In a recent column by Judge Andrew Napolitano, the ex-judge asserted that the Supreme Court “has already ruled that we each own our bodies” and that “what we do with them in private is not a matter of federal regulatory interest.” The Supreme Court certainly ruled on that second point in the notoriously laughable Griswold v. Connecticut (1965). Every law student since then has laughed their way through Griswold in class because the word “privacy,” which never appears in the Constitution, was “found” there by the Court “under penumbras formed by emanations.” Unfortunately that end-of-the-rainbow case soon made another notoriously bad Court decision possible: Roe v. Wade (1973) which, unlike Griswold, has been exposed as legally incompetent, and been aptly cancelled.

But not even the Court would ever say anything as silly as that “we own our bodies.” Of course we own something if we can prevent others from using it — like our house. And we also own that house if we can then sell it because if we can’t sell it, then we don’t own it, we’re merely custodians of someone else’s property. In communism that someone else is always the state, and that’s because private property has been permanently banned there in the name of perpetual freedom.

But Judge Napolitano says we Americans “own ourselves,” therefore according to him we must be sellable just like a house. Actually that’s called slavery. And given the 13th Amendment, that’s a remarkably silly thing for any judge, even an ex-judge, to say anywhere, especially in national print. And if Napolitano knows better — which he surely does — it’s still irresponsible to say such a thing even if only for rhetorical effect. By the standards of an intelligent judge, Napolitano has lied. And since lying is so repugnant to all judges, Napolitano should immediately purge himself in the press, and immediately apologize to his readership and swear never to do it again.

ROBERT JACQUES

JAMES STUCHELL

Williamsport

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