I’m confused.
In striking down Roe v. Wade, Justice Samuel Alito wrote, “It is time to heed the Constitution and return the issue of abortion to the people’s elected representatives.” But a day earlier, Justice Clarence Thomas overturned a 103-year-old decision by New York’s elected representatives requiring those seeking “concealed carry” handgun licenses to show “proper cause.”
The court’s conservative majority heeds state and local laws and established precedent when it agrees with them, and opposes law and precedent when it disagrees. (Would that be “judicial activism?”)
As to gun rights, the court earlier dismissed the prefatory “well-regulated militia” clause of the Second Amendment to create a fundamental right to keep arms in the home for self-protection, and now to carry concealed arms without interference by elected representatives.
In overturning Roe v. Wade, the 7-2 decision from 1973, the court thumbed its nose at stare decisis and removed the decision to abort from women and their doctors, giving it, instead, to right-wing elected representatives.
What is next? Will the supermajority decide life begins at insemination, eliminate even more common-sense gun regulation – like permits and licensing – and restrict fundamental First Amendment freedoms of speech, assembly, and the press (but not religious freedom)?
Stay tuned for more “argle bargle.”
David Eccles, North Salt Lake
from The Salt Lake Tribune https://ift.tt/fpoBNb6
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