Recent SCOTUS decisions have boosted morale among liberty-conscious conservatives, but the Empire aways strikes back. Let's consider what these events mean, and what must be done to solidify resistance and exploit success.
Donald Trump, in the most lasting achievement of his presidency, left us with a conservative majority on the U.S. Supreme Court. Despite some disappointments, most notably in its refusal to address the widespread election fraud of 2020, the court seems to have found its voice in June 2022. With the U.S. House dominated by leftists, a stalemate at best in the U.S. Senate, and an executive branch wholly gone over to the dark side, this is a ray of hope and a validation of the Founders' wisdom in the establishment of an independent judiciary. It does, however remind us of Benjamin Franklin's warning when asked what the Constitutional Convention of 1787 had produced: "A republic, ma'am, if you can keep it." There are powers at work in our country now that have no regard for that republic and will snatch it away from us if we do not persist in the fight to preserve it.
In its first major June decision, SCOTUS struck down a New York state law that, in effect, denied citizens the right to carry a firearm in public for self-defense. The law had forced individuals to demonstrate that they have "good cause", i.e., a special need, to carry a firearm, giving the government broad discretion to deny applications for carry permits. New York City applied that law by requiring an applicant to establish that he was in "extraordinary personal danger, documented by proof of recurrent threats to life or safety." This is a common stance in the other five states in the Union that still have "may issue" permitting systems, compared to the "shall issue" frameworks much more common since the 1990s, which require government to issue permits to law-abiding citizens meeting certain minimal requirements without demanding proof of a special need. In this ruling, SCOTUS explicitly established that the Second Amendment's guarantee of the right to keep and bear arms includes bearing arms for self-defense outside the home. Of course, many people will continue to complain that any system that requires permitting for the exercise of a Constitutional right is still unjustified, but as in many other areas, such positions fail to recognize the effectiveness of incremental progress in righting a wrong; the Left has no illusions about the effectiveness of the incremental approach. This was a very significant ruling that serves notice on government at all levels.
In its second June blockbuster, SCOTUS overturned Roe v. Wade, the 1973 ruling that had established a "right" to abortion in the U.S. Constitution. It did not outlaw abortion; it simply sent the issue back to the states by ending federal control based on a contentious and flawed interpretation of the Constitution.
On the last day of June, SCOTUS stopped the EPA's effort, ongoing since 2015, to impose regulatory restrictions on states and power plants nationwide to fight "climate change" by reducing the use of coal for the generation of electricity. The decision did not directly challenge the (il)logic of the climate change argument, but censured the EPA for claiming vast regulatory authority through an opportunistic interpretation of a provision in the Clean Air Act that was written to allow regulation of air pollution from individual power plants. The Court essentially said that federal agencies greatly exceed their authority when they assume vast and unprecedented power over American industry, where the Congress has not explicitly granted such authority. Constitutionalists have been arguing against the growth of the unaccountable regulatory state for a long time; this decision is a major step in the right direction, that should have ramifications far beyond the EPA and Biden's war on fossil fuels that seeks to appease the angry weather goddess.
Three substantial victories in 30 days, three beams of light penetrating the murk of the last eighteen months; but we should remember the words of Bertolt Brecht in 1945, upon the death of Hitler and the end of the Second World War in Europe:
"Don't rejoice in his defeat, you men. For though the world stood up and stopped the bastard, the bitch that bore him is in heat again."
American conservatives have a common, near-fatal flaw: when our backs are against the all, we wake up, discover we are strong, and act. After the disaster of the Jimmy Carter presidency, so promising to the committed Left, we woke up and elected Ronald Reagan. After the worse disaster of Barack Obama's attempted "fundamental transformation of America" we found our voice again, and put Donald Trump in the White House. What's wrong here, you ask? It's that we cannot stay awake, focused, and united long enough to cement those victories. With little patience for politics, we return to living our lives, raising our families, pursuing our careers and our happiness: "the men who wanted to be left alone." But the Left never leaves us alone.
Look at what has followed right on the heels of those three recent SCOTUS rulings:
- The governor and legislature of New York, like other anti-Second Amendment states, are in a fury of activity devising new restrictions on the right to keep and bear arms, that they will enact into law directly refuting the intent of SCOTUS. They do not feel censured; they are not respectful of the court's intent. Whether these new restrictions will survive their own court tests is an open question that will depend upon vigilance and tireless effort on the part of citizens; but also on a continued conservative majority on SCOTUS and on the survival of our Constitutional form of government that places trust and power in that court, neither of which are a given in the current cold civil war.
- Even supporters of abortion "rights", or those who are ambivalent or uncertain about abortion, should celebrate SCOTUS' correction of the federal overreach enshrined in Roe v. Wade. Could; but won't. What we are already seeing is deep and hostile retrenchment in the deep-blue liberal states that are doubling down in their support and encouragement of abortions; and a widening gulf of mistrust and hostility between them and the rest of us. A process of voluntary cultural "cleansing" is already underway and will now accelerate, as people pull up roots and relocate to the states and regions that affirm and support their beliefs. There are both positives and negatives in this trend; it does not bode well for the future of our Republic. As Abraham Lincoln put it, "A nation divided against itself cannot stand."
- The assault on our freedoms by the federal regulatory state may have suffered a setback from the SCOTUS ruling against the EPA, but already the Biden Administration is announcing a counterattack on both the regulatory and legislative fronts. If by some miracle we have a free and fair election in November 2022, those efforts may be stopped, but a lot of mischief can be accomplished in a few months by the men who do not want to leave you alone.
Tactical successes – battles won – do not predict strategic victory.
Stay awake, unite, and continue the fight.