The Worst Supreme Court Decisions

and Our Commitment to Human Rights

What are the worst Supreme Court decisions in United States history?

Start with Dred Scott in 1857, which held that African Americans could not be considered American citizens. Seventy years later, Buck v. Bell upheld the forced sterilization of those with intellectual disabilities “for the good of the state.” Korematsu v. United States permitted the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II, and Bowers v. Hardwick upheld a Georgia law that criminalized sexually active gay and lesbian relationships.

Now you can add to the list of profoundly wrong, legally questionable, and morally indefensible decisions the case Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. The right-wing Supreme Court has struck a tragic and devastating blow to women’s rights. And women’s rights are human rights.

The path to overturn Roe v. Wade has been ugly, deceitful, and ultimately destructive to our country, our society, and our national soul. It involves now-sitting Supreme Court justices lying to the U.S. Senate to gain their confirmations. It required acts of bad faith to derail a legitimate appointment of a justice and to railroad through another justice.

Now we have a Supreme Court that has been taken over by an ideologically driven right- wing majority with a social and political agenda designed to drag America, kicking and screaming, back to the days when institutionalized racism, sexism, homophobia, and xenophobia were the law of the land.

Look at these Hall of Shame cases. What do they have in common? They all seek to take away the rights and liberties of America’s vulnerable people: women, gays and lesbians, people with disabilities, people of color.

Each of these cases seeks to hold back and hold down people who are struggling to achieve the promises of the Constitution: equal rights before the law, equal opportunity in their lives, and the guarantees of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

Instead, this ideologically driven right-wing Supreme Court is seeking to overturn not just the law, but also decades and decades of moral progress—the moral arc of justice. Having already arrived at their ideological conclusion, the Justices on the radical right are willing to use pretzel logic and tortured reasoning to justify what cannot be justified.

This Court is relitigating the Civil War, plain and simple. Make a list of the fundamental rights of Americans, then make a list of the mean-spirited legal tools that have been used to prevent whole groups of people from gaining their rightful places in American life: voting rights, marriage equality, reproductive rights, equality of access—the fundamental freedoms we all seek for ourselves and should seek for each other.

Each and all of these rights and freedoms are under attack by this Supreme Court. The radical right members of this Court have chosen to overturn not just long-standing legal precedent, but also fundamental American principles. The decisions of this Court are not only at odds with American law; they are at odds with the beliefs and values of the vast majority of the American people.

Here’s where we are.

Elections have consequences. If you didn’t understand that before, understand it now. Every election, at every level of government, is a referendum on the kind of country we are and the kind of country we want to be.

At the same time, we need to keep Santa Fe a stronghold of progressive values and human rights. Women’s reproductive rights and health will be safeguarded: Abortion must be safe and legal. Immigrant rights must be protected: Everyone is welcome in Santa Fe. Our family, friends, and neighbors in the LGBTQ+ community must be free to be who they are without fear or threat. The right to the ballot box is sacrosanct.

Here in Santa Fe and in New Mexico we are not going to roll back the clock of freedom to 1857. We will keep moving forward on the long march to freedom and equality that is the work of our community and of our country.

Here in Santa Fe, we stand united and strong, willing to work and to fight for the rights and freedoms of all people. Here in Santa Fe, we are proud of our principles and uncompromising in our values.

Here in Santa Fe, we are on the right side of history. Sadly, tragically, it is this Supreme Court that is on the wrong side of history. Our history records the victory of human rights that was won in the Civil War. Now we will join that fight again, this time at the ballot box, with our voices, with our votes, with our financial contributions, with our shoe leather and with our sweat.

We will win it in the laws of the land, at elections and in laws and ordinances at the local, state, and federal levels, and in the hearts and minds of our fellow Americans.

This is the time. This is the fight. These are the stakes.

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