Dobbs and New York Rifle

The 14th Amendment is the gift that keeps on giving but more like HPV than a rich benefactor.

In the last three days, the Supreme Court has either accepted or rejected using the 14th Amendment to radically remake America.

And by radically remake America I mean the destruction of actual federalism.

Conservatives are cheering for the New York State Rifle and Pistol decision and the Bremerton ruling, just issued today.

Why? Because the “conservatives” on the Court used the 14th Amendment to apply the 1st and 2nd Amendments to State law, thus invalidating a concealed carry ban in New York and allowing a high school football coach to pray before and after games while on the field.

What seems like a victory for “liberty” is in fact another round of centralization, the type that Clarence Thomas complained about in his concurring opinion in the Dobbs decision.

You see, if you live by the 14th, you die by the 14th. Most of the important “culture war” decisions made by the Supreme Court over the last half century have all relied on a spurious interpretation of the 14th Amendment. This is why Thomas went on the offensive against “substantive due process.”

You wouldn’t have gay marriage or legalized abortion in every State without it. Same for biological males performing in biological female athletic competitions.

Thomas, of course, thinks that incorporation is fine so long as it is used to protect a defined liberty in the Bill of Rights. His opinion in the New York State Rifle and Pistol case read like a defense of the 2nd Amendment, but it would not have been possible without the 14th. He admitted as much in the decision.

He just doesn’t like it when the Court uses incorporation to invent a right like the “right to privacy” or the “right” to marry.

He should be arguing against both interpretations of the illegally adopted 14th.

But his again provides good podcast fodder. I discuss both issues on episode 657 of The Brion McClanahan Show.