The Supreme Court Super Week ended with the fulfillment of the Liberals ’worst fears. The policies of the Conservative majority jury on abortion rights, the right to bear arms and the funding of religious schools fought against the justice of the majority of the people, writes ‘s US correspondent Iida Tikka.
WASHINGTON The U.S. Supreme Court has had quite a week behind it.
On Tuesday, a federal court ruled that states could in future direct public funding to religious schools. Liberals around the country roared.
On Thursday, the Supreme Court ruled that New York’s 100-year-old law restricting the carrying of weapons in public places is unconstitutional. Citizens who begged for new gun laws were horrified.
And then on Friday it finally happened: the Supreme Court issued a decision that revolutionized the country overnight. The jury overturned the 5-4 national abortion law 50-year-old precedent in Roe v Waden.
Abortions became illegal in one fell swoop In 13 states where so-called trigger laws came into effect immediately and banned all abortions.
It makes the situation insane also the fact that on Thursday the Supreme Court made a policy on gun laws that seems inconsistent with the policy on abortion.
The Supreme Court ruled that a citizen has the right to carry a handgun for self-defense purposes. In practice, this means that states have less power to regulate weapons, and laws restricting the carrying of weapons around the country are at stake.
At the same time, gun violence in the United States has been on the rise since the beginning of the pandemic and is already hovering in its peak in the 1990s in many cities. Guns are the leading cause of death for American children – the same children whose right to birth is defended by opponents of abortion.
The people have in the past called for stricter arms laws. Following the high-profile Uvalde school shootout and the racist attack in Buffalo in recent weeks, Congress has promoted a new gun law package, the first new national gun law in decades to materialize. However, the decision of the Supreme Court is more significant than the small restrictions of Congress.
Many Americans are asking nowwhich is the logic of the Supreme Court.
Nonetheless, decisions on disarmament and abortion have their logic: they are united by a literal interpretation of the Constitution.
Conservative judges base the decision on the fact that Roe v. Wade had been decided on grossly wrong grounds, and the constitution does not guarantee the right to abortion. In reality, the same is true of many other courts. In the past, these rights have rested on the interpretation of the spirit of the Constitution.
The right to bear arms is enshrined in the Second Appendix to the Constitution. It speaks of the right of both regulated militias and citizens to bear arms. Admittedly, in a Supreme Court ruling ten years ago, judges outlined that while a citizen has the right to carry a gun, states also have the right to regulate the right to carry a gun within reason. Now that right seems to be almost gone.
The decisions are therefore, on a literal interpretation, are consistent. Yet their relationship to U.S. federal law seems contradictory to many.
Opponents of national abortion laws argue that the power to enact abortion laws lies with the states. In several states, those who oppose abortion are the clear majority who can now finally decide on the scope of the laws thanks to the Supreme Court.
In the U.S. legal system, however, court decisions are literally justified, and the Supreme Court is to interpret at national level only the exercise of constitutional rights.
The decisions may seem undemocratic because in the U.S. political system, judges are appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate. Therefore, the political selection process for judges reflects the shortcomings of democracy throughout the United States.
Both the electoral system of the presidential election and the composition of the Senate give unequal power to voters living in different states. For example, 39 million Americans in Democratic California and half a million in conservative Wyoming have the same number of representatives in the Senate.
It remains to be seen whether frustration with the Supreme Court will get Democratic voters to the polls in next fall’s by-elections, or whether Republicans will also take over Congress.
The case was changed on June 24, 2022 at 10:50 pm: The judges overturned the pre-abortion case by a vote of 5-4, not 6-3.