Leftists Attack High Court – Democrats Silent

Leftists want to tear down the Supreme Court, be clear about that  It is one of the few high-credibility institutions left in the country. Using abortion as a pivot, a draft Supreme Court opinion was released. That has never happened before – ever.  It is an intolerable violation of trust, ethics, and law.

While the draft opinion in question would reverse Roe v. Wade, allowing states to decide on abortion rights, and permitting their legislatures to ban the killing a sentient child in the womb, this is a bigger issue than abortion.

Yes, judicial conservatives – and other legal scholars who admit skepticism in private – have long known the Roe decision is a legal outlier, a juridical aberration, a decision that asserts grounding in the 9^th and 14^th amendments, but in reality, is without foundation. It was a work of creative minds for politics.

That has been discussed, admitted, punctuated with regret by great legal minds since the decision, not unlike the “separate but equal” decision of a different era, also reversed. While precedent is important for predictability, being right, using sound reasoning, upholding constitutional integrity matters more.

All of this will create fodder around the likely-to-hold reversal of Roe, which will simply return this decision to the place in which most decisions tied to life and death, rights and wrongs belong – state legislatures, which are closest to the people of each state and thus reflect that state’s disposition.

The bigger issue is that the overwhelming body of Democrats in this country, virtually all Democrat Senators, Congressmen, state legislators, the current US cabinet, vice president, president – and former Democrat officeholders – did not condemn the leak, a breach of integrity that undercuts the High Court.

To be clear, decisions come and go. This is an important one, and it will change America in a way that returns us to a more moral, thoughtful, contemplative, and good nation, putting the onus for deciding life and death for a child in the hands of legislatures, until such time as the child is otherwise recognized.

But what has happened is more important than this leaked decision, as important as the decision is. What has happened is that the poetical left, which has taken over the Democrat party, has begun eroding, one might even say bulldozing, the integrity, trust, respect, and high regard for the Court.

They have done this because, at this moment, America is on a swing back toward a non-activist judiciary one that respects the limited role of justices and judges – applying law to facts – in preserving limited government and the integrity of the Constitution. Words matter, and documents do not breathe.

Put differently, the political left is seeking to cut down, undermine the legitimacy of, and make political one of the few institutions left in this country that is not infected by leftist politics, or politics at large. Like the US military, the judiciary is not supposed to be political, but independent of politics.

At the fringes, all mankind and all institutions have an element of politics to them, but an independent judiciary – above the ebb, flow, grime, and tawdry nature of politics – is one of our few guarantors. An independent, respected, trusted, thoughtful, high-integrity federal bench – is vital to preserve liberty.

What has just happened is the first body blow to our independent judiciary, a way of diminishing the decisions, sanctity and solemnity of their reasoning, and the institution itself. This is a warning shot, and one that should cause all to shudder. 

Next come threats to justices, judges, attempts to pack the court with political actors, to bend the rule of law to rule by politics, and destroy the most sober of our federal institutions.

Worse than any aspect of the discussion over ending abortion, is the fact that major leaders of the Democrat Party are not willing to condemn this savaging of the High Court’s place in our society, and its innate, necessary, stability-assuring dignity – by some political leftist.

If there is an echo in the air, it is the echo of silence by those who should be speaking, and the reality – what this means.  The Democrat Party has become the party of leftism, ends justifying means, and if that means tearing down the US Supreme Court, as they have other institutions, so be it.  This is an ominous turn, one that every American – including thoughtful Democrats – should pause and ponder.