David A. Robinson

06/24/2022

Now that the Supreme Court has overruled Roe v. Wade, an interesting question is whether the Court will eventually overrule the same-sex marriage case, Obergefell v. Hodges (2015). Five days after Donald Trump was elected president in 2016, I wrote a short book speculating about what might happen if Trump appoints some Supreme Court justices and those justices vote to overrule Roe v. Wade. In both cases (Roe v. Wade, and Obergefell v. Hodges), an activist Supreme Court ruled that there is a constitutional right to something that is not in the Constitution. Of course, the Constitution applies to many of today's technologies that did not exist at the time the Constitution was written in the 1700s and 1800s, such as television, the internet, cellphones, automobiles, airplanes, and other modern technologies. Abortion, however, is not a modern technology. There were abortions in the 1700s, 1800s, and long before that. Our Founding Fathers knew about abortion. Since the Constitution does not mention abortion, the Supreme Court ruled today that abortion is not a constitutional right. Our Founding Fathers also knew about homosexuality and marriage. Since the Constitution does not mention homosexuality or marriage, I wondered in 2016, and wonder today, if the Supreme Court will rule that same-sex marriage is not a constitutional right. My book did not attract much attention in 2016-17 but it might now that Roe v. Wade has been overrruled. Read my book for $5.99 on Amazon. https://www.amazon.com/Trump-Presidency-Affect-Same-Sex-Marriage-ebook/dp/B01MSKS7UO/

In 2015 the U.S. Supreme Court in Obergefell v. Hodges held that the government cannot define marriage as the union of a man and woman. The Court held that same-sex couples have the right to marry. Donald Trump has sent mixed signals on same-sex marriage. On January 31, 2016, as a candidate, he s...

06/24/2022

Two events of national significance occurred on January 22, 1973. Former president Lyndon B. Johnson died suddenly and unexpectedly at the age of 63, and the Supreme Court decided the case of Roe v. Wade. I was a student at George Washington University in 1973. In January 1973, I was still only 19. GWU is three blocks from the White House. On the night of January 23 or 24, 1973 (I forget which of those two nights), LBJ's body and casket lay in state under the dome of the U.S. Capitol. I and thousands of other people went to the Capitol to pay their respects. The line was long. It stretched out across the street to the Supreme Court. While near the Supreme Court, I saw protesters. I asked someone what they are protesting about. He said the Supreme Court ruled that abortion is legal even if the law says it is illegal. I replied, “What is an abortion?” A year-and-a-half later, after I graduated from GWU, I was in law school at another university named Washington: Washington University in St. Louis. I learned about Roe v. Wade. I learned that the Constitution does not say anything about abortion. Our Founding Fathers knew, as I knew by 1974, what an abortion is. Since the dawn of the human species, some women have aborted their pregnancies, often with the help of a doctor. But our Founding Fathers said nothing about it in the Constitution. I believe that women should, in the early stages of pregnancy and a little later in the pregnancy if there is fetal abnormality, have the right to abort their pregnancies, but that right is nowhere in the U.S. Constitution. Today, June 24, 2022, the Supreme Court agreed that that right is not in the Constitution. The Supreme Court held today that it is up to each state to decide which abortions, if any, will be illegal in their state. To allow abortion on demand would allow a woman, with the help of her doctor, to abort her pregnancy the day before her due date. I don't think she should have that right.

06/23/2022

The Supreme Court today held that law-abiding people who are not mentally ill have the right to carry a handgun for self-defense in some, but not all, public places. The Court held that it is “not a right to keep and carry any weapon whatsoever in any manner whatsoever and for whatever purpose.” Justice Kavanaugh's concurring opinion clarifies that states may continue to require the gun owner to first obtain a license, get fingerprinted, go through a background check and mental health records check, and go through training in fi****ms handling and in laws regarding the use of force. Four years ago on this page, I proposed a constitutional amendment that would say essentially what the Supreme Court said today. It would clarify the Second Amendment, as the Supreme Court did today. The Supreme Court clarified that the Second Amendment is about “self-defense.” The majority opinion in today’s 6-3 decision says “self-defense” 48 times. Thus, I believe that states can still, if they want, ban assault weapons. I believe that states can still, even after today’s Supreme Court decision, ban weapons that are used more for offensive purposes than defensive purposes. That is my opinion. Some people may disagree.

