SCOTUS Unleashes the Left’s Outrage

Written by Robert Knight

You know it’s a good sign when President Joe Biden and lefty celebrities go bat crazy.

At a press conference in Spain, Mr. Biden trashed the U.S. Supreme Court as “destabilizing” because of its “outrageous” rulings on abortion and guns. He pledged to do an end-run on the U.S. Senate filibuster to pass a national abortion bill.

On June 24, a 6-3 court majority overturned Roe v. Wade in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. Pro-lifers celebrated with prayers of thanks. Leftists like Mr. Biden were apoplectic. Some promised revenge while winking at violence against churches, crisis pregnancy centers and pro-life groups.

During a concert in England, singer Phoebe Bridgers led the crowd in an F-word-laced chant against the court and also America, her home country. I think she was hugged on stage by the grinning ghost of George III.

Not to be outdone, Green Day frontman Billie Joe Armstrong likewise deployed the F-word against America and renounced his U.S. citizenship. After all, what’s a tomcat to do if “abortion care” is unavailable?

Anyway, if the bumper sticker “America: Love It or Leave It” ever achieved perfect pitch, it’s now. See you, Billie Joe, and don’t let the door hit you on the butt.

Along with Dobbs, the court issued three more rulings that set the woke mob’s hair afire.

In Kennedy v. Bremerton School District, a 6-3 majority opinion written by Justice Neil M. Gorsuch upheld the First Amendment’s Free Speech and Free Exercise Clauses, verifying Washington state high school football coach Joe Kennedy’s right to pray on the 50-yard line after games. He had lost his job over it.

The court struck down a New York law that made getting a concealed carry permit extremely difficult (New York State Rifle & Pistol Association, Inc. v. Bruen). Justice Clarence Thomas’ majority 6-3 opinion thus extended their 2008 Heller ruling that the U.S. Constitution protects individual gun ownership.

Finally, a 6-3 ruling by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. smacked the Environmental Protection Agency in the chops. Congress, not the EPA, has the power to create carbon emission limits on existing power plants, the court said in West Virginia v. the Environmental Protection Agency. This is huge. It may well signal a rollback of vast powers unconstitutionally seized by unelected bureaucrats.

Earlier, the court struck down Mr. Biden’s unconstitutional eviction moratoriums and vaccine mandates.

The Democrat-appointed justices dissented in all of these cited cases. Anyone who still thinks elections aren’t important needs to rethink.

The recent court has not always been on the right side of things. In June 2015, their 5-4 Obergefell v. Hodges ruling created out of thin air a “constitutional right” to same-sex marriage. In June 2020, they minted new civil rights based on “sexual orientation” and “gender identify” in Bostock v. Clayton County. The opinion by Justice Gorsuch and joined by Justice Roberts unleashed transgender mania and has greatly empowered LGBTQ activists bent on criminalizing dissent.

As for this 2021-22 session, the court in Carson v. Makin struck down a Maine tuition program that discriminated against religious schools. They also ruled 5-4 that the Biden administration can repeal the Trump administration’s “Remain in Mexico” policy, which said migrants must wait in Mexico for asylum hearings. Justice Roberts wrote the opinion, joined by Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh and the court’s three left-wingers.

Luckily, there’s not much going on at the border, just hundreds of thousands crossing illegally, migrants dying by the dozens and more caravans on the way.

Regrettably, the court declined to hear a defamation lawsuit filed by D. James Kennedy Ministries against the Southern Poverty Law Center. The Fort Lauderdale-based ministry is on the SPLC’s “hate map,” which corporations like Amazon use to determine donation eligibility. The damage is real.

The hate map includes other Christian organizations like the Family Research Council, whose D.C. headquarters was attacked in 2013 by a gay gunman intent on mass murder. Convicted of terrorism, he told police that the SPLC’s hate map motivated him.

I have a theory about why the court ducked this one. Having enraged the left over abortion, religious liberty, gun rights and environmentalism, they decided not to kick the LGBTQ hornet nest.

Whatever, the Dobbs ruling alone was monumental and long overdue. Unlike in the Mexico case, Justice Roberts came down on the right side (as he did in Obergefell), although he issued a squirrelly concurrence in Dobbs. The court is not really 6-3 conservative, just some of the time, with the chief justice as the swing vote.

As Yogi Berra said of a fellow player, “He hits from both sides of the plate. He’s amphibious.”

Still, Justice Roberts got it mostly right on Dobbs. And Roe is history. Hence, the left’s screaming fits.

Robert Knight is a former Los Angeles Times news editor and writer and was a Media Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. This column was originally published by The Washington Times.

He has been published by the Wall Street Journal, National Review, the Christian Post, AmericanThinker.com, DailyCaller.com, Townhall.com, OneNewsNow.com and many others.  He has co-authored three books and written 10, including “Liberty on the Brink: How the Left Plans to Steal Your Vote” (D. James Kennedy Ministries, 2020) and “The Coming Communist Wave: What Happens If the Left Captures All Three Branches of Government” (D. James Kennedy Ministries, 2020) . 

You can follow him on Twitter at @RobertKnight17, and his website is roberthknight.com.