Connecting U.S. Supreme Court originalism to rightwing, conservative extremism in American politics

UCF sociology doctoral student Donna King recently published “The War on Women’s Fundamental Rights: Connecting U.S. Supreme Court Originalism to Rightwing, Conservative Extremism in American Politics” in the Yeshiva University Cardozo Journal of Law & Gender.

Here is an excerpt from the introduction:

“[The Fourteenth] Amendment, first proposed in 1866 and declared ratified in 1868, plays a monumental role in the politics and law of modern America.”

There is an expanding social and economic movement in America today that thrives on the devaluation of the unenumerated fundamental rights protected under the Privileges or Immunities Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution.

The ideological belief system, upon which this antigovernment movement is founded, is indicative of an aristocratic way of thinking that has historically been supported by the U.S. Supreme Court’s precedent of completely rejecting the Reconstruction era and the intentions of its Framers.

As a result, today’s political parties are competing over a much broader and more complex range of issues than ever before, particularly intensifying the war on women’s fundamental rights. In order to understand this political dynamic, one must realize the Court’s ability to fuel the American political system’s imbalance of power, whereby a fierce ideological struggle is causing women to bear the brunt of the current civil rights war. 

Read the entire piece here.