Supreme Court
Meanwhile, we are stuck in the muck and mire of a dangerous 10th Amendment, which shores up state’s rights. As a result, you can do many things on one side of a state line that you cannot do if you step across it, whether seeking an abortion or sparking a joint.

Overturn The Supreme Court

– By Ed Kociela –

There was a time when the Circle of Nine, or, as it is better known, the United States Supreme Court, would gather and the discussion would be akin to a faculty meeting at a Jesuit university where the conversation would most certainly be cerebral, curious, and creative like the most progressive order within the Catholic Church that exchanges ideas and ideals in the pursuit of solving major social justice issues.

Instead, we have less than a handful of sniveling waterboys kissing up to Coach Donald Trump for promoting them to the first team.

Unfortunately, there isn’t a Tom Brady in the whole damn bunch.

That’s a shame.

And that is why we could use a few good Jesuits on the bench, now bent on a Stepford ideology demanded by the former president whose stamp of approval gave three of them a job for life paying a handsome $272,200 a year. Only federal employee making more is the president.

I must admit that I would be eternally grateful to somebody who gave me a gig like that, where I could make nearly $300,000 for nine months’ work, plus all I could pocket from public speaking fees, books, and other revenue-generating endeavors. I would like to think I would be able to live up to the requirements of the job without settling political debts, but the truth is I am human, I am weak, and I am poor, so who knows?

That’s why the credibility of the Supreme Court teeters precariously as the toppling of Roe v. Wade opens the door to radical opinions on long-simmering neo-conservative targets including same-sex marriage, contraception, gay rights, racial equality, and, of course, gun control, issues that are also of vast personal importance that are suddenly on the bubble of extinction.

We know the deleterious impact of overturning Roe v. Wade, how, as a result, many will die, many will be anchored to poverty, and many will be saddled with the constant reminder of being forced to bear children born out of rape or incest. There will be the torture of carrying a, basically, dead baby to full term. There will be scars, mentally, physically, and spiritually that will not heal, pain no balm will heal. But, damn it, they will be doing the will of God, Donald Trump, and a religious right that is neither religious nor right. In fact, the Utah Taliban, headquartered in Salt Lake City, had already engineered a trigger law that went into force within a day of the Supreme Court decision that outlaws abortion in the state.

As Mahatma Gandhi said, “I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.”

The real winner here is the preponderance of liars, made increasingly popular since the elevation of Trump to the highest office in the land.

Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, voted to confirm Associate Justices Brett Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch, two of the co-conspirators in tearing down women’s rights on the radically weighted bench.

“This decision is inconsistent with what Justices Gorsuch and Kavanaugh said in their testimony and their meetings with me, where they both were insistent on the importance of supporting long-standing precedents that the country has relied upon,” she said.

But, as we have tragically learned, lies are the new truth, from claims of a rigged election to denials that our former president slept with a porn star and then paid her off to shut her up. Lying has become a part of the American fabric, don’t you know.

We just had a weekend of major protests and demonstrations, all peaceful. There wasn’t a hangman’s noose in sight, nobody defecated on the floor of the U.S. Supreme Court building, and nobody was attacked with bear spray or other weapons.

It was sad but peaceful, emotional yet cerebral as men and women gathered across the nation to express their anger and disgust with the rogue Supreme Court that violated its most important commandment: Thou shalt not make political rulings.

The Court is supposed to remain above the fray as far as politics is concerned. Its decisions are supposed to be based on logic and objectivity. It is supposed to adjudicate without fear or favor.

It has failed miserably and there are few alternatives remaining.

Being of poor character is hardly enough to impeach the entire court, even though a case for a possible conspiracy to pay off a political debt floats near the surface.

Congress can rectify this egregious misrepresentation of law by codifying abortion rights. We will see possible movement in that direction if Democrats start talking about eliminating the filibuster.

Without a constitutional amendment, Congress could vote to expand the size of the Court. All it would require is a simple majority in both the House and Senate. It is a very doable course, but it could result in long-term political penalties.

Meanwhile, we are stuck in the muck and mire of a dangerous 10th Amendment, which shores up state’s rights. As a result, you can do many things on one side of a state line that you cannot do if you step across it, whether seeking an abortion or sparking a joint. The 10th Amendment is one of those wicked passages that stir more trouble than it is worth. It was the underscoring justification for the South declaring war on the North in defense of slavery. It negates the whole “one nation, under God, indivisible” tract in our so-called pledge. State rights are designed to divide different regions politically, lawfully, and culturally. Otherwise, there would be a lot more places in Southern Utah to sip a Jack Daniels neat.

Ultimately, the best way to stop this anti-American cabal that sits on the bench is to do so at the ballot box where we can elect officials not afraid to codify sensible law that enhances the quality of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for all instead of only for a chosen few with political influence and the money to circumvent the faux religiosity of a Supreme Court corrupted by three appointees of the greatest deterrent to individual freedom.


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Ed Kociela
Ed Kociela has won numerous awards from the Associated Press and Society of Professional Journalists. He now works as a freelance writer based alternately in St. George and on The Baja in Mexico. His career includes newspaper, magazine, and broadcast experience as a sportswriter, rock critic, news reporter, columnist, and essayist. His novels, "plygs" and "plygs2" about the history of polygamy along the Utah-Arizona state line, are available from online booksellers. His play, "Downwinders," was one of only three presented for a series of readings by the Utah Shakespeare Festival's New American Playwright series in 2005. He has written two screenplays and has begun working on his third novel. You can usually find him hand-in-hand with his beloved wife, Cara, his muse and trusted sounding board.

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