I was in a bad mood (we just lost the softball championship game), but now I’m quite pissed. I just read the seven-year-old Supreme Court case United States v. Morrison, which struck down part of the Violence Against Women Act. Unless I’m completely missing something, it appears to me that (1) five (or maybe even seven) members of the court and I have seriously different definitions of logic, and (2) these members nonchalantly promulgated an overtly racist view of America.
First, of all the 14th Amendment states “nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.” To that end Congress collected data and held hearings about how states were withholding due process from their female citizens. They found 21 states’ justice systems to have severe biases. The majority readily notes that this is not a majority, but I’m fairly sure the 14th Amendment outlaws any state from withholding due process. Further, the majority noted that “Petitioners’ assertion that there is pervasive bias in various state justice systems against victims of gender-motivated violence is supported by a voluminous congressional record.” Congress is the fact-finding institution; not the courts. So how did the majority get around the reasonable, and intuitive, conclusion that “bias” is a form of “action”? By adhering, incredibly, to the principles of racism!
They cite the Civil Rights Cases favorably, and apply the principle of stare decisis in upholding the 1886 case’s logic. For those not well-versed in 19th Century judicial history, the court ruled in the Civil Rights Cases that a series of federal, anti-discrimination laws were unconstitutional. Before this ruling from the high court, Blacks were allowed in theaters, inns, etc, and were not generally segregated from whites. Immediately upon learning of the Court’s ruling, however, owners of public gathering spaces kicked Blacks out and 70+ years of segregation followed [1]. The day of the decision was a sad (if mostly forgotten) moment in the history of our country. Almost inconceivably, the majority of the Court in 2000 affirmed that 1883 decision and used it as the basis for the Morrison ruling! I truly find this action unconscionable and repugnant. What’s even more disappointing is that only *two* justices (Breyer and Stevens) dissented to that part of the majority opinion. What is wrong with our Supreme Court?!
The more I think about it, the less I can focus my disgust into coherent thoughts. So I’ll leave you with Harlan’s words from his dissent to the Civil Rights Cases:

The statute of 1875, now adjudged to be unconstitutional, is for the benefit of citizens of every race and color. What the nation, through Congress, has sought to accomplish in reference to that race is what had already been done in every State of the Union for the white race — to secure and protect rights belonging to them as freemen and citizens, nothing more. It was not deemed enough “to help the feeble up, but to support him after.”