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Anyone my age or thereabouts remembers the most popular girl singing group of the 1960’s. Chances are, if you were around what was then known as our public swimming pools, the jukebox would be playing one of their 12 number one hits. Stop! In the Name of Love, was just one.

Of the original three Supremes, there’s only one left and that’s lead singer Diana Ross. With Berry Gordy leading that Detroit, Motown sound and a trio of songwriters known as Holland-Dozier-Holland, they churned out more hits than the Land O’Lakes company does butter.

I mention that 1960’s superstar group today because it seems that The Supremes are making a “heckuva” comeback. Of course the Supremes of which I write are not singing so much as they are deciding, as in court rulings. With their latest hit, aka “Roe v Wade,” these Supremes have the nation Dancing in the Street ala Martha and the Vandellas!

The official ruling was handed down last Friday and was an affirmation of the leaked decision published by Politico almost two months ago. It’s interesting that the leaker of the Samuel Alito-written decision has not been found. Either the Supreme Court’s Marshal is no Lt. Columbo or the potato is too hot to handle.

So far, I’ve been lighthearted in my review of the Supreme Court’s pronouncement about the 1973 case regarding abortion, but the ruling by that era’s nine-member Court was no laughing matter. Roe v Wade made abortion on demand the law of the land and in the ensuing years, up until now, over 60 million sparks of life have been extinguished.

If there ever has been a scourge upon the nation known as the United States of America, my opinion would say that 1973 decision was. Of course, not everyone agrees with me and that’s what freedom is all about.

The war for life has not been won and, to be honest, the five justices who made their decision did not outlaw abortion. They only said that it was not a “right” guaranteed in our founding Constitution, but was a matter to be decided by the states. The people who have so, vociferously, raved against the conservative wing of the Court seem to have missed that nuance.

There were many decisions handed down by these Supremes and I want to mention one other. It was the case of the football coach in Washington State. Joseph Kennedy is his name and he had lost his coaching job because of his desire to pray after the games.

A review of his situation informs us that he wasn’t proselytizing; that is urging his players to pray along with him. He was careful to make his praying a private affair. There was no locker room praying, no team chaplain leading the players in prayer. Kennedy understood that he could not “go there.”

However, after the games were over, Coach Kennedy would go off by himself and kneel in prayer for a moment. Without his prodding, his players asked if they could join him in prayer. Innocently, he allowed that. That was a bridge too far for the school district.

They asked him to stop; maybe even demanded that he stop. Kennedy wouldn’t and they relieved him of his beloved coaching position. That was seven years ago and hundreds of thousands of dollars spent on legal representation all the way to the Supreme Court. Lordy, don’t the wheels of justice turn slowly.

This past Monday the Supremes handed down their ruling. In the year of our Lord, 2022, Coach Kennedy’s First Amendment right to freedom of religion was affirmed. Thank God for small favors!

And thank God for five courageous Supremes.