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Samuel Alito
Samuel Alito
The calls for Chief Justice John Roberts to rein in corruption on the Supreme Court are futile. Roberts no longer controls the court’s Trumped-up rightwing supermajority. Justice Samuel Alito, the upside-down flag-waving insurrectionist, does.
Alito wrote the 6-to-3 court rulings supported by every Republican court appointee including Roberts. Together, they’re designed to destroy equality based on race and gender nationally in our democracy for decades to come.
The first was the reprehensible Dobbs decision abolishing a half-century of constitutional abortion rights and equal rights for women to make decisions about their own lives. The second was last week’s legalization of racist gerrymandering in South Carolina moving 60% of Black voters out of a county to create another White Republican congressional district.
It was corrupt Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell who created three Supreme Court vacancies for Donald Trump to fill instead of just one. McConnell refused to hold a hearing on President Obama’s nominee to fill a court vacancy for nearly a year until Trump’s 2016 election and then rushed to confirm Trump’s third appointee a week before voters ended his presidency.
Rolling Back Progress
That produced the Supreme Court supermajority led by Alito supporting Trump’s destruction of democracy that’s not going to stop with rolling back all the progress toward achieving equality for all Americans won by the civil rights movement. For decades, rightwing states will be permitted to ban abortions and disenfranchise Blacks within their borders long after Trump’s democracy-destroying presidency is just a horrible memory. His court will simply pretend the slaveholding South won the Civil War.
Wisconsin was way ahead of most other states in protecting their constitutional rights a year ago by finally defeating the rightwing Republican majority on its state Supreme Court. That court had corruptly gerrymandered voting districts for 15 years to guarantee Republican control of the legislature even when Democratic candidates won more votes than Republicans.
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Whether those living in each state have the same rights as other Americans will depend on where you live until we once again have a Supreme Court majority that will protect the constitutional rights of all Americans nationwide. Protecting those rights in Wisconsin should increase the turnout for President Biden and Sen. Tammy Baldwin in November since it will be the first election in years in which Democrats have a chance of winning control of the Assembly in fair elections reflecting our closely divided state.
Inflaming Hatred
But the angry hatred Trump continues to inflame among his supporters against Biden and other Democrats and Republicans who oppose him has done little to reduce the fears of renewed violence if Trump loses the election. Neither has the Supreme Court’s intentional delay to halt Trump’s trial for his role in the violent attack on Congress to overthrow Biden’s election four years ago.
Alito openly expressed the same angry contempt for anyone including the three justices defending democracy on the court who oppose the snide opinions he writes on behalf of the court majority destroying decades of constitutional rights. In his opinion supporting South Carolina’s racist political gerrymandering, Alito was offended anyone would suggest Southern legislatures would intentionally reduce voting rights for Black Americans just because they have for more than 150 years after Congress passed the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments abolishing slavery and promising full citizenship, equal protection under the law and the right to vote.
Alito called the accusation “offensive and demeaning.” Instead of insulting Southern Republicans, Alito suggested a solution to abolish racist gerrymandering forever—simply call it political gerrymandering.
Just Call it Political
Roberts created that imaginary distinction back in 2018 when he refused to overturn the Wisconsin court’s corrupt gerrymandering. Roberts ordered federal courts not to prevent political gerrymandering, only racist gerrymandering. So just call it political.
As Wisconsin knows well, the only solution to Republican attempts to destroy democracy is a lot more democracy. State voters turned out repeatedly in record numbers in previously low-turnout April state Supreme Court elections to replace a democracy-destroying state court with one that is restoring fair legislative elections and crucial constitution rights that are no longer protected nationally.
This year, it’s even more important every American voter regardless of party who believes in democracy turn out in large numbers for the presidential election in one of the key battleground states that will determine the next president. Clearly, Republicans won’t nominate a presidential candidate who will begin restoring support for the constitutional rights for all Americans until nominating Trump or one of his ugly imitators starts costing their party politically.
This is the last time Trump will be on an election ballot. He’s going down in history like he boasted, but not for any of his nonexistent achievements. Historians will struggle to explain what happened to America to create the shameful era that inevitably will bear his name. All the rest of us will have to explain which side we were on.
