***Ronald Reagan:”We establish no religion in this country, we command no worship, we mandate no belief, nor will we ever. Church and state are, must remain, separate. All are free to believe or not believe..our Constitution..protects the free exercise of all religions..this fine line requires government to be neutral.”
I. The political “pro-life” agenda is, without doubt, THE single most un-American, un-Constitutional effort in American history. It is a gross violation of basic American principles. Mandatory motherhood?????
***Isaac Backus [1781]: “As religion must always be a matter between God and individuals, no man can be made a member of a truly religious society by force or without his consent, neither can any corporation that is not a religious society have a just right to govern religious affairs.”
II. Anti-abortionism is Nazi law brought to America. See Himmler’s January l6, 1937 radio broadcast on the two “abominations” he planned to eradicate. See official German 1933-1945 law on abortion and homosexuality. See Nazi theology on the role of women. See Auschwitz inmate badges: purple for Jehovah’s Witnesses, pink for homosexuals, yellow for Jews [plus red, green, black badges for other “undesirables”]
***Justice Brandeis [Olmstead]: “the most important 4th Amendment point was the spirit behind the Amendment, which was to ensure privacy: “The makers of our Constitution undertook..to protect Americans in their beliefs, their thoughts, their emotions, and their senses. They conferred, as against the Government, the RIGHT TO BE LET ALONE – the most comprehensive of rights and THE right most valued by civilized men..The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in the insidious encroachments by men of zeal, well-meaning, but without understanding.”
III. Alito as bad historian, I: “Roe was egregiously wrong from the start. Its reasoning was exceptionally weak, and the decision has had damaging consequences.” This IS a description of the McConnell/Roberts “court” history from day 1. From cruelty to corruption, McConnell/Roberts decisions range from “Ledbetter,” to “Heller,” to “Citizens United,’ to “Shelby County,” to “Hobby Lobby,” to “Janus,” to “Espinoza.” America is factually less safe, less fair, less honest, less just because of the McConnell/Roberts “court.” In future law classes, these will be held up as examples of “exceptionally weak” reasoning and violations of basic American principles [as some are NOW].
***Randall Terry: “Our goal is a Christian nation. We have a biblical duty..are called by God to conquer this country. We don’t want equal time..don’t want pluralism.”
IV. Alito as bad historian, II” “The Constitution makes no reference to abortion, and no such right is implicitly protected by any constitutional provision.”
A]. the Constitution doesn’t contain “corporation,” yet, since 1886, the “supreme court” has GIVEN corporations many [false] “rights.”
B]. the Constitution doesn’t mention checks or balances, or separation of powers, or co-equal branches, or states’ rights, or many other American rights – yet they exist.
C]. sex is not in the Constitution. Are Americans not entitled to have sex because its not in the Constitution?
d]. “women” are not in the Constitution. Is Alito confirming what other right-wing authoritarians have said: keep women “in their place” [barefoot, pregnant, in the kitchen]???
***George Washington: “Government, being among other purposes, instituted to protect the consciences of men from oppression, it is certainly the duty of Rulers, not only to abstain from it themselves, but according to their stations, to prevent it in others.”
V. In 1692 Salem, 19 innocent people were executed. All but one among prosecutors was a minister. The 164l Massachusetts legal code was based on three books from the Christian Bible: Exodus, Leviticus, Deuteronomy.. The three top capital crimes: idolatry, witchcraft, blasphemy.
***Paul Weyrich: “..it is war. It is a war of ideology..a war of ideas..a war of our way of life..to be fought with the same intensity and dedication as..a shooting war..” [1981]
VI. Alito as bad historian, III; “The inescapable conclusion is that a right of abortion is not deeply rooted in the nation’s history and traditions.”
A]. Amendment IV: “The right of the people to be secure in their persons…”
B]. Amendment IX: “The enumeration in the Constitution of certain rights shall not be construed to deny or disparge others retained by the people.”
C]. James Madison [1792]: essay on ‘property’: the “larger and juster meaning” of the term. It “embraces every thing to which a man may attach value and have a right”. in the broader sense it meant that “a man has property, in his opinions..property very dear to him in the safety and liberty of his person..in the free use of his faculties..In a word..he may actually said to have a property in his rights.”
D]. Amendment III: “No soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house…” Constitutional scholar Amar: “…this amendment was, even at the Founding, understood as connected to sexual privacy issues..colonists expressing hostility to Parliament’s Quartering Act placing soldiers “abed” with America’s “Wives and Daughters.”
***Robert Jeffress, pastor, First Baptist Church of Dallas, has called gays “miserable,” “filthy,” “degrading.” “What a lot of people miss is, America is not a church where everyone should be welcome regardless of race and background.” “Islam is wrong. It is a heresy from the pit of hell. Judaism – you can’t be saved being a Jew.” In a 2011 sermon, he called the Catholic Church a corrupt version of Christianity that sprang from ancient Babylonian cults.
