If you believe that you’re ‘safe’ in a blue state like California, you couldn’t be more wrong.
There are at least three legal doctrines that permit the national GOP to impose its will on the states, via Federal Preemption.
- The Commerce Clause. If you think the Commerce Clause was used to justify the 1964 Civil Rights legislation, you’re correct. But the very same justification could be used for a national version of Indiana’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act (actually there already is one, but it’s not terribly salient). What that means is that yes, the national GOP could in fact decide that property owners have the right to discriminate against anyone whom they please, as a matter of religious freedom, or Fifth Amendment Property Rights.
- Section 5 of the Fourteenth Amendment also gives Congress broad powers to enforce the Constitution’s Bill of Rights — including the Second Amendment. So yes, the Federal government can insist that anyone has the right to bring a bazooka into a public school’s kindergarten. (Maybe even into a private school’s kindergarten, under the Commerce clause.)
- While the General Welfare Clause has little effect except in tandem with taxation, it may also be a source of federal power. As is federal funding (remember how the national drinking age was raised?).
So yes, if the Supreme Court overturns Reproductive Rights (going back to Griswold), then Federal legislation may indeed be sufficient to declare that life begins at conception. The Commerce Clause might even be enough to ban condoms.
Students of history will also recall that many U.S. states had religious tests for holding (non-Federal) office, although it’s generally believed that the 14th Amendment incorporates the First Amendment in this regard. But this is only consensus, and nothing stops a Supreme Court dominated by Trump appointees from taking a different view.
(Oh, and you can forget about weed. That’s already illegal. All the Federal government has to do is enforce the Controlled Substances Act.)
Let’s also not forget that Trump has already promised to permit Federally tax-exempt religious organizations to engage in political activity. (No legislation or Constitutional Amendment required.)
With Republicans in control of the Courts, the Presidency, and Congress, they can essentially force states to roll back every rule that protects workers, consumers, the environment, and civil rights.
BTW this assumes that we will not have another national emergency similar to the Second World War. Although I have previously explained here and here how flooding the economy with a trillion dollars of tax cuts per year while eviscerating all the protections for the banking system could create such a situation, particularly in tandem with the misdirecting requirement of a war with Iran.
In case you’ve forgotten, the Japanese Internment case has not been explicitly overruled.
No, you are NOT ‘safe’ in the blue states.
P.S.: Let me apologize on behalf of Hillary for the fact that she may not have “earned your vote.”