The Supreme Court has lost reason and legitimacy. How can it be right that for abortion, states’ rights to make restrictions trump longstanding precedent, yet for guns, states’ rights to make safety laws are threatened by the court?

Abortion is not mentioned in the Constitution, so the justices want state-level bans. But assault weapons, also not mentioned, cannot be restricted by the states. This makes no sense. According to a medieval maxim, the law has a nose of wax. Recent Supreme Court decisions treat the law as a wax nose, pulling it hither and thither as Trump’s appointees wish.

This is capricious and incoherent jurisprudence from justices selected by a scofflaw president (who lost the popular vote) and confirmed by the capricious “make it up as you go along” measures of Senate Minority Leader McConnell. He singlehandedly changed the court’s size when he denied Merrick Garland a hearing. If McConnell’s rule is applied, Coney Barrett should not be seated. If his rule is rejected, Gorsuch should not have accepted his seat. Three of the justices misled the Senate at their confirmations. Two seated justices are credibly accused of sexual harassment and worse. Justice Thomas’s refusal to recuse himself over Jan. 6 stinks of corruption.

The highest court is now a partisan agent of right-wing white Christian extremism, profit over people, wand misogyny. Its decisions defy reason and endanger women, life on planet earth, and the future of our democracy. Sen. Collins, Sen. King and Rep. Golden must fix the court. Start by impeaching Clarence Thomas.

Mary Garrison
Lewiston

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