For most of my life, I’ve been the sort of person who reads the Declaration of Independence and gets teary-eyed at the ideas expressed by the preamble. I’m aware that the founders fell far short of the notions being embraced; I know very well our history of slavery and vast inequality. Still, the words - and their promise - have rung true to me as powerful aspirations that represent what the United States can become.
My belief in the words of the Declaration have made the last few years especially difficult. A great deal of the problem seems to lie with the Supreme Court and their 2022 decision to cast aside 50 years of precedent and declare that bodily privacy was no longer protected by the Constitution. It’s true that the Constitution did not explicitly declare body privacy. It was document written in the 18th century, when such a notion did not exist. But it’s equally clear that a group of men who would not house soldiers in their private property or permit a search of their homes without sworn warrants clearly understood the notion that a home was private. The human body is the penultimate of home. It houses our soul; the very core of our being. That body should not be regulated by the government with no limits; it cannot be invaded. It took women more than 140 years to gain the right to vote and that struggle is symptomatic of all that women endure in our aspiration for equality. Last year’s invalidation of the right to bodily privacy for women, a ruling that effectively denies certain kinds of medical care to half of the nation, is clearly a decision that puts men squarely back in the driver’s seat when it comes to women’s bodies. It’s inexcusable. I’ve spent the last year frustrated and angry, wondering what other rights marginalized groups might lose.
Last week provided the answer. On Thursday, a majority of the justices of the Supreme Court struck down affirmative action, the 50 year old effort by America’s colleges to correct some of the inequities and injustices wrought by our history of racism and exclusion. That the majority opinion used the 14th Amendment’s guarantee of equal protection under the law to do so is especially appalling. The 14th Amendment is one of three post-Civil War Amendments to the Constitution. The 14th made former enslaved people into American citizens due the “equal protection of the law.” It was added to the Constitution in 1868 but for many years equal protection was merely an unfulfilled promise, as Jim Crow laws and legal, social, and political inequality continued apace. Not until 1954’s Brown v. Board of Education ruling was equal protection under the law applied to Black school children. That opened the door to end the most aggressive forms of de jure inequality and segregation. But de facto inequality continued apace. Affirmative action began to be used in the late 1960s to ensure that historically excluded groups had the opportunity to have a seat at the table of power. It benefitted white women more than it helped people of color and was an imperfect remedy to a nation whose original sin was the protection of slavery while claiming rights to liberty and equality it would not extend to everyone. In her dissent to the ruling which invalidated affirmative action, Justice Kentanji Brown-Jackson said it best, “With let-them-eat-care obliviousness, today, the majority pulls the ripcord and announces “colorblindness for all” by legal fiat. But deeming race irrelevant in law does not make it so in life.”
A day later. the majority on the Supreme Court declared that business owners could discriminate against gay customers because of the business owner’s religious views. This ruling turns a blind eye to state or federal laws which enshrine equal protection under the law as some state governments and the federal government seek to prevent overt discrimination against gay, lesbian, or trans Americans. Coming as it did after the rulings on the right to privacy and affirmative action, it was no surprise.
But that doesn’t mean it’s not a sucker punch…it is, especially in the midst of so many states bent on limiting the rights of trans people to freely live their truth. It also makes it hard for me to get emotional or teary-eyed about the 4th of July and celebrations of independence. Until we recognize that each and every one of us are created equal and are entitled to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, none of us can truly be free. That painful truth is evident every day, but especially today as we celebrate a national independence that is yet incomplete.
No comments:
Post a Comment