Long time Associate Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens is retiring from the U.S. Supreme Court this summer. He will be missed for his acute sensitivity to social justice issues that come before the Court.
Michelle Alexander
IF Barack Obama wants to break with his emerging reputation for being a right-wing pandering authoritarian he could nominate to the Supreme Court Moritz College of Law Ohio State University Professor Michelle Alexander.
Restoring social justice balance to the United States Supreme Court should be Barack Obama’s highest goal. Except for Ruth Bader-Ginsburg, too many Court seats have been filled, in the past three decades, with jurists who have completely forgotten that the constitution is really the greatest social justice and human rights affirming document ever written. And that forgetfulness is reflected in Michelle Alexander’s anguish in writing this for Alternet.org recently.
“Obama’s mere presence in the Oval Office is offered as proof that “the land of the free” has finally made good on its promise of equality. There’s an implicit yet undeniable message embedded in his appearance on the world stage: this is what freedom looks like; this is what democracy can do for you. If you are poor, marginalized, or relegated to an inferior caste, there is hope for you. Trust us. Trust our rules, laws, customs, and wars. You, too, can get to the promised land.
Perhaps greater lies have been told in the past century, but they can be counted on one hand. Racial caste is alive and well in America.”
The title of Professor Alexander’s latest book says it all:
The New Jim Crow:Mass Incarceration
in the Age of Colorblindness
I do not believe that President Barack Obama is at all committed to the human rights, civil liberties and social justice values that brought him to power. His Drug War intensification and total lack of expressions of concern for the urban poor show him to place no value on anyone without a six digit net worth. He could prove me wrong by nominating Professor Alexander to be the next Associate Justice to the United States Supreme Court.