As I type these words it is Thanksgiving morning and the Macy’s parade is playing in the background. As you read these words, it is Black Friday or later, and so I hope you had as nice a holiday as these odd times allowed and that you are getting really good deals on holiday gifts, albeit online rather than in giant crowds at big box stores.

I am tempted today to write about one of my least favorite but often mentioned topics, hypocrisy, in the form of Denver Mayor Michael Hancock (whom I do not know and have never met), who flew out of state for the holiday after preaching to his citizens about not, well, doing that same thing. While his statement about why he did what he did is understandable, his actions strike me as breathtakingly naïve and, well, kind of stupid, given the situation. 

A far better example I could write about would be the continued outstanding leadership by our governor, Jared Polis (whom I know a bit and have supported for a long time). Polis was exposed to a COVID-positive person, and, in showing what actual leadership looks like, took a test (negative) and then still immediately entered voluntary quarantine, in accordance with CDC and Colorado Health Department guidelines. Polis again showed his actions follow his words, which follow the science, and this is yet another reason we here in Colorado are fortunate to have such a principled and smart governor.

But I’m not going to write about any of that…

Instead, I want to draw your attention to a relatively minor story about a relatively minor Supreme Court decision that came down in the late evening hours last Wednesday, because it signals a disquieting, dangerous, and perhaps dystopian future.

We here in Colorado are no strangers to various church leaders getting upset about having COVID restrictions applied to them. Some of these leaders believe that they have a constitutional right to hold super-spreader, I mean religious, events, because apparently the virus won’t bother you if you are in a church? They seem to forget that churches have been hot spots before.

But of much greater concern is the aforementioned SCOTUS decision, that held that the restrictions placed on gathering sizes in New York were a violation of the free-practice clause of the First Amendment. Reasonable people can agree or disagree with the Court’s ruling, but what is quite telling is the way the decision came down, a 5-4 vote. Now, such close votes are not unusual, and the court often splits this way. But this particular 5-4 is both a clarion call and a warning of a dangerous future to come.

In a number of critically important court cases, the recent 5-4 votes have been surprising to many conservatives, who saw Chief Justice John Roberts join with the court’s remaining liberals to, for example, basically uphold the Affordable Care Act. The decision handed down in the night last Wednesday, however, signaled a new day at the Supreme Court, a day that will be hailed by those on the right and rued by those elsewhere on the political spectrum. You see, this was the first vote wherein brand-new Justice Amy Coney Barrett took part, after replacing the late liberal Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Roberts again joined with the liberals, but with Barrett on the Court, the solid conservative majority flexed its power for the first, but certainly not the last, time.

 While the winning side often tells the “other” side to get over it, I confess I am still having a hard time getting over the two stolen Supreme Court seats the Republicans (mostly Moscow Mitch) legally but immorally filled. You recall that when then-President Obama tried to fill an empty seat a year before the next election, Mitch and his buddies invented a “rule” that you don’t fill a SCOTUS seat within a year of the election. So, the seat was held open, with the Senate refusing to even hold a hearing on Obama’s nominee, and we got Colorado’s Neil Gorsuch, a strong and brilliant hard-right conservative.

Trump then got to fill one seat in an entirely legal and appropriate way, when Justice Kennedy retired, with the far less strong and brilliant hard-right conservative Brett Kavanaugh. 

Which, of course, brings us to the third – and most vile exploitation of a Senate majority – the replacing of Justice Ginsburg. It has been reported that on the very night Ginsburg lost her final battle with cancer, Moscow Mitch called Trump to urge him to appoint Barrett to the now vacant seat. Without the slightest bit of embarrassment or blush, Mitch and Trump rushed through a nomination that was mere weeks before a presidential election, in completely the opposite behavior they had insisted upon under Obama. And the GOP Senate went along, also without shame. I suspect this hypocrisy was a key feature in Cory Gardner’s defeat, but that is of little comfort.

While this particular 5-4 may be relatively insignificant (other than to those who will now get COVID at church events) it does signal a new day in America. I predict this same 5-4 will overturn a great many things, including Roe v. Wade. That may fill some of you with joy, and others with dread, but such outcomes are the inevitable result of electing dishonorable people to high office. 

I worry for our future, and for the path America will now take.