EDITORIAL

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Re Dobbs vs. Jackson, Beware the Originalists

With all their emphasis on the importance of the founders’ intentions in creating the U.S. Constitution as the foundation of federal law, the Constitutional “Originalists” and their enthusiastic cheerleaders might do well to actually read some history.

Arguing that the U.S. Supreme Court should never “legislate from the bench” and deriding “Living Constitutionalists” for efforts to empower such “overly broad” rulings, the “Originalists” today assert that only the legal and juridical understandings and the express intentions of the 18th century American founders – combined with strictly hewn judicial precedent – ought to be taken into consideration when weighing contemporary judgments of constitutional rights and governmental powers.

Our founders, however, were men of the Enlightenment. Many were natural philosophers and tinkerers, rationalists who conducted science experiments in their spare time, held nonconformist religious ideas and engaged in armed revolution for yetunenumerated rights. As students of John Locke – himself famous for developing notions of “natural rights” after the Glorious Revolution of 1688 – they certainly would have understood the illogic of decrying the fight for unenumerated rights while touting an “Originalism” that puts on a pedestal the very people who made history fighting for rights not yet codified into law.

To the founders, the idea would have been anathema that our republic would – after two centuries of rule by the People – never enumerate further rights. When the framers ratified the U.S. Constitution in 1788 and attached a Bill of Rights in 1791, they very clearly articulated – and indeed codified – the notion that not every natural right possessed by “the People” could be expressly written into the founding documents. As lawyers, many understood how ridiculous efforts to exhaustively enumerate every right of the People would be.

On the south portico of the Jefferson Memorial, the author of the Declaration of Independence gave a sense of his “original” frame of mind, warning against the tyranny of laws handed down by past generations: “I am not an advocate for frequent changes in laws and constitutions,” Thomas Jefferson wrote, “but laws and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind…”

When the nation was founded, most states allowed abortions until the fetus had reached “quickening,” i.e., when the mother could feel the kick in utero. While most of the founders would likely have expressed a distaste for the practice of abortion, they also understood the folly – if not the offensiveness – of a government attempting to outlaw it so early in a mother’s pregnancy. Putting the question to a general vote was also not considered a rational option.

Now, as the Originalists have taken hold of the U.S. Supreme Court and the Constitutional “right to abortion” has been stripped away in the case of Dobbs vs. Jackson, it might be worth recalling how many of the framers ever crafted articles, laws, or amendments or wrote treatises, books, or pamphlets, or gave speeches pertaining to the practice of abortion. Any? Nor did any appear to include antiabortion language in their state constitutions or laws or into the U.S. Constitution itself.

Today, many “Originalists” who speak so fondly of the actions of the founders, might do well to consider how Enlightenment leaders responded in the late 18th century when their rights were stripped away.

Letter to the Editor

Restaurant News Writer Lauded and Corrected

To the editor:

We have followed Linda Roth’s wonderful column in the Georgetowner since its inception and agree that it is the region’s best, most informative, most forward-reaching and wideranging of any culinary news source available to Washingtonians. How remarkable, therefore, that this is the first time we can perhaps point her up a bit. The Shirlington Our Mom Eugenia will be the third after Great Falls and then the Mosaic.

Thank you for keeping us connected to excellent food since long ago and through the pandemic. Hope Linda will be writing for The Georgetowner long into the future.

— Candace Sherber, McLean, Virginia

Crime: July 4 National and Local

BY CHRISTOPHER JONES

NATIONAL

Headlines from this Fourth of July weekend are dominated by news of Chicago’s Highland Park Independence Day parade mass shooting, leaving 6 dead and dozens injured, ages 8 to 85. The nation’s capital, however, saw no such mass casualty events.

From the White House, President Biden issued a July 4th statement declaring that he and first lady Jill Biden were “shocked by the senseless gun violence that has yet again brought grief to an American community on this Independence Day.”

In a now familiar pattern, Highland Park police announced an arrest of the alleged shooter – Robert E. Crimo III, a 22 year-old White male “rapper.” Nancy Rotering, Mayor of Highland Park, announced the gunman had legally obtained what local police described as the “high-powered rifle” believed to have been used in the rooftop strafing of parade attendees at approximately 10:00 a.m on Independence Day.

