Four points on the retirement of Anthony Kennedy and the storms now looming

June 28, 2018 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

 

1) Anthony Kennedy was a so-called “moderate” Supreme Court justice who voted against voting rights for Black people, who voted against union rights, who voted for unlimited corporate financing of political campaigns, and on down the line. In other words, he could only be called “moderate” in the context of the Dark Ages fascists that now make up the solid core of the court. Where he differed from the Christian-fascist consensus most vividly was on the right of women to abortion and the right of LGBTQ people to marriage equality. Left to the “politics as usual” of passively waiting for elections, both of these will now come directly into the theocratic crosshairs.

2) The fact that Kennedy gave Trump the opportunity to appoint a new, much more fascist judge, indicates the acquiescence of a whole section of the ruling class to the Trump/Pence fascist regime. The further fact that many so-called liberal judges and law professors are counseling people to put their trust in the process and the responsibility of those on the Trump/Pence short list (which have all been vetted by top Christian fascists) indicates the same.

3) Historically, the Supreme Court has reflected the consensus of the capitalist-imperialist class that fundamentally rules over this society. It was a bulwark of slavery during the 1850s (when the ruling class consisted of capitalists and slaveowners), insisting that Black people “had no rights that a white man was bound to respect.”  After the Civil War, as part of cementing into place the “new” order of segregation, exploitative sharecropping, and lynch-mob terror it upheld segregation.  Then, after World War II, when the needs of U.S. imperialism demanded a more “democratic” face, it reversed the laws upholding school segregation (though refused to actually mandate the enforcement of those decisions, calling instead for “all deliberate speed,” a loophole wide enough to preserve and expand de facto segregation).  After this brief 'liberal period', the Court has shifted increasingly to the right.  Now, as many people have pointed out, left on its own and given the myths of “checks and balances,” “proper channels” and the rules of the game, the imperatives of Christian fascism will determine the “law of the land” for decades to come.

4) We are on the verge of not a “conservative” Supreme Court but a Supreme Court with a solid Christian-fascist majority. This should not be seen as a mere wake-up call, but an air-raid siren screaming as night falls and the planes draw near.

At a time like this, this passage from Bob Avakian’s 2017 speech on the Trump/Pence fascist regime stands as the challenge of the moment: