With the retiring of Supreme Court Justice (SCJ) Anthony Kennedy, a new era will dawn on the American majority. We proletarians will face a different reality if a new more conservative Supreme Court is seated. Although nominated and seated by the Gipper, Ronald Reagan, SCJ Kennedy more often than not, has been the swing vote that gave us some of the hard fought victories we have today. Likewise he’s also been a thorn in our collective “ask me no questions.” SCJ Kennedy was unanimous confirmed in 1988 in February, over thirty years ago. He has authored the majority opinion in several important cases. Intellectual conservative and pulitzer prize winner, George Will, described Kennedy’s jurisprudence as “libertarian.” A libertarian believes in the doctrine of free will. Libertarians seek to maximize political freedom and autonomy, emphasizing freedom of choice, voluntary association, and individual judgment. Of course not everyone agrees with George, but I’m a liberal and I’m going with it.
Kennedy upheld a restriction on abortion for minors that required both parents to be notified about the procedure and back up Roe v Wade, recognizing the right to abortion under the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. According to court insiders, Kennedy had reportedly considered overturning Roe, but in the end decided to uphold restrictions while affirming the Roe precedent. Roe v. Wade is a landmark decision issued in 1973 by the United States Supreme Court on the issue of the constitutionality of laws that criminalized or restricted access to abortions. The Court ruled 7–2 that a right to privacy under the Due Process Clause of the 14th Amendment extended to a woman’s decision to have an abortion, but that this right must be balanced against the state’s interests in regulating abortions: protecting women’s health and protecting the potentiality of human life. He’s made numerous decisions concerning a woman’s right of choice and while he didn’t vote to overturn Roe v Wade, he did uphold restrictions in other cases and dissenting when someone life was at stake as in Stenberg v. Carhart.
It was Kennedy that help put the guns back on the street in Washington DC. “Yo, give it up, you know what this is!!” He went with the majority this time and in District of Columbia v. Heller, struck down the ban on handguns. However, the ruling does not strike down all forms of gun control, laws requiring firearm registration remain in place, as does the city’s assault weapon ban. Has the removal of the ban affected crime in Chocolate City? As in many major cities, crime remains a significant factor in D.C., especially in the city’s northwestern neighborhoods, which tend to be more affluent, draw more tourists, and have more vibrant nightlife. So now everybody’s got a gun. I feel safer already.
On June 12, 2008, Kennedy wrote the 5–4 majority opinion in Boumediene v. Bush. This case had to due with habeas corpus. This is the constitutional right that says you suppose to be brought in front of a judge to demand your release unless the government can prove they have lawful grounds for your detention. In this case a person from another country was held at a facility in another country by the US. Okay I didn’t want to muddy the waters but it was Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, but the person held was not a Mid Eastern terrorist… suprise!!. Well what happen was SCJ Kennedy delivered the opinion for the 5–4 majority, holding that the prisoners had a right to the writ of habeas corpus under the United States Constitution and that the Military Commissions Act of 2006 was an unconstitutional suspension of that right. The military wasn’t going for it and said the Act’s stated purpose was “to authorize trial by military commission for violations of the law of war, and for other purposes”. Anyway, brakes on and the “a naturalized citizen of Bosnia and Herzegovina,” had the right to been seen in a federal court. Don’t want to go into too much detail here, but they “thought,” the defendants were getting ready to plan an attack against a US embassy. This happened just after 9/11. Presidents Bush’s thought police lock that azz up.
Finally, I have only covered partially the cases SCJ Kennedy has heard. There are far too many cases to mention here in a few paragraphs for a career that spans three decades. Like I said, there are people who will not miss him and now that I’m looking around, there are some more people who won’t miss him. Anyway, I only know that this fundamental shift in the core ideology of the court will not bode well for the majority of us. Hopefully the Democrats can hold up any nomination until after the mid-terms, when we have a chance of gaining a majority in Congress. We all know that our current President has appointed more federal judges to the Appeals court than any previous President in history… during his first term. The Supreme Court is the last line of defense and deserves to be representative of of all Americans and not the ideology of nine old men bent in their ways.
Be the first to comment