New York Times columnist calls originalists 'dangerous,' Supreme Court 'instrument of oppression'
Many on the left, including the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, have argued that Roe v. Wade was decided on faulty legal grounds.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The New York Times published a column calling constitutional originalists "dangerous" and the Supreme Court "an instrument of oppression" on Monday.
"The court is a product of the framers of the Constitution. And, for all their flashes of brilliance, they made some terribly flawed decisions about our government," wrote Times columnist Charles M. Blow.
"That’s why originalists, those who believe that judgments by the court must conform to how the founders understood the Constitution when it was written, are so dangerous," Blow continued.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}ACTIVIST GROUP THREATENS TO ‘BURN EUCHARIST’ IN DISPLAY OF ‘DISGUST’ TOWARD CATHOLICS: ‘BIGOTRY’
A crowd of people gather outside the Supreme Court, Monday night, May 2, 2022 in Washington following reports of a leaked draft opinion by the court overturning Roe v. Wade. (AP Photo/Anna Johnson)
The article, titled "The Supreme Court as an Instrument of Oppression", accused Mitch McConnell of stealing a Court appointment from former President Obama, described former President Trump as a "boor" and claimed, "There are no inviolable rules for those bent on oppression."
Blow also invoked Thurgood Marshall, a Democrat and Supreme Court Justice from the 20th century, to attack the United States Constitution and the Founding Fathers.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"As Marshall would say: ‘I do not believe that the meaning of the Constitution was forever ‘fixed’ at the Philadelphia convention. Nor do I find the wisdom, foresight and sense of justice exhibited by the framers particularly profound,’" Blow quoted.
"To the contrary, the government they devised was defective from the start, requiring several amendments, a Civil War and momentous social transformation to attain the system of constitutional government, and its respect for the individual freedoms and human rights, we hold as fundamental today."
Pro-choice demonstrators rally outside the State House during a Pro-Choice Mother's Day Rally in Boston, Massachusetts on May 8, 2022. - Multiple US organizations that support abortion rights called for nationwide protests on May 14, after a leaked draft opinion showed the US Supreme Court was poised to overturn its landmark Roe v. Wade decision. (Photo by JOSEPH PREZIOSO/AFP via Getty Images)
Blow concluded by asserting that originalists want to "turn the clock back".
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"They know the horrendous history of the court, and they want it to rise again," he said.
Blow’s article is consistent with a trend by some on the left to discredit the Court in the wake of the Roe v. Wade leak.
On Sunday, Washington Post reporter and MSNBC contributor Carol Leonning described the majority who are expected to vote to overturn Roe as the "ultra conservative wing".
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}FLASHBACK: PROGRESSIVE LEGAL EXPERTS CALL ROE V WADE UNCONSTITUTIONALLY ‘INDEFENSIBLE’
"NEW —- Chief Justice Roberts appears to lose the reins. He sought to write moderate opinion upholding 15 week abortion ban, source says, but ultra conservative wing told him they had votes to overturn Roe," she tweeted.
Regardless of one’s views on abortion, there is a consensus that Roe was decided on shaky legal grounds. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was highly critical of Roe, arguing that it was a "heavy-handed judicial intervention [that] was difficult to justify and appears to have provoked, not resolved, conflict."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Protesters at the home of Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito (Fox News Digital)
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Meanwhile, Bloomberg Opinion columnist Clive Crook, argued Roe should be upheld regardless of constitutionality in a recent column titled "Roe v. Wade is a Bad Decision that Ought to Stand."
In recent days, pro-abortion activists have protested at and graffited on churches, firebombed a pro-life organization’s office in Michigan, and even made bomb threats against Catholics. Some of these groups have communist ties.