The United States Supreme Court has certainly been busy over the past several years, rolling back civil rights, undermining established precedent, flouting judicial norms, dodging accountability for sweetheart relationships with wealthy political donors, failing to recuse from cases involving those donors, and undoing long-standing federal initiatives and programs. The justices are undoubtedly exhausted—in the same way that slaughterhouse workers must feel exhausted after a long day at the abattoir.
Since June 2022, they have effectively repealed Roe v. Wade; interfered with reasonable efforts to reduce gun violence; taken a truncheon to long-standing affirmative action policies and programs; blocked student loan forgiveness; struck down voting rights protections; and, very recently, upheld the right of a “Christian” wedding website developer to deny services to gay couples, even though no gay couple had ever requested that she design a wedding website for them—and there is a distinct possibility that she is not actually a web designer at all.
The conservative wing of the Supremes appears to be intent on turning back the hands of time to 1776, when women and Black people were regarded not as people but as property, homosexuals were persecuted, and poor people were afforded neither government assistance nor opportunity.
Following their rollback of Roe, the justices complained that they were being heckled and harassed by protesters outside of their residences—and then they promptly requested government-provided security to keep them safe in their homes.
It is very sad when people with unlimited power and privilege feel frightened by the protesters who assemble outside their homes after they have essentially rescinded a woman’s right to reproductive autonomy. Perhaps, as the justices are nervously peering through the slats of their Venetian blinds and dialing 911 for assistance, they aren’t really thinking about the fact that lots of us, because of their decisions, feel even more frightened than they do:
- Children are terrified to go to school, and their parents are terrified to send them since gun violence is the leading cause of death for school-age children in this country, and neither the members of the GOP nor the members of the court are interested in stopping it.
- By the same token, Jews are terrified to congregate at their synagogues for fear of being butchered by armed neo-Nazis.
- Gay and lesbian couples are terrified that their marriages will be nullified, or that they will be killed by madmen with assault weapons at their local gay nightclub.
- LGBTQ+ people are afraid they will be beaten or shot if they participate in Pride events.
- Trans people are scared of being murdered when they are forced to use the bathrooms corresponding to the gender they were assigned at birth. If you were a trans woman in, say, Mississippi or Montana or Oklahoma, what do you think would happen to you if you were forced to use the men’s bathroom at the local feed store?
- Black Americans are afraid that they will be murdered by police during a routine traffic stop or gunned down at church by a white nationalist.
- “Dreamers” are afraid they will be deported from the only country they have ever known.
- Pregnant women are afraid they will die of complications because they live in states that you have allowed to restrict their access to life-saving abortion care.
- Women seeking reproductive care are afraid when they are harassed, screamed at, and spat upon as they attempt to enter a Planned Parenthood clinic.
- Students of color are afraid that a college education will now be forever out of reach—or consistently beyond their means.
So, Supremes, I’d like to be the first to welcome you to the fold. Join the ranks of the completely terrified. Don’t feel safe either inside or outside of your houses? Citizens in blighted and crime-ridden neighborhoods have been feeling exactly that way for centuries. Feeling frightened of going to the supermarket because there are citizens who would just as soon shoot you as shake your hands? Tell it to the people in Buffalo who were massacred while shopping at their neighborhood grocery store. Afraid of going to a restaurant for fear that someone will insult you while you are dining? Talk to the Black and queer people who are routinely harassed in public places.
The similarity between you and all of the other folks who walk the streets of America fearing for their lives is that they, like you, are the victims of your biases; your bigotry; your religious zealotry; and, in the case of the esteemed Clarence Thomas, your own rage and self-loathing. You’ve made the aforementioned groups far less safe and far less protected because of your despicable rulings, and now because of those rulings, you feel less safe, too. You haven’t just done this to all of us—you’ve done it to yourselves as well.
The difference between you and the millions of people who walk the streets every day in a state of terror is that you can pick up the phone, call a bunch of your buddies in and out of government, and secure instantaneous protection courtesy of the rich folks to whom you pander, or the taxes paid by the citizens you so clearly despise. The citizens paying the price for your profound lack of human decency do not enjoy the same level of protection for themselves.
So the next time you give a speech at a right-wing, black-tie fundraiser and bleat about how afraid you are of the angry Americans who write mean things about you with chalk on the sidewalks in front of your houses, please know that none of us give a damn about your problems, just as you so clearly don’t give a damn about ours.
