Roe dies

With the death of Roe v. Wade, the reactionaries who call the Republican Party home have launched two campaigns. One is to extend the prohibition of abortion nationwide, as articulated by former Vice President Pence. Much more ominous is the view of Justice Clarence Thomas who in his concurring opinion on Roe suggested that other rights established by precedent should be revisited. Overturning Roe means that anything is possible - no rights are safe. 

Specifically, Justice Thomas questions the validity of the decision in Griswold vs Connecticut which buttressed the right of privacy and decriminalized contraception. The same is true of Lawrence v. Texas which threw out the states sodomy laws that prohibited same sex sexual relations. Another is Obergefell v. Hodges that recognize the legality of  same sex marriage nationwide. 

Notably absent from Justice Thomas hit list is Loving v. Virginia, the 1967 case that legalized interracial marriage. Little is said aloud about Thomas’ own interracial marriage which enjoys legitimacy thanks to the Loving decision. 

As with Roe, neither Loving, Griswold, Lawrence, or Obergefell are found to have direct reference or support in the U.S. Constitution. At present, the originalists hold sway in the Supreme Court. That is, if it ain’t in the Constitution, it ain’t a right. The problem is that the originalists are stuck in time. The founding fathers did alright for their time, but how were they to know what was possible and what would emerge more than two centuries in the future. The originalist have bound an evolving culture to the eighteenth century. They are out of date.