Supreme Reversal
The Maundy Monday Newsletter - This Week in History July 8 - 14.
The Supreme Court finished its last round of wizardly, magically turning the United States into the conservative dominion that white Christian men have been pursuing for forty years with determination.
The robed wonders, unelected, with life-term appointments and the ability to twist the way they decide cases—it is originalism, is it not—have put us in an America that most of us don’t want but will unknowingly accept as we scroll through our phones for hours looking at adorable pictures of golden retrievers.1
We are an attention-centric society, and every second our attention is taken away from what the Supreme Court is doing, a Federalist Society and Heritage Foundation member gets another lake house and bigger tax breaks.
The Roberts court, named after Chief Justice John Roberts, confirmed in President George Bush’s first term, has been a colossal disaster. It’s right up there with Chief Justice Roger Taney Court, who, as a slave-owning sonabitch, handed down the Dread Scott decision because he didn’t believe blacks were ever intended to become citizens.
Since 2005, the Roberts Court has curbed the scope of the federal government and given us decisions like:
Citizens United2, which said that corporations are actually people.
Shelby, which eliminated oversight on states to prevent discrimination at the voting booth.
Dobbs, which said ten-year-olds had to carry pregnancies to terms if a state said so.
This list doesn’t include recent rulings that saw the president of the United States have expanded immunity from committing crimes while in office, stripping authority of regulators and sidestepping abortion pill access. This is all going on while trust in the Supreme Court erodes due to their questions of ethical behavior, which includes flying certain flags.
It’s easy to say that the Roberts Court is the counterpunch to the Warren Court, which introduced progressive decisions that shook the country during the 1950s and 1960s.
Earl Warren became the 14th Chief Justice on October 5, 1953. Nominated by President Eisenhower, the Warren Court expanded Civil Rights, effectively neutering the Taney Court decisions.
Between 1953 and 1969, the Warren Court expanded the power of the federal and judicial branches, ushering in the Civil Rights era with the following decisions:
Brown vs Board of Education, which said segregation in schools is not okay.
Miranda, which made cop shows way more enjoyable because you do have the right to remain silent.
Loving, which said interracial marriages were okay.
Chief Justice Roberts is 69 years old and is about ten years away from passing Taney as the second longest-serving Chief Justice in history. So he still has plenty of time to do some more damage.
It was fifty years ago this week that Chief Justice Warren died on July 9, 1974, five years after he left the bench.
Warren held the firm belief that President Richard Nixon, who didn’t think he had immunity for the crimes he said he didn’t commit, was the worst president the United States ever had. Warren passed away a few hours after learning that the Supreme Court ordered Nixon to release sixty-four tapes for the Watergate investigation.
I can only imagine what Warren thinks about the Republican party of today and the people the party put on the bench.
Okay, let's highlight what else happened this week. As a reminder, these events celebrate their anniversary, ending in 5 or 0. Here's what I got:
1. The Wall Street Journal began publication on July 8, 1889. Charles Dow, Edward Jones, and a guy with an abnormally long last name that wouldn’t fit on the masthead, created the Dow Jones Company, the publisher of the Journal. Focused primarily on the New York Stock Exchange, it is not often referred to as “Mainstream Media,” despite being the second largest publication in circulation in the United States and owned by Newscorp. One current Supreme Court Justice uses the WSJ as his personal essay platform.
2. Bobby Kennedy’s nephew, his nephew’s wife, and her sister died in a plane crash on July 16, 1999. JFK Jr. celebrated his third birthday by saluting his father, President John F. Kennedy, during his state funeral procession. Thirty-five years later, he boarded a Piper Saratoga with his wife and sister-in-law to pilot it from Martha’s Vineyard. Unfortunately, Kennedy wasn’t authorized to fly at dark, and he lost control of the plane and crashed into the Atlantic Ocean. Conspiracy theorists believe he did not die but instead will join President Trump on the GOP ticket later this month. I’m not kidding.
3. Vice President Aaron Burr fatally wounded Alexander Hamilton on July 11, 1804. The two founding fathers met outside New York City to settle a beef. The controversy around the duel fueled speculation that Hamilton never intended to shoot Burr, which makes dueling the dumbest concept ever invented. Hamilton got the last laugh because there’s no cool rap musical about Burr. Not yet, anyway.
I skimmed over the first presidential debate in my last presidential election ranking, but the fallout doesn’t look good for the sitting president. Despite the widely successful initiatives implemented over the previous three years, he has hit the lowest approval ratings in his administration.
If you are wondering, my concern about a presidential election has never been higher, especially since it looks like we will have daily announcements from Democratic politicians calling on President Biden to drop out. None of this is okay.
But don’t worry about me. By Friday, I’ll be delivering another presidential election ranking. Thanks for supporting Okay History. Have a great week!
Okay,
Chris
Golden retrievers are magical in their ability to distract us.
All cases are referred to by their abbreviated names because I’m not writing out Jackson Women’s Health Organization. Wait. Dang it.
We are living dificult time, I am reading Eric L. last 📖. It is very sad what is happening in this country. I cannot believe so many “deprobables “ get important jobs.