Wednesday was a dark, dark day in American history, not unlike the day of the Dred Scott decision. It was, as Senator Raphael Warnock, pastor of Dr. King’s former church in Atlanta, put it, “Jim Crow of the 21st century… Jim Crow 2.0” enacted by the so-called Supreme Court of the United States.
The Jim Crow movement (1877-1964) included threats, lynchings, and crazy registration laws that effectively ended black participation in elections in the South. Warnock offered the example of how registration among black voters in Louisiana dropped from 130,000 after the passage of the 15th Amendment to 1,300 voters in Jim Crow days.
Today, confederates are dancing in the streets and scurrying to fulfill the promise of SCOTUS to gut the hard-won advances of the Civil Rights movement that actually expanded democracy in America. As Warnock put it, SCOTUS has committed an assault on “the crown achievement of the Civil Rights movement.”*
An act that was won by hundreds of thousands of black southerners (and some whites and others joining them, including Rabbi Heschel, to whom we referred in a recent DM), marching, enduring firehoses and police dogs, filling jails, sitting at lunch counters, all in non-violent protest.
Some people paid with their lives. One thinks of the three young college students, Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner; Jami Lee Jackson; Medgar Evers; and Dr. King himself—all martyrs to the vision of a representative democracy that included all races and classes. SCOTUS has pissed on all of their graves, including that of Dr. King and also that of union soldiers (as Judge Kagan alluded to in her dissent).
In tearing up this 61-year-old law, SCOTUS under Roberts has again abandoned all pretense to honoring precedent, just as he did when abandoning the 40-year-old Roe v. Wade decision that opened the door to killing women facing dangerous pregnancies.**
Wednesday’s decision was written by the same MAGA judge who wrote the decision to kill Roe v. Wade and cited not one but two judges famous for burning witches in 17th-century England. Judge Alito is also famous for hanging a flag on his house that supports the “Stop the Steal” movement and another dear to Christian nationalists.***
Roberts has been trying to gut the Civil Rights Act from the time he worked in President Bush’s administration as a young lawyer. Shame on him and the other five antichrist judges.
Why do I say SCOTUS is an antichrist in our day? I will be very simple, straight, and clear. As I pointed out in my clearly predictive book on the eve of the last presidential election, the antichrist is the archetype for Evil. What they have done in gutting the Civil Rights Act is evil.
The antichrist archetype was invoked sparingly in the Christian scriptures and occasionally in Christian history, including by Saint Hildegard of Bingen (12th century) who applied it to those killing the church from the inside; by painter Luca Signorelli in a major fresco in the Orvieto Cathedral in 1501; and by Martin Luther in his protest of papal corruption in the 16th century, to name a few.
As the title of my book indicates, the antichrist need not be just one person at one time in history. It can be an ideology that envelops many people: SCOTUS being part of the MAGA movement qualifies. This decision—to declare Jim Crow 2.0 from the highest judiciary in the land–stands out in flashing neon lights.
There is a remedy. A big election victory in 2026 that results in passing the John Lewis Voting Act would kill gerrymandering nationwide and set things right.
*”What the Supreme Court Voting Rights Act ruling is really all about“, MSNOW, April 30, 2026.
**Rachel Vavinsky and Mark Mather, “Abortion Bans Linked to Sharp Rise in Sepsis, Infant Death, and Pregnancy-Associated Death, New Research Shows“, Population Reference Bureau, August 7, 2025.
***Ankush Khardori, “The Alito Scandal Is Worse Than It Seems“, Politico, May 30, 2024.
Banner Image: Rights soon to be lost: formerly enslaved African Americans participating in a New Orleans election, 1867. Less than 10 years later, Jim Crow segregation laws and voting laws would disenfranchise black voters in the South right up to 1965. 19th-century illustration via New York Public Library Digital Collection, Wikimedia Commons.
Queries for Contemplation
What are your feelings about this latest SCOTUS decision? I highly recommend meditating on the 40-some civil rights martyrs who died between 1954 and 1968. See Civil Rights Martyrs for a list of their names and photos.
Related Readings by Matthew Fox
Trump & The MAGA Movement as Anti-Christ: A Handbook for the 2024 Election
Sins of the Spirit, Blessing of the Flesh: Transforming Evil in Soul & Society
Original Blessing: A Primer in Creation Spirituality
Creation Spirituality: Liberating Gifts for the Peoples of the Earth
A Spirituality Named Compassion: Uniting Mystical Awareness with Social Justice
Adam Bucko and Matthew Fox, Occupy Spirituality: A Radical Vision For a New Generation