06/18/2022

Born 2 days and 6,000 miles apart, Beatle Paul McCartney (b. June 18, 1942, Liverpool, England) and Beach Boy Brian Wilson (b. June 20, 1942, Inglewood, California) turn 80 today and Monday, respectively. Happy Birthday, Paul and Brian! Thanks for all the silly love songs and good vibrations.

06/17/2022

50 years ago today—June 17, 1972—five men loosely associated with President Richard Nixon’s reelection campaign broke in to the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate complex in Washington. Few Americans cared. Months later, on November 7, 1972, Nixon was reelected in a landslide over Democrat George McGovern. I was not a fan of Nixon’s but, as a college student in Washington (George Washington University) from 1970 to 1974, I was a neighbor. My dorm was three blocks from the White House. On January 20, 1973, I attended Nixon’s inauguration for his second term and took this photo of him poking his head through his limousine sunroof in the motorcade. His inaugural speech was superb. I was beginning to like him. The future looked very bright for Nixon and the nation that day. The Vietnam War was ending (American POWs were released a few days later), the economy was good, our relations with Russia (Soviet Union) and China were better than they had been in the 1950s and 1960s. Everything looked rosy on January 20, 1973. A few months later, the Watergate scandal would envelope Nixon’s presidency and eventually, on August 8, 1974, force him from office. In the meantime, in October 1973, his vice-president, Spiro Agnew—who was not involved at all in the Watergate scandal—would be forced from office due to a scandal of his own while he was governor of Maryland a few years earlier. By May 1974, when I graduated from GWU, the mood in Washington was somber and depressing. Years of inflation, recession, and stagnation would follow. The Watergate scandal was a tragedy for Nixon and our nation.

06/16/2022

Esther, David, and Laura at Grand Canyon, Arizona, June 7, 2022

06/11/2022

Esther, David, and Laura at Katy Perry concert June 8, 2022, at Resorts World in Las Vegas

06/11/2022

The Grand Canyon has not changed much in the past 50 years but I have. The photo on the left was taken June 4, 1972, at the Grand Canyon when I was 19 and a student at George Washington University. The photo on the right was taken June 7, 2022 (50 years and 3 days later), when I returned to the Grand Canyon wearing a George Washington University Alumni (the word "Alumni" is in small print below "University") T-shirt. It did not take me 50 years to graduate from GWU. I graduated from GWU in 1974. Something that did change at the Grand Canyon is the temperature. It was warmer in 2022. On June 4, 1972, I wore long sleeves at the Grand Canyon. The pants I was wearing in the 1972 photo were long pants (you can't tell from the photo, but I remember the pants). On June 7, 2022, I wore short sleeves and short pants there. Comparing the temperature at a particular Grand Canyon elevation level in 1972 to the temperature on approximately the same day (June 7 is approximately the same as June 4) at approximately the same Grand Canyon elevation level at approximately the same time of day (both photos were taken in mid-morning) in 2022 is not scientific proof of global warming (the sample size is too small) but might be evidence of global warming.

05/29/2022

Our Longmeadow High School class of 1970 reunion was a great evening! If you click on the photo, you can zoom in and see faces more clearly. I'm in the middle, a little left of center. We called this reunion, "The Class of '70 Turns 70." Most of our classmates turn 70 in 2022. I turn 70 in early 2023.

05/18/2022

Had he lived to today, my father, Jacob Z. (Jack) Robinson, would celebrate his 100th birthday today, May 18, 2022. He died at 86 in 2008. Here he is, on the right in the photo below, talking to former U.S. Attorney General Elliot Richardson, former President Gerald Ford, and me in Boston in 1984.

04/25/2022

At Lauren and Gabe's wedding in Charleston, South Carolina, April 23, 2022.

04/25/2022

Esther and David at Fort Sumter, South Carolina, where the Civil War began in 1861. April 24, 2022.