VII. Christian fundamentalists , 1774-1802, presented petitions to the Virginia General Assembly that to require a person to support even the religion of his choice denied him his freedom of choice and his right to religious liberty; Virginia evangelicals [1776] demanded separation of church and state; Baptist preacher John Leland advocated radical separation of church and state, and rejected the idea America was a Christian nation; 1785 Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom: to compel anyone to support religious opinions hi did not share was tyrannical.
***Pat Robertson: “You say you’re supposed to be nice to Episcopalians and the Presbyterians and the Methodists and this, that and the other thing. Nonsense. I don’t have to be nice to the spirit of the Antichrist.” [700 Club]
VIII. Alito as bad historian, IV: [..”abortion not deeply rooted in history and tradition..”]
A] During the 14th Amendment debates, John Bingham and allies expressly declared on the floor of Congress, they envisioned overturning “Barron,” and creating a reconstructed America in which basic rights of expression, religion, property, privacy and fairness promised against the federal government would apply with equal force against states.
B] In “Meyer,” the Court said liberty must include “the right of the individual to contract, to engage in any of the common occupations of life, to acquire knowledge, to marry, to establish a home and bring up children..”
C] In “Katz,” the Court held the 4th Amendment could apply even f no technical property-rights had been violated. Justice Harlan: the ket 4th Amendment issue was whether the government had violated a person’s “reasonable expectations to privacy.”
D]. In “Poe,” Justice Harlan stated a law making it criminal for married couples to use contraceptives is “an intolerable and unjustifiable invasion of privacy in the conduct of the most intimate concerns of an individual’s personal life.” The Constitution protects not only rights expressly specified..but all rights “which are fundamental; which belong..to the citizens of all free governments.”
E]. In “Griswold,” Justice Douglas said a general “right to privacy” could be found ‘nestled between the lines of the Bill of Rights.” Griswold invalidated a Connecticut criminal law prohibiting the use of birth control. A fundamentalist church worked behind the scenes for years to maintain that Connecticut law – and requested the public not know this.
F] In “Baird,” Justice Brennan said: “if the right to privacy means anything, it is the right of an individual, married or single, to be free from the unwarranted government intrusion into matters so fundamentally affecting a person as the decision whether to bear or begat a child.”
***Barry Goldwater [1991]: “Religious factions will go on imposing their will on others unless the decent people connected to them recognize religion has no place in public policy. They must learn to make their views known without trying to make their views the only alternative.”
iIX. Christian Reconstructionists envision a society where government posts would be reserved for the righteous, as long as they are male. There would be thousands of executions yearly, with stoning preferred because it would turn deaths into “community projects.” Sinners marked for death would include adulterous women or lying about virginity, blasphemers, witches, children who strike parents, and gay men. Eliminated; unions, Social Security, public schools, unemployment benefits, environmental laws, secular government.
***Republicans on Rape”. “If a woman has [the right to an abortion], why shouldn’t a man be free to use his superior strength to force himself on a woman? At least the rapist’s pursuit of sexual freedom doesn’t [in most cases] result in anyone’s death.” [Lawrence Lockman; R-ME}
X. Alito as bad historian, V: {no abortion rights in USA history or tradition}
A]. 1923 and 1925 Supreme Court rulings on parental rights. [only some parental rights???]
B}. landmark 1942 “Skinner” case: the right to reproduce “one of the basic civil rights of man”
C]. 1952, Supreme Court invalidated stomach pumping for evidence; 1985, Supreme Court invalidated surgical removal of a bullet lodged in a suspect’s shoulder [limits on gov’t’s ability to invade a person’s body]
D]. overturning “Roe” would violate a woman’s “equal protection of laws 14th Amendment rights – because only women are affected [ no men are denied medical procedures of similar nature]
***Republicans on Rape” “Even when life begins in that horrible situation of rape, that is something that God intended to happen.” [Richard Mourdock – R-TX]
XI. “When Religion Becomes Evil,’ by Charles Kimball, poses “The Five Warning Signs of Corruption in Religion:” absolute truth claims, blind obedience, establishing the “Ideal” time, the end justifies any means, declaring holy war.
Public evidence shows YOU that the far religious right zealots pushing the “pro-life” agenda have already crossed many of the above “red lines.” Kimball states [121] that U.S. reconstructionists are only one step removed from their counterparts with plans for n Islamic state.
***Jerry Falwell: “I hope to see the day when as i the early days of our country, we won’t have any public schools. The churches will have taken them over and Christians will be running them..We must never allow our children to forget that this is a Christian nation. We must take back what is rightfully ours.”
XII> “When does Human Life Begin?” – Arthur Caplan [Aug/Sept, 2014; Free Inquiry]: those arguing for embryo “personhood” “fail to acknowledge..that conception does not always create an embryo life, much less a baby. In fact, it usually does not…The biggest empirical problem is the scientific fact that a large percentage of embryos lack the capacity, under any circumstances to become human beings. During that period of embryonic development…’…….’preimplantation development’ – up to 50% of human conceptions fail to survive..many embryos that. result from conception – indeed the majority of them – lack the capacity to become living human beings…Science and medicine know this..To argue that personhood begins at conception is to reach for a moral stance that the facts simply do not support..When a fetus has developed a brain that can support its basic biological functions, probably around 6 months of life, it can be reasonably argued that personhood has begun.”
