The Supreme Court & Abortion: The Theories of Flip Wilson’s Drag Character, Geraldine, Become Law
(The Supreme Court’s Recent Abortion Decision is the legal equivalent of Geraldine’s “The Devil Made Me Do it.”)
By
David Gottfried
The Supreme Court’s recent Order, regarding abortion and the State of Texas, reminds me of Geraldine, a character, in drag, on the Flip Wilson Comedy Hour.
First, this will address the Court’s Order. Then, I will explain the moral mishegas (craziness) inherent in the Court and why the Court has all the sincerity of a drag skit on television.
The State of Texas enacted a statute which empowered private individuals and/or organizations to sue people or providers who receive or render abortions. Of course, the State of Texas could not prohibit abortions because Roe v. Wade held that in most cases states cannot prohibit abortion. Since the State cannot prohibit abortion, the State of Texas decided to empower individuals to bring suits to stop or punish abortions.
Generally, one cannot bring a lawsuit simply because one believes something is right or wrong. Generally, to bring a lawsuit one has to show that one has standing to sue. One has standing to sue when one is directly or personally affected by something. If we did not require that one have standing to sue, one could bring suits merely because one was intellectually aroused by an issue. However, if one is only intellectually affected by an issue, one should argue one’s position in the political arena, before the legislature and at election time.
There is a damn good reason for this rule: We do not want people who would lose at the ballot box to elude the will of the people by going to Court. We do not want people to sue in Court so one judge may negate the political determinations of several hundred legislators elected by the people. (Conservatives used to say this all the time as they claimed that legal challenges to secure abortion rights, gay rights and civil rights for black people were attempts to get in Court what liberal activists could not get through the political process.) Therefore, one can only go to court if one seeks to vindicate a right arising out of a conflict in which one is personally and directly affected. However, the new Texas law essentially repudiates or condemns what had been a salient feature of American Jurisprudence for generations. The new Texas law enables private citizens to sue people, seeking or rendering abortions, simply because those private citizens want to express their anger and bigotry and interfere with the lives of other people.
Some abortion providers brought suit to enjoin the enforcement of the Texas law. The Supreme Court denied the abortion providers’ motion to stop enforcement pending the disposition of the action.
As I said, the case reminds me of Geraldine, a drag character on the Flip Wilson Show.
The black comic Flip Wilson had a weekly comedy hour, on Television, which hit the air waves in 1970 or 1971.
Among his hilarious skits was a comic romp pertaining to Geraldine, who was Flip Wilson in drag. As Geraldine, Flip Wilson portrayed a saucy, sexy, street wise black momma, in a fashionable mini skirt, who didn’t take no lip from no one, no how.
Every so often, Geraldine did something that she should not have done. Her infractions usually pertained to the purchase of sexy clothing which was too expensive. Geraldine had a ready excuse for her moral lapses: “The Devil Made Me Do it.” If she bought a stunning sequined miniskirt that made her imagine that she was Diana Ross, the Devil was to blame. If she bought a ballsy handbag that could be used to sock people in the jaw, the devil made her to it.
And this is what the Supreme Court has descended into. A petty parlor of cantankerous cranks who will have a second helping of beans, and fart up the room, and then say that the devil made them eat the beans. I do not think this is an exaggeration. After all, the Supreme Court knows that Roe v Wade is the law of the land and that it cannot ban abortion. Therefore, it is inviting private persons to ban abortion. It is using its power to circumscribe abortion and it is saying that it is not limiting abortion; it is merely allowing third persons to limit abortion.
In a convoluted way, the Supreme Court’s ploy may be legal; indeed, it might be stunningly ingenious and positively brilliant. But it is brilliance used to further deception, evasion and a denial of responsibility and is, accordingly, utterly immoral.