The Supreme Court’s Redistribution of Rights

It’s almost unfathomable to me what the Supreme Court has done to us in the last 15 years, but we all should have seen it coming.

I of course recognize the horrors that can be found in the first 221 years of the high court, but let’s just think about the damage done in the more recent past. In 2010, Citizens united guaranteed protections for dark money in politics, allowing them to maintain their conservative majority through minority rule.

Then in 2013 they gutted the voting rights act, effectively ending the pre-clearance requirement for states and localities with a history of racially discriminatory voter suppression to submit changes in election law to the Department of Justice. That shored up their stranglehold on power. They decimated what remained of the Voting Rights Act in 2021 when they gutted Section 2 in Brnovich which effectively requires officials to admit they’re being racist when they dream up laws that restrict voting. Now they can simply say they’re “preventing fraud” to avoid the scrutiny of the Voting Rights Act.

Then in June 2016, they - effectively rendered bribery laws against elected officials useless by requiring explicit quid pro quos. Not to mention the fact they ruled that bribes accepted after the fact are actually gratuities - ensuring they themselves couldn’t be held accountable for all the dark money they were paid to render favorable decisions to the rich and politically well-connected.

Then the Supreme Court took our bodily autonomy in 2022, implying that the right to privacy doesn’t exist - the implied silent protection of the Constitution upon which the Bill of Rights and the 14th Amendment rely.

In 2024, they narrowed the obstructing an official proceeding statute to require the involvement of documents in an attempt to kneecap prosecutions involving riots that disrupt the counting of electoral votes. They also decided that Section 3 of the 14th Amendment doesn’t apply to federal officers - so the president gets to stay on the ballot even if they participate in insurrection or rebellion.

Then the Supreme Court basically turned the foundation of the constitution on its head that same year by granting the president immunity - placing him above the law. That ruling effectively ended the January 6th case against him that was set to go to trial in March of 2024. But at least in that case, the Supreme Court had full briefing and oral arguments - unlike what they did last week by using the emergency docket to create a loophole for the president to deport people without due process.

So they allowed dark money to fund elections to achieve minority rule, made it harder for the majority party to vote, stripped the bribery laws making it harder for the resulting corrupt electeds to be held accountable, called bribes “gratuities”, removed choice for women, narrowed laws against insurrection, and crowned the president king. And now, they have granted him vague permission to exile his political enemies to foreign shores without a single check on his power. They’ve disenfranchised the marginalized while making it easier for the corrupt to commit crimes. The gap between the two tiers of justice is growing as fast as the gap between the ultra-wealthy and the rest of us.

Like the redistribution of wealth, it’s the redistribution of rights. Trickle-down due process. But instead of it trickling down, the ruling party is reinvesting in their power with the judicial equivalent of stock buybacks. They’re throwing their dark money into the courts and the congress and the media so they can buttress their grip on power.

I know folks are saying Trump is defying a Supreme Court order by refusing to bring Abrego Garcia home, but it seems more like Trump is gobbling up the 15 years of loopholes they’ve created for him to become a dictator. It’s true that the Supreme Court said he should facilitate Garcia’s return from the torture prison in El Salvador, but they also left the definition of it up for debate - adding that the lower court must show due regard and deference for his total power in the realm of foreign affairs.

It’s no accident that Pam Bondi, Stephen Miller and Trump himself are continuing to use that language over and over again as they refuse to return the innocent Maryland father to his family. That language was a gift from the high court for Trump to exploit. And if the Supreme Court decides that Trump has done all he can to “facilitate” the return, then he will not be in defiance of the order - but rather in lockstep with what the corrupt court has been more than happy to help create.

The only thing that’s being “facilitated” and “effectuated” is the end of democracy.

It’s time to take our power back. No one is going to do it for us.

~AG

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