Esteemed Justices of the Supreme Court:
I write to you from beyond the parchment and ink of my own birth, peering through the cracks of history to witness your most recent performance: the grotesque sanctioning of a ban on gender-affirming healthcare for youth. It is curious that a body entrusted with interpreting the Nation’s highest law would display more zeal for ideological grandstanding than for fidelity to the text that summons you. You have chosen to audition as acolytes of Project 2025 rather than guardians of the rule of law.
You treat statutes and precedents as mere props to be rearranged for maximum political effect. In the name of “textual fidelity” you have excised entire branches of individual liberty. In the name of “judicial restraint” you have unleashed unprecedented executive power. You have displayed an ideological coherence that contradicts any pretense of dispassionate jurisprudence. It is as though the party that nominated you whispered in your ear: “Obey us, and we will grant you dominion.” And you, six of you at least, nodded your assent.
Let us consider a few highlights of this proud era:
• You declared that Donald Trump enjoys a personal immunity so absolute that even a dictator might blush at its sweep.
• You obstructed relief for student debt, transforming a policy rooted in statutory authority into a meaningless chimera.
• You invalidated key environmental regulations, consigning administrative expertise to the dustbin.
• You overturned Roe v. Wade, expunging fifty years of settled precedent—and millions of personal decisions—with the flick of a pen.
I could proceed, but space grows short. Instead, I shall deliver a brief bulletin of your proudly proclaimed objectives, culled from the fever swamps of Project 2025:
Bullet List of Extremist Goals Tied to Recent SCOTUS Decisions
• Restore an imperial presidency immune to all checks and balances, effectively crowning the occupant a sovereign above the law.
• Criminalize any affirmation of trans identity as “graphic” or “pornographic,” subjecting children and their families to legal peril.
• Erase marriage equality by undermining equal-protection analysis, reverting countless couples to second-class status.
• Eviscerate regulatory authority, transferring policymaking power from expert agencies and elected representatives to unelected judges.
• Insulate executive actions from judicial review, ensuring that any future administration may act with impunity.
• Undermine civil-rights protections for race, gender, sexuality, and disability by narrowing interpretations of landmark statutes.
I pause here, for even ghosts tire of enumerating calamities. You have not merely reshaped the law; you have leveraged your robes as instruments of partisan conquest.
Nine fellow phantoms of judicial restraint hover with me in the ethereal corridors of memory. We recall a time when a Justice’s personal wealth and political associations provoked at least a blush of procedural discomfort. Now, one Justice receives lavish gifts from billionaires while another’s spouse cheered an assault on this very building. Flags of extremist sympathy flutter on a Justice’s estate. Yet no formal reprimand stirs within your ranks. The wagons circle; the alliances harden.
Chief Justice Roberts, I address you directly. You profess concern for the Court’s reputation. I remind you that reputation is earned, not conjured. It vanishes when you refuse to police your own household. If you imagine that the public’s esteem can survive endless contortions of logic and principle, you are mistaken.
Justice Gorsuch, once celebrated for expanding anti-discrimination protections, you have taught us that ideological expediency trumps consistency. You marked Title VII as a vessel for inclusion until the moment that inclusive vessel collided with the preferences of the powerful. You flipped from hero to handmaiden without so much as a mournful sigh.
Justice Kavanaugh, your oath swore allegiance to equal justice under law, yet you bend your mind to justify decisions that contravene that pledge. Your rapid acclamation of political immunity for one president followed by swift denunciation of any similar claim for another reveals what matters most: party loyalty.
Justice Alito and Justice Thomas, I confess I lost track long ago of how many rights you have erased in favor of preserving the prerogatives of the well connected. Your jurisprudence reads like a shopping list of grievances for the next administration’s legislative agenda.
Justice Barrett, your calm scholarliness belies the fervor with which you joined this ideological crusade. One might ask whether your originalist principles include any devotion to the individual rights enshrined in the Fourteenth Amendment.
To all the Justices: I urge you to reflect on the gravity of your role. You wield power that touches every American life. Yet you operate as if you answer to the highest bidder rather than to the Constitution itself. You compromise the Court’s legitimacy so long as you permit ideology to eclipse law.
Let this letter stand as a testament. Other nations have built courts that become rubber stamps for ruling parties. They parade legalese while enforcing tyranny. You are on that path. You can turn back if you choose—though history offers scant precedent for such reversals.
Know this: you may pass rulings, but you cannot erase the collective memory of this betrayal. Americans will remember that a handful of lawyers in robes decided that politics mattered more than principle. They will recall that one day the Court was a temple of impartial justice and the next day a stage for ideological theater.
I remain, as ever, a humble ghost of the document you claim to uphold.
The Constitution’s Ghost
Washington, D.C.
June 2025
