CommentsLGBTQ POLITICS - Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), who has never been married, blamed former Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) for the Court’s ruling that stripped women of their constitutional right to decide their own medical care.
The decision also targets contraceptives, sodomy laws, and same-sex marriage.
While Justice Samuel Alito tried to thread the needle in the majority opinion, Justice Clarence Thomas frankly targeted the three other rights in his concurring opinion.
Graham took to Fox News to poo-poo Thomas’ shot across the bow and praise Alito for setting “the right tone.” Asked about Thomas’ statement about other “unenumerated rights” and the Supreme Court decisions that should subsequently be overturned by the activist court, Graham took an unusual route to defend the shocking opinion.
He started by saying that Thomas’ confirmation hearing somehow justified the justice’s warning about overturning more constitutional rights. Then he blamed Reid for lifting the filibuster to get a justice confirmed after Republicans attempted to prevent former President Barack Obama’s pick for the court from being seated by denying the nominee a vote. And then, he got around to blaming beloved liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
Ginsburg died while still holding her seat under the Trump administration. She was replaced by far-right judge Amy Coney Barrett.
Obama had indicated to Ginsburg that she should retire during his administration so he could appoint another liberal to replace her. She declined.
“One thing we’re not talking about,” Graham opined, “is Ruth Bader Ginsburg who was a mighty voice for the liberal cause. She chose not to retire so it was an amazing sequence of events that allowed us to get here today.”
Graham, who has never married another man, has also never married a woman or had children. His first-hand knowledge about contraceptives, pregnancy, and same-sex marriage is worth so little that pivoting to the attack on Ginsburg would seem to be his only option.
(Bil Browning is the Editor-in-Chief of LGBTQ Nation where this article was featured. His personal papers and LGBT activism memorabilia are included in the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History archives. Find him on Twitter at @bilerico.)
