The Supreme Court has become the ultimate radical weapon. What now?

This weekend, the Fourth of July, we celebrate the anniversary of a foundational American document, the Declaration of Independence. Eleven years later, in 1787, came the Constitution. It wasn’t until Feb. 2, 1790, that the Supreme Court first convened.

In those days, justices complained about the limited scope of their branch of government. To be a justice was not an especially attractive or influential appointment. (Chief Justice John Jay resigned in 1795 to become governor of New York. Five years later, he remained unpersuaded by President John Adams to be reappointed.)

The power and influence of the Supreme Court has evolved, of course. But the court’s latest decisions make a mockery of its role. Where incremental progress – and progress is key – has long been favored, this court has opted instead to walk America backwards. Within a week, the justices have blurred the bright line between church and state, in the context of school sports (see story, p. 22). They’ve made it easier to get a permit to carry concealed weapons. And most consequentially, they have rolled back a half-century of reproductive freedom (story, p. 14).

The court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization reads like an anti-woman, anti-abortion playbook. The justices suggest any pregnancy can be carried to term and an unwanted baby can be put up for adoption. Make no mistake: This is less about protecting human life than it is repressing women’s freedom. The freedom for women to control when and whether they carry a pregnancy to term is what enables us to live modern lives in our modern society.

Stripping women of the right to choose also undermines the power of women who choose to carry any and every pregnancy – planned or not – to term. For women who are guided by personal conviction, religious belief, or other factors, shouldn’t their choice matter too? When we take away their choice, we take away the power and autonomy they deserve.

When feminist writer Katha Pollitt came to speak in 2016, she was trying then to reframe the debate. “We need to talk about abortion as a normal part of a woman’s reproductive life,” she told me. “You have to acknowledge that women are having voluntary sex over the course of a long reproductive life, in which birth control is far from perfect. You can’t say, ‘Abortion is this very extreme thing that women resort to only in the most desperate circumstances.’”

But what will happen next is that for people in roughly half of U.S. states, obtaining an abortion will become a desperate act. In others – including California – states will step up to guarantee the right to safe abortions.

California lawmakers have already introduced a series of bills that will expand and better support abortion access. Planned Parenthood Mar Monte is staffing up for an influx of patients that’s already begun.

California lawmakers also responded swiftly by approving a measure that would amend the state Constitution to guarantee the right to an abortion and contraception. It will go on voters’ ballots statewide in November.

Assemblymembers (all Democrats) were impassioned in their remarks before the vote on June 27. Some shared their own stories – of an abortion they’d had, or of adopting a child.

“Just because I was born with the ability to give birth does not make me a second-class citizen,” said Cristina Garcia of Bell Gardens. “I’m proud that I live in California where doing the right thing is always in style. In California, we get to be a beacon of hope.”

Blanca Rubio of Baldwin Park noted her Republican colleagues often shut down support and funding for education, health care and social services. “The debate isn’t about how we are going to help these kids – the debate is about whether or not these kids are born,” she said. “There’s a difference between pro-life and pro-birth.”

Even Chief Justice John Roberts, who concurred with the 6-3 Dobbs decision but objected to his colleagues going so far, noted that Roe is a weak basis for guaranteeing the right to abortion. “That framework,” he wrote, “came out of thin air.”

It’s time for voters – and their representatives – to step up and make sure our freedoms are never again constructed out of thin air. Let’s set an example and approve a constitutional amendment in California.

SARA RUBIN is the Weekly’s editor. Reach her at sara@mcweekly.com