Dear Editor,
What truly is an individual right? Lately, Supreme Court decisions appear to be bent on preserving some individual rights at the expense of others and sometimes just taking away some individual rights altogether. The 2008 landmark Heller decision said there is an individual right to own and possess firearms.
The 2022 Dobbs decision removed a woman’s individual right to make her own health decisions. The results of these decisions are seen daily in gerrymandered states that give (mostly) clueless men free license to run rampant over citizens, extending rights in some cases and eliminating them altogether in others.
Open carry is okay in Georgia, but women can’t be trusted to choose when and how to be a mother. Mifepristone was narrowly saved by the most convoluted reason, yet bump stocks were declared okay, even though they let a firearm blast hundreds of rounds per minute.
Just this week, SCOTUS affirmed that firearms can be removed from domestic abusers. The latter is finally a sensible ruling that protects innocents. However, Justice Clarence Thomas lamented that this “strips the individual of his ability to possess firearms and ammunition.” But what about an individual’s right to stay alive and not be shot, or to plan their family size as they see fit and can afford?
Clearly, there are individual freedoms in America not yet on the chopping block. Are legislators both aiming for fewer dead women and more dead women?
The upcoming election is a crucial one for our future. Too many working-class Americans pessimistically believe their choices don’t matter. But they definitely do! Stand up and vote for representatives who will best work to restore your individual freedoms and protect your family.
R.A. Smith, Athens