***Pat Robertson: “The Constitution..is a marvelous document for self-government by Christian people. But the minute you turn the document into the hands of non-Christian people and atheist people, they can use it to destroy the very foundations of our society.”
XIII. Where does it all end? Alito’s language opens the door to bans on forms of birth control [pill & IUD] that prevent implementation of fertilized eggs – because this might not “..serve legitimate state interests.” It could lead to using biometric monitoring to police pregnancies, where women are held criminally liable for miscarriage and stillbirth – prosecution which has ALREADY occurred.
“A study by the National Advocates for Pregnant Women documented 413 cases between 1973..and 2005 in which pregnant women were detained or their autonomy was severely limited by authorities, including arrests, forced medical intervention and forced detention in hospitals.” [Laura Harrison, 7/14/19; Wash. Post]
***Ralph Reed: “What Christians have to do is to take back the country..I honestly believe that in my lifetime we will see a country once again governed by Christians..and Christian values.”
XIV. “When Your Rapist Demands Custody” – Michaela Haas [Sept/Oct, 2019; Mother Jones]: 12-year-old Tiffany was raped by an 18-year-old, made pregnant. He raped another young girl, got 5-15 years in prison. Tiffany dropped out of school, “stayed afloat working odd jobs.” When Tiffany applied for state assistance in 2017, the male judge without looking at circumstances, granted Tiffany’s rapist joint custody and ordered her to live within 100 miles of him, give him her address, ordered her son’s birth certificate to have the rapist’s name added.
This also happened to 18-year-old Noemi, raped by a co-worker. A prosecutor and judge allowed him to plead down to 3rd degree sexual assault. She got a restraining order against him, but when she applied for Medicaid, the state contacted the perp – who demanded visitation rights, which a court granted. Every other week Noemi is forced to leave her 7-year-old daughter with the rapist for the weekend. What could possibly go wrong????????????????????
1/3 f states allow this. Co-parenting with your rapist means you get to relive the rape repeatedly – and all the PTSD, depression, fear, anxiety, unable to work that come with that. “Serving the interest of the state”???????
***Republicans on Rape”. “Rape victims should make the best of a bad situation.” [Rick Santorum; R-PA]
XV. Invalidating “Roe” threatens an entire chain of Supreme Court rulings and basic American principles. American history and tradition show deference to individuals making their own, private, decisions about the most private of all human actions. Letting politicians interfere violates ALL American history.
If YOU can’t control YOUR sex life – YOU have NO rights – the “state owns you [Nazi Germany, Russia].
What could be more un-American than that????
P.S. #1: There are two other “religious liberty” cases awaiting June decision by the McConnell/Roberts ‘supreme court.” One would allow public prayer on the50-yard line of high school football games. The third would take the unique rural Maine school case and generalize to ALL 13,800 American public school districts – FORCING taxpayers to subsidize private religious schools [that they might not attend]. A major right-wing “wish list” helper.
The Founding Fathers worked against this. See 1776-1800 state constitutions for VERY EXPLICIT language – my favorite is the 1776 North Carolina constitution, Articles XXXIV.
If the McConnell/Roberts ‘court’ rules “as expected” [why is that said?] – there aren’t many more McConnell/Roberts decisions necessary to create the theocratic plutocracy the far right has planned for, funded, demanded.
P.S. #2. Does it strike you, being a “reasonable person” – that 5 people, all raised in the same fundamentalist church, will now get to make law that church’s official position on abortion [and other things, some of which they’ve ALREADY done] as being just a little suspicious??? Might you, being a “reasonable person” begin to think this whole chain of events had been choreographed – like the entire thing was on a “conveyor belt?”
Might a “reasonable person” think this was all just too convenient; that just maybe “justice’ had been rigged???
P.S. #3 Might YOU, as a “reasonable person” be inclined to think that the unauthorized expose of the McConnell/Roberts plans is the REAL reason for anger? That now too many [332 million] people know what was supposed to be an unstopable surprise? Might a “reasonable person” think that just maybe whomever revealed the plans is not a villain, but a hero?
Is it time for the 5 reactionary “justices’ to resign – in disgrace – for the mockery of justice that was attempted here? Is it also time for certain “Senators’ to resign – in disgrace – for the mockery of procedure and lawmaking they’ve perpetrated? How many crimes are greater than trashing the Supreme Court? Well, perhaps planning a coup – like January 6, 2021???
How many ways does a “reasonable person” spell ‘treason?”
P.S. #4 – Does it strike YOU funny/sad, that both Canada and Mexico have legalized abortion – and America, the home of modern democracy – is now going the way of a repressive reactionary theocracy?
Isn’t there something rotten here??? Something really un-American
How tragic, the McConnell/Roberts ‘court’ has brought the policies of Hitler and Stalin here.
OR – is it the return of the policies of the Puritans?
When do the public executions begin?
Are they free, or do we need tickets?
Tickets will be sold at the “right’ churches!!!!!!
Praise be.
With Justice For All 