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The end of June is the worst time of year if you care about the law. Not just because of the new opinions released every few days, which inevitably push our law further to the right, but also because of the anniversaries.

June 24, 2022, was the day it became clear to everyone that we were well into a new era.

It’s been four years since the Supreme Court took away a fundamental right under the U.S. Constitution.

A right that had been ours for 49 years.

The Court insisted that the only way to understand whether the Constitution protects a right to abortion was to discern whether it was a right when the Constitution was written (the era when only white male land owners could vote).

Six justices decided it was not, so the prior 49 years of that right (and all the times it was affirmed) were torn up. The only reason why the law changed is because the people deciding it changed.

In the 1970s, after an era of expanding rights by a Supreme Court that saw the Constitution as something that evolved with us, the conservative legal movement realized it needed to focus on the courts to claw the law back to a place they preferred. They needed new judges. Removing the right to abortion was the symbol of that movement, and they achieved it on June 24, 2022.

The movement made the most of two ill-timed deaths and openings on the Supreme court. When Justice Scalia died in February of 2016, the Senate insisted nothing could happen until after the presidential election that fall. It became a campaign issue. When Justice Ginsburg died just weeks before the 2020 presidential election, she was swiftly replaced, resulting in the 6-3 majority that is moving our laws further right every June.

It doesn’t have to be this way forever. The Court can be reformed (18-year term limits!) We can protect our rights through state constitutions (and many have in the last four years!) And we can articulate how the Constitution actually does support this right because it (including, especially, its amendments) sets up a democratic system where everyone needs to be able to participate.

We are seeing the fruit of that movement in the opinions that have come out in the last four years, and we could be seeing it for a while. This is deeply saddening for anyone who believes the law can help to protect the most vulnerable among us, when it is interpreted correctly. I feel that sadness today as I read about how easy it is, apparently, for us to turn away asylum seekers and strip protected immigration status from longtime members of our communities whose home countries remain ravaged.

Even though I expected to be disappointed, I was truly taken aback today after I saw the Supreme Court describe the Administration’s rhetoric towards Haitians as not “overtly racial.”

The majority opinion says there was no overt racism but doesn’t show us what was said.

Especially, considering those statements were of the caliber below:

For posterity, the dissent includes these apparently not overtly racist statements.

Indifference, translated into law.

Despite the pile of disappointment in the law, there are actually a few things I have been finding inspiring and can’t stop thinking about:

The idea of 18-year term limits for the Supreme Court. Our law shouldn’t depend on when justices happen to die.
The idea that we, the people have a say in interpreting the Constitution. We can change it when we organize collectively.
The idea that we have examples of this collective input from our past, in particular the Black Conventions that influenced the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments. We can learn from them, and, in theory, the Supreme Court could look to this history when interpreting our Constitution.

These are longterm, theoretical ideas, but ideas can become reality.

Thank you for being here. If you found this useful to you today, please feel free to share with someone who might appreciate it. And for those who have given tiny bits of feedback at any point, I so appreciate it!

Supreme Court Decision Season Is My Least Favorite Time of Year

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