Let’s compare two rights. One is the “right” to abortion and the other the right to bear arms. A Supreme Court justice concocted one out of thin air in 1973. The other is protected by our 1791 Bill of Rights.
The Court will soon overturn one. Conversely, it would take a constitutional amendment to revoke the other. One denies the most basic right to the most helpless. The other affirms our right to protect ourselves from those who would do us harm.
In a recent interview, Justice Sonia Sotomayor said this: “There are days I get discouraged, there are moments where I am deeply disappointed. Every time I do that, I lick my wounds for a while, sometimes I cry, and then I say: ‘Let’s fight.'”
With respect, Justice Sotomayor, your job is not to fight. It’s to rule on the constitutionality of laws. Fighting for ideology is the job of politicians and activists, not Supreme Court justices. Your branch of government is interpretative and judicial, not legislative—and certainly not activist.
Also, the church and state separation protection is and has always been for protecting the church from the state, not each from the other. Please revisit the text, and this time set aside your ideology as you swore to do when you joined the highest court in the land.
Based on the Court’s recent (and near future) Constitution-affirming rulings, I have even more confidence in the Supreme Court. I suspect that those who lack confidence haven’t read the rulings and weighed them against the Constitution. Or, as in Justice Sotomayor’s case, they’re blinded by their ideology in a culture war.
