Reacting to the landmark Supreme Court decision which held that "may issue" gun permit laws are unconstitutional, justice correspondent for The Nation, Elie Mystal claimed the six conservative justices on the Supreme Court are responsible for mass shootings that have occurred in recent weeks, despite the fact the decision was only handed down hours prior.
Appearing on Zerlina on Peacock's streaming service on Thursday, Mystal was asked by host Zerlina Maxwell to explain the rationale behind the court's decision, "because I think the folks at home are like ok the Second Amendment. I know that has to do with gun rights but maybe they don’t understand the actual analysis that Thomas is utilizing here."
Maxwell claimed, "what the Second Amendment says and how these conservative justices are interpreting it, there's a wide gap between the actual words and what they’re saying the words mean."
Just a month after 19 children were killed in a school shooting, the Supreme Court has effectively expanded gun rights…
— Zerlina on Peacock (@ZerlinaShow) June 23, 2022
“We suffer this violence because of six conservatives on the Supreme Court,” says @ElieNYC. “It is their fault.” pic.twitter.com/4svi8jPMUw
In response, Mystal claimed "what they’ve basically done is taken the first part of the Second Amendment. ‘A well-regulated militia being necessary to secure a free state’ they’ve taken that whole first clause of the Second Amendment and they’ve just thrown it out the window."
He then slimed Supreme Court Justice Thomas by alleging he and the other conservatives on the court "will not use the Fourteenth Amendment’s due process rights to protect, again women who maybe uh—people who may become pregnant. They won’t use it to protect all sorts of you know disabled people, LGBTQ people. But apparently, the Fourteenth Amendment is there to protect guns."
Proving how intolerant he is of people who don't hold his irrational and narrow-minded worldview, Mystal wailed "it should prove to Democrats, I hope, that rational argument holds no sway anymore in the Supreme Court." He added that the only solution to defeat conservative jurisprudence is "going to be through overpowering them by expanding the court with liberal justices who can read a whole amendment without ignoring parts of it."
He ended his mentally unhinged rant by claiming without evidence that "we suffer this violence because, because of six conservatives on the Supreme Court. It is their fault! And until we start acting like it, we will continue to suffer the violence."
To read the transcript of this segment click "expand":
Peacock’s Zerlina
6/23/2022
7:16 p.m. EasternZERLINA MAXWELL: Well explain the rationale because I think the folks at home are like ok the Second Amendment. I know that has to do with gun rights but maybe they don’t understand the actual analysis that Thomas is utilizing here. Because again, what the Second Amendment says and how these conservative justices are interpreting it, there's a wide gap between the actual words and what they’re saying the words mean.
ELIE MYSTAL: Yeah, so what they’ve basically done is taken the first part of the Second Amendment. ‘A well-regulated militia being necessary to secure a free state’ they’ve taken that whole first clause of the Second Amendment and they’ve just thrown it out the window. They just white it out, they just pretend like they can’t read it. And so they are now acting as if any regulation on guns, even though regulation is right in the Second Amendment, that any regulation on guns is an unconstitutional infringement on the Second Amendment right to bear arms.
And apparently according to Thomas the Fourteenth Amendment right to due process which is, I mean. The conservatives will not use the Fourteenth Amendment’s due process rights to protect, again women who maybe uh—people who may become pregnant. They won’t use it to protect all sorts of you know disabled people, LGBTQ people. But apparently, the Fourteenth Amendment is there to protect guns.
That is also a new thing that Thomas invented in today’s guns decision. Zerlina it’s bonkers! And I say that in the scientific way. Like it is an actually extremist crazy opinion that six conservative justices signed onto and it should prove to Democrats, I hope that rational argument holds no sway anymore in the Supreme Court. There is no such thing as a rational argument, as a logical argument as a thing that you can use kind of argumentatively to sway these six people from their dread cause.
So if you are going to stop them it is not going to be through convincing them. It is going to be through overpowering them by expanding the court with liberal justices who can read a whole amendment without ignoring parts of it. Like that’s what it's actually going to take. Arguments are of no more use here.
MAXWELL: You mean like being an actual textualist? You mean like that?
MYSTAL: Right? Like the actual, they don’t actually care about the text of the amendments if it doesn't support their preferred outcomes. And that’s kind of always been the case of textualism. That’s always the intellectual bankruptcy of the conservative project. But it’s just laid bare for all to see. And I think you started off right, this is coming in the context of despicable, deplorable, bloodthirsty mass shootings.
We are the only wealthy nation that suffers from this. Why? And the reason why is not because of violent video games. Other countries have violent video games. It’s not because of mental health issues. Other countries have people with mental health issues. It’s not even because we have a lot of disaffected young white males. Other countries have disaffected young white males. We suffer this violence because, because of six conservatives on the Supreme Court. It is their fault! And until we start acting like it, we will continue to suffer the violence.
