Feeling anxious about the Supreme Court? Focus on Justice!

Liberals lament the nomination of a right wing ideologue to replace retiring Sandra Day O'Connor. After the re-election of George W. Bush and the right wing control over both branches of Congress, and the possibility of a right wing Supreme Count are seen putting the government firmly in control of reaction.

But Howard Zinn reminds us:

It would be naive to depend on the Supreme Court to defend the rights of poor people, women, people of color, dissenters of all kinds. Those rights only come alive when citizens organize, protest, demonstrate, strike, boycott, rebel, and violate the law in order to uphold justice."

and

"The Constitution gave no rights to working people: no right to work less than twelve hours a day, no right to a living wage, no right to safe working conditions. Workers had to organize, go on strike, defy the law, the courts, the police, create a great movement which won the eight-hour day, and caused such commotion that Congress was forced to pass a minimum wage law, and Social Security, and unemployment insurance."

Zinn might also point out that it was movements of the people who created public schools, overcame Slavery, and a century later Jim Crow. He argues that our political culture tries to narrow our consciousness, so that we focus on who is running for President, or who the President is nominating for the Supreme Court. Thus instead of being active in shaping policy, we become victims of the decisions of the political elites.


Samuel Alito can be defeated, but not by depending on politics as usual. Democracy depends on "an aroused citizenry, demanding that the promise of the Declaration of Independence--an equal right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness--be fulfilled.

Howard Zinn, Creating Justice and below is from Evan Derkacz in his The myth of the conservative nation

"And so it is with Alito and Roe. The surfacing of Alito's clear opposition to Roe v. Wade -- that it's not supported by the Constitution -- has been downplayed by conservatives. Some warn that this single issue shouldn't be the focus of opposition to Alito, that it won't fly.

They're only partly correct.

Noting that previous to the surfacing of Alito's clear opposition, Americans believed, 33-29% that Alito wouldn't overturn Roe (with 38% unsure), and that a majority would oppose Alito 53-37%, were they to believe that he would overturn it, Chris Bowers writes: "Never has obfuscation become more important for a Supreme Court nominee. If the country begins to believe in large numbers that Alito would overturn Roe, his nomination is sunk."