Gratitude is one of the greatest of all the virtues, and one of the most conservative. Gratitude for the good is constructive. To be grateful is humbling; it is harder than the posture of superiority that comes from criticism. When extending gratitude toward people and institutions we have criticized or crossed in the past, gratitude is also a close cousin of that great Christian virtue, forgiveness.
In that spirit, with the overruling of Roe v. Wade in today’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, we should be full this day of gratitude for a great many people and groups who brought us to this pass, not all of whom lived to see the day. Others can recount the full roster, which includes activists, jurists, scholars, religious leaders, and politicians. But looking on the three critical votes on the Court today that sent Roe to the dustbin of history with Plessy v. Ferguson and struck a crucial blow for restoring the rule of written law in America, we should take a particular moment to thank two Americans still very much in the political arena, whose decisions made this day possible:
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