by Coco Das
Today’s Supreme Court rulings should make us cast aside all illusions that there is a way out of this fascist nightmare through “checks and balances” from the judicial branch.
First, the court upheld the Texas voting maps, reversing lower court rulings that found evidence of racial discrimination and violations of the Voting Rights Act. In a dissenting opinion, Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote, “…after years of litigation and undeniable proof of intentional discrimination, minority voters in Texas — despite constituting a majority of the population within the state — will continue to be underrepresented in the political process.”
In another ruling, the court sided with Christian fascists, absurdly through the first amendment, by striking down a California law that would require so-called “Crisis Pregnancy Centers” to disclose if they are not medically licensed and inform women about affordable abortion and contraception services provided by the state. This is a huge loss for women’s reproductive rights. These clinics exist to coerce women and girls to bear children against their will, lying to them and stalling them until it is often too late for them to seek an abortion.
Finally, the court upheld the third version of Trump’s travel ban barring entry INDEFINITELY from several predominantly Muslim countries as well as Venezuela and North Korea.
When Trump first issued his Muslim travel ban through an executive order in January 2017, waves of determined protests disrupted a smooth roll-out of the policy. It was challenged in lower courts, revised, and largely put into effect with virtually no opposition. People who were justifiably outraged when the first Muslim ban was issued were lulled into believing that the courts would intervene on the side of justice.
But this is a fascist regime, changing all the rules of the game, remaking the courts, stealing a Supreme Court seat, and advancing their heartless “America First” program of white supremacy, xenophobia, and Christian theocracy. The people who are affected by this ban are full human beings who are trying to live their lives, be with their families, and survive.
It is high time to cast aside illusions about the normal channels being a way out of this mess. SCOTUS has declared that it does not care about voting rights. It is time to take the fight for abortion rights back into the streets. And we never should have stopped protesting the Muslim bans, versions I, II, and III, which is now the law of the land.