(A News and Sentinel Op-Ed - Photo Illustration - MetroCreativeConnection)

The entire judicial career of John Roberts, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS), has been dedicated to the undoing of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Roberts’s personal vendetta against the legislation that codified an end to Jim Crow has now reached its zenith with the help of five other court extremists, courtesy of Leonard Leo and The Federalist Society.

Despite the presence on the highest court of Black, Latina and Jewish Women (Justices Brown Jackson, Sotomayor and Kagan), SCOTUS is still controlled by the confederacy. Had Anita Hill and Dr. Christine Blasey Ford been listened to and their testimonies heeded we would not have had to endure the court tenures of Justices Clarence Thomas and Brett Kavanaugh. Had Sen. Mitch McConnell and the Republican Senate majority not refused to hold confirmation hearings for President Barack Obama’s court nominee Merrick Garland for almost a year following the death of former Justice Antonin Scalia in 2016, we would not have had to endure the tenure of Justice Neil Gorsuch.

The same Senate Republicans who said Garland’s nomination should not be considered early in the year 2016 because elections were being held that year were only too happy to quickly confirm Amy Coney Barrett to the court just before the 2020 election cycle following the passing of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Roberts, Justice Samuel Alito, Kavanaugh, Gorsuch and Coney Barrett were all nominated by presidents who had lost the nationwide popular vote but still won the presidency for their first terms (George Bush Jr. and Trump). These five Justices were also confirmed by Senate majorities that represented fewer total Americans than the Democratic minority.

This minority tyranny has resulted in the 2022 overturning of Roe v. Wade, depriving pregnant persons of their bodily autonomy and personal sovereignty and of access to reproductive healthcare in numerous states, and has just led to what a dissent from Justice Elena Kagan referred to as the “now completed demolition” of the Voting Rights Act. These cases are actually just a drop in the bucket of the damage done by the Roberts Court over the last 20+ years.

This court has also seriously weakened the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment’s guarantee of church/state separation; weakened the ability of government at all levels to regulate firearms access to try to help address a gun violence epidemic; weakened the ability of government at all levels to address the global climate crisis and other pollution and contamination crises; severely weakened labor and consumer protections in favor of corporate behemoths; allowed special interest dark money to overtake our elections and drown out the voices of everyday voters; allowed the most criminal and corrupt President in American history to receive immunity from prosecution for “official conduct,” and much more.

We can no longer afford to sit by while a court comprised of right-wing zealots mocks every ideal this nation is said to stand for. A core legislative mandate for any future Democratic congressional majorities and Democratic President must be to expand the court to 13 Justices, one Justice for all 13 federal appellate court jurisdictions. We must also see judicial term limits, at least for SCOTUS Justices, and a binding set of ethics and financial reporting and recusal rules for all federal court judges and justices with strong, independent oversight and enforcement of these rules.

We can have government of, by and for the people, with power derived from the consent of the governed, or we can have 5-6 black-robed megalomaniacs infringing on the popular will, to protect a white supremacist, patriarchal, oligarchical, fascist state made possible by minority tyranny — but not both. It’s time to rein in this out-of-control institution.

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Eric Engle is a resident of Parkersburg.