No Kings Act

By E. Faye Williams
Washington Informer
Reprinted – by Texas Metro News
https://www.washingtoninformer.com/

I know it’s been a long time since I studied law, but all of my life I heard the phrase, “No one is above the law.” During the Civil Rights Movement, such as the time when attorney Thurgood Marshall, Medgar Evers, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., attorney Fred Gray, Rosa Parks, Mayor Charles Evers, Dick Gregory, Ella Baker, Malcolm X, Bayard Rustin, Diane Nash, Fannie Lou Hamer, A. Philip Randolph and others were with us, when something about race didn’t seem to be fair, our leaders would say, “We’ll take it to the Supreme Court!”

We haven’t heard that statement in recent times as we’re looking for justice. I know we can rely on Justices Elena Kagan, Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson (the three justice warrior women on the U.S. Supreme Court) but they’re not in the majority. They can argue for justice and we’re grateful they’re there. President Barack Obama tried to even the playing field a bit by putting someone on the Supreme Court. Sen. Mitch McConnell put an end to that when President Obama had the right to make Attorney General Merrick Garland a candidate.

Republicans, led by McConnell, immediately announced they would not consider or vote on any replacement nominees from President Obama. They deferred the appointment to the next president who it just happened was Donald Trump. Even though doing so was not the law or the practice at the time, what McConnell did was set up a situation that a Democrat may not have the opportunity to select a Supreme Court justice in our lifetime — giving a convicted criminal by the name of Trump the right to make decisions on who will be able to become a Supreme Court justice for years to come!

Now Trump will have the power of kings! He can do whatever he wishes to do and will have no guardrails because something strange happened in the 2024 presidential election. The best candidate did not get credit for the victory. I say “did not get credit” because in my book, Vice President Kamala Harris won the hearts and minds of so many voters and would have been able to straighten out more of the mess Trump made the last time he was president, and in the next four years the horrors he’s already putting in place for so many of us. If you don’t know what I mean, and you haven’t read his promises, please read Project 2025, and take a look at who Trump and Musk have chosen to lead Trump’s plans for those of us who are not among their wealthy buddies who preferred to be led by a criminal than to vote for a brilliant and highly qualified Black/Asian woman who ran circles around Trump!

Those who didn’t vote, or didn’t vote for the woman who was by far the best candidate to save our democracy, I pray they won’t come crying and trying to join those who will remain working for the good of the country on the picket lines or in court as our rights are being taken away and as we are trying to get back what we’ve lost.

Our ancestors taught us to never give up the fight. When you see those MAGA caps, ask yourself, “Was America ever great for Black people, and did they expect that any of their children or children’s children would betray their efforts by supporting an uncaring criminal who cares about nothing other than himself?”

Trump told us Nov. 5 might be the last time we would ever have to vote! Those of us who believed him will still be working for everybody to exercise that right. You might want to begin supporting those working to pass the “No Kings Act”!

Williams is president of The Dick Gregory Society (www.thedickgregorysociety.org).