On October 2, 1967, Chief Justice Earl Warren swore in Thurgood Marshall as the first black justice on the Supreme Court. Marshall, nominated to the court by President Lyndon Baines Johnson, was a towering figure in the battle for civil rights.
During his 24 years on the high court, Associate Justice Marshall consistently challenged discrimination based on race or sex, opposed the death penalty, and vehemently defended affirmative action. He supported the rights of criminal defendants and defended the right to privacy.
Marshall is one of my heroes. Here’s what I wrote on the anniversary of his Senate confirmation:
Thinking about Thurgood Marshall's impact means also pondering the future of SCOTUS. There's a pressing need for us to ensure that his legacy, and the legacies of other important liberal justices, will not be undone.
Clarence Thomas, his faux “replacement” on the court, was nominated by President George H.W. Bush. Thomas is anathema to anyone who cares about civil liberties, justice, and equality for our citizenry. It is the ultimate irony that Marshall’s replacement in skin color—but not in brain power or integrity—recently authored the majority opinion that would erode yet another constitutional right, continuing the Republican dismantling of the Bill of Rights and our hard-won constitutional protections. I’m talking about “stop and frisk,” which Republican presidential candidate and bigot Donald Trump has been touting loudly (and wrongly), backed by a braying chorus of politicians like Rudy Giuliani and a slew of Fox News babbling heads.
For those of my brethren and sistren who are in the streets and on the front lines in the battle for justice, it is key to understand that any progress we make in our movements and protests has to be cemented by laws, and those laws will be maintained and validated (or erased and gutted) by the highest court in the land. Right now, there are three women on that court. Justices Ginsburg, Sotomayor, and Kagan are holding the fort—under siege—until we can elect a president who will send in backup. We cannot depend on the vagaries of a current “fourth” who joins them in decisions in some instances, and abandons them in others. Daily Kos’ senior political writer Joan McCarter has been documenting the Supreme Court vacancy watch since the death of Justice Antonin Scalia.
Until we can seat a new justice, there will be little or no justice from on high and most assuredly, no peace.
from Daily Kos http://ift.tt/2cKcGua
0 التعليقات:
Post a Comment