Today I’m sharing the text of my February 12, one-page letter to all nine members of the Court, followed by my comments on the concerns it expresses. 

The letter:

In my opinion, the originalists on this Court are deciding 21^st Century issues by applying 18^th Century thinking, when men held slaves, women could not vote and slave states wanted to maintain this abominable legal status.

I believe an originalist (textualist) should interpret the 2^nd Amendment the way it reads and hold that slave states designed it to ensure that their militias couldn’t be disarmed by the federal government.

In my opinion, the Court’s holdings in Heller on guns, Citizens United on campaign financing and Shelby County on voting rights were some of the most democracy damaging any Court has ever made.  

As a result of these decisions, thousands of Americans are dying due to minimal gun controls, special interest money is corrupting our politics and anti-democratic, voter suppressing restrictions are being imposed on millions of our citizens by Republican-controlled states. 

Due to former president Trump’s Big Lie, election workers are afraid to serve; millions of Americans no longer trust elections; many government officials and judges need 24/7 personal security protection; there is open talk of civil war; and the rule of law and our democracy are both on the line in the 2024 election.  Do not just blame politics; the Court shares the fault for this horrific state of affairs.

As a citizen and a lawyer, I feel helpless and appalled watching Donald Trump bullying this nation toward an autocracy, aided by a radicalized Republican Party.  And if he dismantles our democracy during a second term, which he has threaten to do if he is elected, I believe this Supreme Court will be reviled as one of the major reasons for its demise. 

The Court should have found a way to rule that the 2020 election was fairly won by Joe Biden.  It would have been easy for this Court to do so.  That may have prevented the insurrection on January 6, 2021, and settled the bogus election fraud issue that is quite literally tearing this nation apart. 

I have absolutely no doubt that a President Trump will treat Court decisions as advisory opinions and politics will override the Constitution and replace the rule of law.  And you may be left wondering if you and the Court could have prevented this.  Well, this year it is not too late for the Court to do that.

My comments about the letter:

All six conservative justices are originalists or textualists who attempt to interpret the Constitution’s wording as it was understood when it was written in the 1780s or when later amended. I believe they apply their originalist theory selectively, as it suits their ideology. 

For example, in the Heller case they held that the right to gun ownership is not limited to service in a militia, despite the 2^nd Amendment’s prefatory clause that states, “A well-regulated Militia being necessary to the security of a free state.”  Why would the Founders have emphasized militias if they intended that all Americans had the right to bear arms regardless? 

Citizens United held that corporations have free speech protections under the 1^st Amendment and that money is speech, thereby invalidating campaign finance laws.  Consequently, our political system is corrupted by special interests and foreigners. 

The Shelby County case gutted part of the Voting Rights Act, which required that voting law changes by certain states be preapproved by the Justice Department. Republican-controlled states immediately enacted strict voting laws, many designed to discourage Democrat-supporting minorities from voting.

How can Trump dismantle democracy?  Project 2025, which I covered in a previous blog post, is the far-right conservatives’ plan to totally control the federal government by replacing nonpartisan civil servants with Trump loyalists and politicizing the U.S. Justice Department.  With Trump in command of the military, the intelligence services and the Justice Department, the rule of law will be as he dictates and he will use the legal system to shield his operatives and attack his opponents.  Effectively, American democracy will be history.

The conservative justices totally control the Court’s schedule; they could have taken a case involving 2020 election fraud and decided that there was none.  They cannot, however, keep Trump from ignoring their decisions if he is president.  Why?  Because the Supreme Court has no way to enforce its opinions even though they are the law of the land to be followed by the president and all U.S. courts. 

President Andrew Jackson, who Trump reveres, defied the Supreme Court’s ruling in Worcester v. Georgia (1832), which held that Georgia could not enforce its laws on Cherokee lands.  The state did it anyway.  Jackson allegedly challenged the Court: “[Chief Justice] John Marshall has made his decision; now let him enforce it.”  No doubt, Trump would follow his example.

Make no mistake, the final point of my letter – that Trump will ignore Supreme Court decisions – is not mere conjecture.  Trump has demonstrated his disdain for the rule of law in many ways, defying subpoenas, demonizing numerous judges and suggesting suspending the Constitution.

Cowardly Senate Republicans refused two impeachment opportunities to stop the former president from hijacking their party.  Now the question is, will the Supreme Court put an end to Trump’s incessant delaying tactics and finally allow the judicial system to hold him accountable for his crimes?

PS: Sharing your concerns with your congressional representatives this year is crucial.