Curiously, Mayor Rotering said she knew the suspect when he was a young boy. “I knew him as somebody who was a Cub Scout when I was the Cub Scout leader – and it’s one of those things where you step back, and you say, ‘What happened?’” she said. (Washington Post)

Expressing the exasperation of the community, 31-year-old Hollywood actress Rachel Brosnahan – star of “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” – who grew up in Highland Park and always looked forward to the Fourth of July parade there, tweeted, “Enough is enough is enough is enough is enough is enough is enough is enough is enough.” (Washington Post)

THE NATION’S CAPITAL

Meanwhile, in the nation’s capital – which saw a mass shooting as recently as June 19 at the Juneteenth “Moechella” event at 14th and U Streets NW, leaving 4 injured and one 15-year-old dead – the major Fourth of July weekend events, including a parade, a concert, a folk life festival and fireworks on the mall, remained secure.

Prior to the festive weekend, D.C. mayor Muriel Bowser and Metropolitan Police Chief (MPD) Chief Robert Contee held a press conference on public safety initiatives. “We want to have a weekend of fun, not tragedy,” Bowser said, as she and Chief Contee proceeded to describe the creation of violence interrupting “Go Teams” to be deployed “to engage residents in areas where large gatherings [were] anticipated.” The mayor has also set up a Nightlife Task Force to enhance safety along “busy corridors such as U Street NW, H Street NE and Connecticut Avenue NW with the goals of reducing crime, addressing ATVs, and enforcing traffic and parking rules. (Chris Kain, The DC Line)

Meanwhile, criticisms of the District’s crime-management policies by Republican leaders in the U.S. House of Representatives have become more pronounced, leading to worries about D.C.’s home rule. “GOP lawmakers on the House Judiciary and Oversight committees say that Ms. Bowser needs to be held accountable for crime spiking by 11% over the past year,” the Washington Times’s Haris Alic wrote. “All Americans should feel safe in their capital city, but radical left-wing policies have enabled rampant crime in the District of Columbia,” said Rep. James Comer (R – K.y.) who joined conservative representative Jim Jordan of Ohio in a letter demanding a briefing on crime from the District’s mayor. (Chris Kain, The DC Line.)

LOCAL CRIME

Local crime concerns, however, continued unabated over the Fourth of July weekend. Detectives from the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) are investigating a homicide that occurred on Sunday, July 3, in the 1600 block of K St. NE. At approximately 9:55 p.m., police were called about a shooting. Upon arrival, they encountered an “adult male victim suffering from an apparent gunshot wound.” Following life-saving attempts by DC Fire and EMS, the victim was pronounced dead in hospital. The victim’s identity is being withheld pending next of kin notification.

On July 4, MPD detectives announced an arrest was made on a Misdemeanor Sexual Abuse Offense that occurred the day before in the 4700 block of Reservoir Road, NW. At approximately 11:17 a.m., the suspect approached the victim, “engaged in unwanted sexual contact,” and then “fled the scene.” On Sunday, July 3, 45-year-old Victor Parker “of no fixed address” was arrested and charged.

On July 3, MPD announced the arrest of 23-year-old Maleek Fletcher of southeast D.C. on an Armed Robbery (Knife) Offense stemming from an incident on the 1400 block of 7th St. NW on June 27. On July 1, MPD also arrested 25-year-old Lafayette Davis “of no fixed address” for engaging in “unwanted sexual contact” with a victim. Davis is charged with Misdemeanor Sexual Abuse.

On July 1, MPD asked for public assistance in finding a suspect in an Armed Robbery (Gun) Offense from an incident on the 2400 Block of Wisconsin Avenue NW. Second District detectives released surveillance photos pertaining to the crime occurring on Friday July 1. At “approximately 2:52 p.m., the suspect entered” the establishment and once inside “brandished a handgun and demanded money and property” from an employee who complied with the demand. The suspect then “fled the scene.”