Original article from: The Independent
After the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the Democratic nominee has the chance to make a bold statement
Joe Biden either believes the premises of his campaign for the presidency, or he does not. Either way, the death of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on Friday gives him an opportunity, as surely as it gives America occasion to mourn a legal giant.
Most people know the stakes: Ginsburg’s death gives President Donald Trump one last chance to name a Justice before an election he’s likely to lose. It gives Republicans one last chance to cement a majority on the court. Which they want desperately, having lost the popular vote in six of the last seven presidential elections. With an electorate now too diverse, educated and liberal on social issues to put many Republicans in the White House, they likely won’t choose another soon.
LEFT VIEWPOINTS
It’s hard to imagine anyone better to fill Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s shoes than Stacey Abrams. Abrams had the Georgia Governor race stolen by Brian Kemp in 2018. The voter suppression that occurred in Georgia is now commonplace in Republican-governed states, thanks to a 2013 Supreme Court decision that undid the Voter Rights Act of 1965.
To learn more about her journey and the history of voter suppression in the United States, watch “All In” on Amazon Prime. The documentary covers the struggles for equal rights and voter rights in America.
As a political strategy, naming Stacy Abrams as a planned Supreme Court Justice would go a long way toward motivating voters across the nation. Whatever Biden decides to do, Democrats must use every tool available to prevent Trump and Republicans from appointing a Court Justice. Desperate times, desperate measures. The consequences of a Republican-appointed Justice are dire and would carry ramifications for many generations. This is about much more than Roe vs. Wade. Much of the systemic racism that has permeated our nation’s history occurred because of several bad, racially-biased Supreme Court decisions.
Dred Scott v. Sanford (1857)
The Court held that African Americans, whether free men or slaves, could not be considered American citizens.
The Civil Rights Cases (1883)
The Supreme Court struck down the Civil Rights Act of 1875. The Court held that enforcement provisions of the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments.
Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)
The Court ruled that “separate but equal” was constitutional. The result of this decision led to decades of Jim Crow laws and the racial inequality we still experience today.
Had the Supreme Court decided cases on the basis of freedom, our country would not have experienced the Civil War, Jim Crow, separate but equal, redlined neighborhoods, or the thousands of lynchings along the way.
The Supreme Court is still broken. The fundamental problem is that the Court gets misused as a tool to take people’s rights away rather than extend and protect rights. This happened recently with Citizens United and Shelby County v. Holder. Supreme Court reform is very much needed if we want to save American Democracy.