Roe v. Wade is supreme example of GOP unreliability

One of the worst nightmares for those of a left-wing persuasion has come to pass: a majority of Supreme Court justices who take their oath to “support and defend” the Constitution seriously.

This has not been a significant problem since the 1930s, when an originalist Supreme Court was threatened with destruction and knuckled under. “The switch in time that saved nine.” President Franklin D. Roosevelt had seriously proposed “packing” the court to ensure decisions in his favor. It proved unnecessary because one justice saw the handwriting on the wall and, in order to preserve the institution (if not the integrity) of the court, decided the Constitution would have to take a back seat to political expediency.

Since that time, about an equal number of Supreme Court justices have been appointed by presidents of each party. However, and happily for the liberal end of the political spectrum, those justices appointed by Democratic presidents have been, with rare exceptions, reliably liberal — which means, in practice, to decide the desired outcome first, then cook up some quasi-constitutional justification.

Justices appointed by Republican presidents, on the other hand, have proven largely unreliable. They often “grow in office” and become a “swing vote” if not downright liberal. Roe v. Wade is, of course, the supreme example of sophistry in reasoning, a search for “umbras” and “penumbras” where textual bases cannot be found.

Who knew a “right to privacy” was lurking in the Constitution all along, just waiting, by tortured extension, to give a “right” to women to kill what is in their womb. Roe is also the supreme example of Republican unreliability, since the majority of the justices who voted to affirm Roe — five — were appointed by Republican presidents.

There is a fine irony here, since five Republican justices gave us Roe, and five Republican justices did away with it.

So what is the left to do about this? One thing is to make life as miserable as possible for the five who voted to overturn Roe (the sixth Republican, Chief Justice Roberts, in keeping with the tradition of past Republican appointees, did not vote to overturn.) The other night, Brett Kavanaugh went out to have dinner, but protesters outside the restaurant saw to it that he could not eat in peace. He left out the back door before his dessert. This has been greeted with much joy by the commentariat of the left, mocking the fact that he couldn’t exercise his “choice” to get dessert, or enjoy any “right to privacy” to enjoy a meal.

In addition to picketing at restaurants, each of the homes of the justices have been under relentless siege. This is against the law, but who cares? Progressive law enforcement has its own set of rules, and illegality is purely a function of purpose and who happens to be involved.

Harassment hasn’t yet worked, but the folks are sure trying. (One group offers to pay money to alert them to Supreme sightings, so that mobs can be swiftly assembled.) The “Fundamental Five,” if I may call them that, seem to have the courage of their convictions. Lord only knows what other beloved principles of the left might be done away with. Is the administrative state in trouble? I, for one, certainly hope so.

What’s to be done? Court packing is again on the agenda. Given the current state of electoral polling in the nation, it would appear this is not likely. Another suggestion bubbling up is to impeach the “Fundamental Five,” or at least three of them. This has the benefit of being swiftly done before the fall elections. An impeachable offense, as the Trump serial impeachments demonstrated, is anything the House says it is. Hasn’t been done since 1805, so it’s about time.

The Senate won’t convict — nor did they in 1805 — but what a good talking point going forward. “How much longer are we going to put up with a Supreme Court inhabited by impeached and disgraced justices.” How’s that for a bumper sticker?

Charles Milliken is a professor emeritus after 22 years of teaching economics and related subjects at Siena Heights University. He can be reached at milliken.charles@gmail.com.

This article originally appeared on The Daily Telegram: Charles Milliken: Roe v. Wade is supreme example of GOP unreliability