Echoing slavery and Jim Crow, the Supreme Court's Dobbs decision violates the Constitution by empowering states to apply police powers against women without first obtaining a jury verdict.
The Constitution is an enumerated powers document. All powers not explicitly sacrificed in written constitutions are retained by the sovereigns, “We the People." Amendment 9: “The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.”
Repeating past failures, the Supreme Court violates the Constitution by granting states power to use police coercion of citizen sovereignty without requiring a trial by jury:
- Dred Scott to enforce slavery.
- Plessy to enforce Jim Crow using the nature of a citizen’s skin color.
- Dobbs to enforce Jim Crow using the nature of a citizen’s sex.
Citizens are sovereign over all powers not enumerated as sacrificed in written constitutions:
- Two wars: In the Revolution and Civil Wars, We the People forced on the governing to respect our definition of liberty and limited governments to written constitutions.
- Definition of Liberty, Declaration of Independence:
- “We the People” are the sovereigns with the governing and governments “deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.”
- Definition of Liberty: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness”
- Constitution:
- “We the People,” the sovereigns.
- We enumerated the rights sacrificed in written Constitutions and retained all rights not specifically enumerated.
- Amendment 9: “The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.”
- James Wilson noted in the Pennsylvania Ratifying Convention (1787):
- “The truth is, in our governments, the supreme, absolute, and uncontrollable power remains in the people. As our constitutions are superior to our legislatures, so the people are superior to our constitutions.”
- “In delegating federal powers to the national government, the people of the United States did not give up any powers that were not specifically enumerated in the Constitution.”
- Article III, Section 2: Acknowledges governments are soulless institutions unable to sense good or evil. Applying police powers is subordinated to the sense of justice of a jury: "The Trial of all Crimes… shall be by Jury"
- Amendment 5: Coercion by governments is constrained by juries, "nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation."
- Amendment 14: "nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws"
- “We the People,” the sovereigns.
In Dred Scott v. Sandford, the Supreme Court authorized state governments to deny citizen sovereignty based on the nature of skin color. The Supreme Court denied securing “the Blessings of Liberty” and authorized states to apply police powers without a jury trial and without equal protection under the law.
- Justice Taney for the majority supporting slavery: "[African Americans] had for more than a century before been regarded as beings of an inferior order, and altogether unfit to associate with the white race, either in social or political relations; and so far inferior, that they had no rights which the white man was bound to respect."
In Plessy v. Ferguson, the Supreme Court authorized state governments to deny citizen sovereignty based on the nature of skin color. The Supreme Court denied securing “the Blessings of Liberty” and authorized states to apply police powers without a jury trial and without equal protection under the law.
- Supreme Court Justice Brown for the majority supporting Jim Crow: "If one race be inferior to the other socially, the Constitution of the United States cannot put them upon the same plane."
In Dobbs v. Jackson, the Supreme Court authorized state governments to deny citizen sovereignty based on the nature of sex. The Supreme Court denied securing “the Blessings of Liberty” and authorized states to apply police powers without a jury trial and without equal protection under the law.
- Supreme Court Justice Alito for the majority supporting Jim Crow for women: "That is why the Court has long been 'reluctant' to recognize rights that are not mentioned in the Constitution."
An example of denying equal protection under the law:
- Mr. Trump has a right to a trial by jury before being held accountable for, “I just start kissing them... I don't even wait. And when you're a star they let you do it. You can do anything."
- E.Jean Carrol had to go through the arduous process of suing in a jury trial to hold Mr. Trump accountable for sexual misconduct and slander.
- Had E. Jean Carrol gotten pregnant from being raped, the Supreme Court gave state governments power to coerce her to have and raise that child without a trial by jury or just compensation.
No constitution, Federal or State, enumerates a power of the government over reproductive sovereignty for good reasons. Police powers are crude and governments are soulless institutions incapable of sensing justice:
- Without a jury trial, Amber Thurman was killed in a hospital by the Georgia law denying life saving medical support for 20 hours. Her 6 year old son will grow up without his mother. Is this just?
- If a woman is brutally raped, becomes pregnant, and has an abortion is it just for the state to execute her or put her in prison?
- If a woman has multiple eggs fertilized via IVF, becomes pregnant, and the unused embryos are discarded should the state put her in prison or execute her?
- If a woman is in a car crash at 7 months pregnant and the baby is injured to the point it will die on being born should the government force her to carry the fetus 2 more months just to watch it die? If she has an abortion, should the state put her in prison or execute her?
The Constitution Divided Sovereignty so We the People are sovereign over all powers not enumerated as sacrificed because many issues require a soul to judge. The brute force of police coercion is soulless and incompetent at sorting moral necessities.
The Supreme Court’ Dobbs decision applies police powers against women. It repeats its support for slavery in Dred Scott, and support for racism in Plessy.
////// Obligation of Sovereigns to Exercise Responsibilities ////
The President, as a co-equal branch of the Federal government with executive responsibility to defend the Constitution. The President can negate Dobbs by an executive order:
- Instructing states that to enumerate the shift of sovereignty over reproductive rights from the citizens to the state requires an Article 5 Amendment.
- Instructing Federal agencies:
- To sue state officials over laws usurping citizen sovereignty "nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws".
- Authorize women to have access to medical treatments on military bases in states that violate citizen sovereignty.
- Prosecute state officials in Federal courts for unlawful deaths such as Amber Thurman’s.
- Provide legal support for surviving family members to sue state officials in civil courts for financial harms
Author’s background:
My name is Bill James. I am a 1972 West Point graduate and Infantry veteran. Foreign oil addiction was identified by 10 Presidents as a threat to national security. Foreign oil addiction resulted in oil-dollars funded terrorist attacks, oil-wars since 1991, $35 trillion in Federal debt increasing in tandem with oil imports and oil-wars, traffic congestion, Climate Change, and the end of affordable oil this decade (Dallas Federal Reserve).
To contribute to ending foreign oil addiction, I invented and patented solar-powered JPods networks to replace highways.