While it’s been a little over a week since Ruth Bader Ginsburg has passed away, I’m still in shock. It’s stunning to think that in such a dark political time we no longer have the notorious RBG to champion our human rights, because as I looked into her more and more I realized that fighting for gender equality is something RBG had done even before her time as a Supreme Court judge. This woman is literally such a badass. As a litigator, RBG took cases involving discrimination against men to set a precedent for cases of female discrimination! She knew it would be easier for an all-male supreme court to sympathize with other men rather than to accept that discrimination against women occurred at face value. RBG used those cases to bamboozle the Supreme Court justices into acknowledging that the pedestal women were put on was actually detrimental to them. Because, surprise—by keeping your daughters and wives from doing things, you are not sheltering them or protecting them, you are keeping them down. Honestly, forget ancient Greece and Troy, this power move is the original Trojan horse. Ruth Bater Ginsburg upheld the constitution and the dignity of all types of people.
So the fact that President Trump has nominated Amy Coney Barrett as her successor is a big “oh-sh*t” moment for me. Not that Amy Coney Barrett isn’t an exceptionally smart and accomplished woman, just that her jurisprudence philosophy is completely opposite from RBGs. In her Supreme Court nominee speech, Amey Coney Barrett said, “[Anthony Scolia’s] judicial philosophy is mine too, a judge must apply the law as written. Judges are not policymakers and they must be resolute in setting aside any policy views they might hold.” With this statement, Amy Coney Barrett seems to set her judicial philosophy in line with her mentor’s strict constitutionalism. A philosophy, which nine times out of ten, leads to a more conservative interpretation. ow can strictly following just what is written in the Constitution, a document that’s over 230 years old, serve as a guide to modern-day societal problems? It can’t. The authors of the Constitution had no idea how society would look over two centuries later. So while the constitution was a revolutionary document, it makes sense that what is directly written in it doesn’t clearly include the answers to our modern-day societal problems. How could it when the constitution was written birth control didn’t exist, women barely had any rights, and racism and slavery were prevalent?
The job of judges is to interpret the constitution, not to create policies. It’s the people like you and me who decide on policies by participating in the democratic process. Don’t let yourself be disillusioned. Get up, take action, and vote! Make your voice heard because it does matter. Democracy ceases to work when people don’t take part in the system. Results matter, especially when it comes to day to day amidst Covid-19 and people’s right to their own body. In this tumultuous time, certain groups of our population are at more risk than others. If you don’t have an opinion on abortion, race relations and law enforcement, immigration, etc., go and vote for the safety of the people around you. Coronavirus is still here and people are still dying from it. The United States has already withdrawn from the CDC, despite the fact that we are suffering from a pandemic (thank you President Trump and your conspiratorial racist views), who knows how much worse things will get if President Trump is re-elected?! I remember during the 2016 election it was a joke that if Trump won liberals would move to Canada. Unfortunately, the 2020 reality is that no one is moving anywhere but from their beds to their couches (and the voting booths or their mailboxes on November 3!). Hopefully, if the democrats win we’ll get back our seat on the supreme court too! In a couple of months’ time, I know I’ll be wearing my RBG pin and my mask at the booth, and however, you are able to safely vote. I hope you’ll be keeping RBG’s spirit alive and using your vote to fight for human rights.