Republican Sen. John Cornyn (Texas) recently wrote a tweet in support of the Supreme Court’s anti-abortion decision in which he appeared to advocate for far right justices to reexamine cases on racial segregation as well.
Cornyn was responding to a tweet from former President Barack Obama, who chastised the court for its reversal of “nearly 50 years of precedent” recognizing abortion protections throughout the country.
The court’s ruling to undo its previous findings in the landmark 1973 decision, Roe v. Wade, “relegated the most intensely personal decision someone can make to the whims of politicians and ideologues — attacking the essential freedoms of millions of Americans,” Obama said.
Cornyn directly quoted Obama’s tweet in his post celebrating the reversal of Roe.
“Now do Plessy vs Ferguson/Brown vs Board of Education,” Cornyn wrote, referring to two Supreme Court rulings on racial segregation.
Now do Plessy vs Ferguson/Brown vs Board of Education. https://t.co/hrUYCcIq8Y
— Senator John Cornyn (@JohnCornyn) June 25, 2022
Many social media users pointed out that it appeared that Cornyn was calling for the Supreme Court to reexamine rulings regarding racist laws that had allowed states to impose segregation in schools and other public institutions.
In Plessy, the court alleged in 1896 that local and state governments had the right to segregate public facilities, and that the Constitution afforded no guarantees of equal treatment under the law. The ruling established the precedent of “separate but equal” — a notion that the Court ultimately rejected in its 1954 ruling in Brown, wherein it recognized that segregation was inherently inequitable, especially in public schools.
Hours later, after facing widespread backlash, Cornyn issued another tweet. “Thank goodness some SCOTUS precedents are overruled,” he wrote, suggesting that he had meant to highlight the idea that the Court should be able to change its mind on errant rulings made in the past, using the Plessy and Brown cases as examples.
However, that explanation is still “puzzling,” according to BET news writer Paul Meara, “considering Roe, similar to Brown, established rights for people, while its reversal removed them.”
Social media users echoed this sentiment, writing that Cornyn’s tweet was offensive regardless of his explanation.
“Brown granted more rights to existing precedence [sic],” wrote one user. “What SCOTUS did [last week] was remove rights. This is a bad faith argument and simply serves to deflect and distract.”
“Brown v The Board of Education increased freedoms; whereas [last week’s Supreme Court ruling] restricted healthcare freedom for millions,” said another Twitter user.
Truthout Is Preparing to Meet Trump’s Agenda With Resistance at Every Turn
Dear Truthout Community,
If you feel rage, despondency, confusion and deep fear today, you are not alone. We’re feeling it too. We are heartsick. Facing down Trump’s fascist agenda, we are desperately worried about the most vulnerable people among us, including our loved ones and everyone in the Truthout community, and our minds are racing a million miles a minute to try to map out all that needs to be done.
We must give ourselves space to grieve and feel our fear, feel our rage, and keep in the forefront of our mind the stark truth that millions of real human lives are on the line. And simultaneously, we’ve got to get to work, take stock of our resources, and prepare to throw ourselves full force into the movement.
Journalism is a linchpin of that movement. Even as we are reeling, we’re summoning up all the energy we can to face down what’s coming, because we know that one of the sharpest weapons against fascism is publishing the truth.
There are many terrifying planks to the Trump agenda, and we plan to devote ourselves to reporting thoroughly on each one and, crucially, covering the movements resisting them. We also recognize that Trump is a dire threat to journalism itself, and that we must take this seriously from the outset.
After the election, the four of us sat down to have some hard but necessary conversations about Truthout under a Trump presidency. How would we defend our publication from an avalanche of far right lawsuits that seek to bankrupt us? How would we keep our reporters safe if they need to cover outbreaks of political violence, or if they are targeted by authorities? How will we urgently produce the practical analysis, tools and movement coverage that you need right now — breaking through our normal routines to meet a terrifying moment in ways that best serve you?
It will be a tough, scary four years to produce social justice-driven journalism. We need to deliver news, strategy, liberatory ideas, tools and movement-sparking solutions with a force that we never have had to before. And at the same time, we desperately need to protect our ability to do so.
We know this is such a painful moment and donations may understandably be the last thing on your mind. But we must ask for your support, which is needed in a new and urgent way.
We promise we will kick into an even higher gear to give you truthful news that cuts against the disinformation and vitriol and hate and violence. We promise to publish analyses that will serve the needs of the movements we all rely on to survive the next four years, and even build for the future. We promise to be responsive, to recognize you as members of our community with a vital stake and voice in this work.
Please dig deep if you can, but a donation of any amount will be a truly meaningful and tangible action in this cataclysmic historical moment. We’re presently working to find 1500 new monthly donors to Truthout before the end of the year.
We’re with you. Let’s do all we can to move forward together.
With love, rage, and solidarity,
Maya, Negin, Saima, and Ziggy