A Radical Dissent by Justice Clarence Thomas Offers a Reproach to Merrick Garland
Editorial of The New York Sun | October 13, 2021To those stunned by Attorney General Merrick Garland’s plan to use the USA Patriot Act* against parents protesting school curriculums, we commend the dissent by Justice Clarence Thomas in a case called Brown v. Entertainment Merchants. It will reassure you that you are not alone. There is at least one justice who comprehends the constitutional standing of parents in respect of their own children.
The case, Brown v. Entertainment Merchants, was decided by the Supreme Court in 2011. The court cashiered an attempt by California to prohibit the direct sale of violent video games to minors. The court reckoned the law was afoul of the First Amendment’s freedom of speech clause. Justice Thomas’ opinion is one of those dissents that, in the long haul, could well prove to be more important than the majority opinion.
That’s because Justice Thomas’s dissent is one of the most radical statements in the Himalayas of our Supreme Court jurisprudence on the constitutional prerogatives of parents. Parents are the very group in respect of whom Attorney General Garland has set the Justice Department athwart. He did so after the National School Boards Association sent a letter to President Biden likening parents protesting at what is taught in schools to domestic terrorists.
more
https://www.nysun.com/editorials/a-radical-opinion-by-justice-clarence-thomas/91692/
