed” — these are the words describing the reported leak of a first draft from the US Supreme Court about ultimately overturning Roe v. Wade.

For some, they are stunned that a decision that has survived over 5 decades of persistent attack might finally fall. For others, it is more shocking to witness an apparent breach of trust and tradition with such an important ruling being leaked prematurely to the public.

I suppose you could say I’m in another ‘camp’ — known for being an ‘and’ and not ‘or’ kind of person… (meaning, when I’m presented with apparent alternatives and asked to make an ‘or’ choice, I choose ‘and’ instead)…the issue I find most disturbing about the leaked draft from the Supreme Court is BOTH of them!

First, from the overturning of decision standpoint, beyond being a huge step backwards for our nation, and for women in America, how is it possible that any of these intelligent, educated, practiced, reasoned Justices (much less a majority of them) could possibly rule to supersede the rights of a living, breathing and voting American citizen, with that of a not-yet-living, not-yet-breathing, not-even-close-to-voting American citizen…

Seriously.

How can this possibly make sense?

How can an unborn child have rights above and beyond those of the currently living adult that bears them?

If the court’s decision is to declare that nowhere in the Constitution does it protect the rights of a living citizen over an unborn citizen, then it would seem it’s just a matter of time before laws are passed to dictate HOW pregnant women ‘care’ for that unborn citizen?

Is that what a free and fair democracy looks like? Does this feel like freedom to you?

That leads us to the second perspective about the apparent violation of trust and tradition by leaking the early draft of the court’s decision to begin with… what does this say about the highest court in the land?

What it says to me is: there are still intelligent, educated, practiced, and reasoned people working in our nation’s highest court… it’s just not the Justices’ themselves. Ugh.

The founding members of our democracy were all too aware of its fragility, knowing it would be perpetually bombarded by those seeking to overthrow it in the name of power, money or religion. That’s why they created the Supreme Court to be the third, A-political, non-religious ‘third leg’ of this of this system— to keep us balanced.

I fear we have completely lost our balance and will be unable to restabilize the foundation of our fragile democratic experiment.

This fear quickly turns to grief. I grieve for my grandfather, my uncle and my spouse who were each willing to give their lives to preserve the incredible gift of our democracy — to speak, worship, live — freely.

It’s times like this that it may not feel so free…so a little perspective can really help:

Any idea what it’s like to be living in Shanghai right now? Hong Kong? What about Russia? Venezuela? These are just a few alternatives to our democratic experiment…

Maybe this isn’t such a big deal… maybe our democratic system isn’t so fragile?

Seriously?

#womensrighttolife #supremecourt