Insert Foot: The Supreme Court takes a trip back to the 18th century

Lady Justice, Supreme Court

Lady Justice being cut apart, courtesy Chuck Todd/chucktodd.net.

It creeps me out to infinity that Brett Kavanaugh can decide what happens to my daughter’s uterus.

INSERT FOOT, Tony Hicks

Rendering: Adam Pardee/STAFF.

Well … not in California. Not yet. Say what you want about California, but we recognized the arrival of the 21st century. I hear a lot of talk from Californians about moving to Texas, a popular contrarian option in recent years, where it’s cheaper to live and people somehow get the idea the rest of the state is like downtown Austin.

People leave out the parts where Texas bans too many books, put people who don’t believe in climate change in control of the power grid, have a trigger law banning all abortions four weeks from now, and allow school districts to mandate girls in fifth grade and above can’t wear skirts or dresses to school. They still let them go to school … I think. That could be next.

What fucking year is it?

Basically, what the conservative wing of the Supreme Court did this week was say, “Screw women and screw the poor. And really screw poor women.”

It was a catastrophic week for empathetic non-Christians who truly believe in both the collective good and individual rights (conservatives and Libertarians love to cheer individuals’ rights when they really mean their own individual rights).



The Supreme Court said it’s OK to funnel public money to private religious schools this week. They made it easier for pissed-off people to carry around guns in public. Then of course, they dropped the abortion bomb on Friday.

No, the Constitution doesn’t mention abortion. It doesn’t mention a lot of things our cross-dressing forefathers—with no input from women or men less white than printer paper—couldn’t possibly imagine. That typically doesn’t mean we can’t infer they liked basic freedoms, privacy rights and would recognize the additional burden women shoulder by having a uterus.

There’s no gender equality when two people have sex. Men can walk away from a bad decision. Women often get stuck with the results for the rest of their lives.

And, no, people aren’t overreacting. This week will be more disastrous, in the long run, than 9/11 and the ensuing decade. American women are going to die, the gap between rich and poor will stretch even thinner, and the white Christian patriarchal machine is as energized as ever to keep basing 21st century decisions on a bestselling piece of fiction edited by guys who wore capes and burned witches.

I guess we can call Scientology a “religion” after all.



But since I’m no constitutional scholar, let’s focus on the issue itself. We don’t allow single teenagers to adopt babies, but now some states will force them to have their own. Forget for a moment very few teenagers can make a living. Have you ever talked to a teenager? I think I was still eating paste well into puberty. Their brains aren’t even fully developed and they frequently act like it. If we can forget Brett Kavanaugh’s youthful mistakes …

Meanwhile, the number of unwanted children is about to skyrocket.

According to CNN, “rates of pregnancy-related deaths in the U.S. are the highest in the developed world and have risen steadily over time, with Black women three times more likely to die in pregnancy or childbirth than white women.”

Clinics were already canceling appointments Saturday. Are the politicians snuggling up to the religious right offering safety net alternatives? Free contraceptives? Subsidized childcare? More very affordable housing than the law stipulates? Have you ever talked to anyone involved with foster care in the U.S.?



My dad used to run an Oakland boys home, where he was the legal guardian for dozens of kids without parents able to raise them. Most people would simply be too horrified to deal with some of the stories I heard.

What are we going to do with more of those kids? And what will we say when they naturally lapse into doing anything to survive?

We’ll let them kill each other or stick them in prison. Then we’ll bitch about how much we pay to incarcerate people. Conservatives will take a bullet for a collection of cells. But once they’re born, everybody’s on their own. That should make you furious.

We did this by enabling thoughtless leaders and electing people willing to sample fascism to keep their jobs. We elected a sociopathic, dictator-loving narcissistic nut then stood aside while he told Africa to be more like Norway, wanted to nuke hurricanes and recommended we drink bleach to burn COVID from our lungs. That was before he tried overthrowing the country after losing an election, like some cheap dictator.



How many women do you think Donald Trump has sent to doctors, then paid to go away?

We also let him appoint three Supreme Court judges—among them an accused rapist (to join the accused sexual harasser already there) and a “handmaiden” of what some call an extreme religious sect—all of whom lied about Roe v. Wade being settled law during their confirmation hearings.

Some Democrats are just as much to blame as conservatives, because they pretend to know better and insist on being nice to the opposition. Oh well, the political pendulum will eventually swing back, right? RIGHT?

They better grow some spine and try to fend off this disaster before voters kick them to the curb. One Supreme Court justice, here in the 21st century, was feeling brave enough this week to say he thinks it’s time to look at rolling back decisions concerning gay marriage, contraception and whether states can criminalize types of sex. In 2022. Funny how Clarence Thomas didn’t include interracial marriage on the list.

This is far from over.

Follow music critic Tony Hicks at Twitter.com/TonyBaloney1967.

No Comments

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *