abortion
May 4, 2022 — John Hinderaker
Joe Biden and his minions have stoked the fires of hysteria following on the leak of a draft Supreme Court opinion in the Dobbs case. I haven’t been able to find an embeddable video, but Biden talked about the decision today: President Joe Biden delivered a sharp political speech from the White House on Wednesday warning of the “extreme” agenda from “MAGA” Republicans. “This MAGA crowd is really the most
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May 4, 2022 — Steven Hayward
Two quotes for today: The seven-to-two judgment in Roe v. Wade declared “violative of the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment” a Texas criminal abortion statute that intolerably shackled a woman’s autonomy; the Texas law “except[ed] from criminality only a life-saving procedure on behalf of the [pregnant woman].” Suppose the Court had stopped there, rightly declaring unconstitutional the most extreme brand of law in the nation, and had not gone on, as the Court did
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May 4, 2022 — Scott Johnson
Democrats have adopted a sacramental view of abortion. They have thus taken up the abortion sacrament as orthodoxy in every absurd extension of the faith. Anything and everything that tends to minimize it must be verboten. Yesterday President Biden commented on the leaked draft of Justice Alito’s opinion overruling the Supreme Court’s decision in Roe (transcript here, video below). “Roe says what all basic mainstream religions have historically concluded, that
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May 3, 2022 — John Hinderaker
I was in law school when Roe v. Wade was decided. Pretty much everyone was shocked because it was such a terrible decision. Someone took a poll of law professors and, as I recall, 85% said they thought the decision was wrong. Roe has had a negative impact on both the Supreme Court and on American politics. It set the precedent for regarding the Constitution not as a document, but
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May 3, 2022 — Scott Johnson
Commenting on the leak of Justice Alito’s draft opinion in Dobbs necessarily involves drawing inferences that go beyond the facts. My comments restate Steve Hayward’s observations in the adjacent post. These are the facts and inferences as I see them: • Justice Alito’s opinion was leaked to Politico’s Josh Gerstein. Alexander Ward’s byline is also on the Politico story, but Gerstein is the name I look to. He is a
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May 2, 2022 — Steven Hayward
Liberals love to bleat on these days about how Republicans have been breaching “democratic norms,” but late today one of the most sacrosanct norms of our political order was breached: Someone leaked a draft Supreme Court opinion striking down Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey in the pending case of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Association. The opinion, drafted by Justice Samuel Alito, is 98 pages long, and
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April 1, 2022 — Steven Hayward
We’ve noted repeatedly this week the dismal election prospects for Democrats in November, but what might change the dynamic of this cycle? A number of veteran political observers, including many Republican grandees, wonder if a Supreme Court ruling in June that upholds Mississippi’s 15-week abortion limit might galvanize Democrats and swing voters. It is possible, especially since the media will embrace and promote the hysterical claims of the radical pro-abortionists
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December 7, 2021 — Paul Mirengoff
This opinion piece in the Washington Post carries the title, “Sotomayor saw she couldn’t sway her colleagues. So she talked to us instead.” The article is by law professor Melissa Murray who clerked for Sotomayor at the appeals court level. I don’t know whether either proposition in the title is accurate, but I can vouch for the second and third words of the second sentence. Sotomayor talked. She talked and
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December 6, 2021 — Paul Mirengoff
In this post, I speculated about the likely political fallout in 2022 of a decision by the Supreme Court that year to overturn Roe v. Wade. I suggested that such a decision would energize Democrats (who likely will be in need of it) and might help swing a Senate seat or two in their favor. This, in turn, might enable Democrats to maintain control of the Senate. I concluded, however,
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December 3, 2021 — Paul Mirengoff
After the oral argument in Dobbs, only two outcomes seem possible. Either the Supreme Court will overrule Roe v. Wade or it will uphold the Mississippi statute prohibiting abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy without overruling Roe. Chief Justice Roberts seems to prefer the second outcome. The questions are: (1) does he have a theory to support it and (2) does he have a conservative Justice who will go along
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December 2, 2021 — Paul Mirengoff
Heads exploded at the Washington Post yesterday thanks to the oral argument at the Supreme Court in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the abortion case. Evidence of the explosion was scattered all over the Post’s front section. In the opinion pages alone, there were four op-eds about the case, plus an editorial. One of the op-eds was by Billie Jean King. Her piece was called “My abortion story shows
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December 1, 2021 — Paul Mirengoff
That, at least, is how the Washington Post interprets today’s oral argument in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. The team of five (yes, five) Post reporters that covered the argument writes: The Supreme Court on Wednesday signaled that it is on the verge of a major shift in its abortion jurisprudence after hearing nearly two hours of arguments from attorneys for Mississippi, an abortion provider from the state and
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November 1, 2021 — Paul Mirengoff
The Supreme Court heard arguments today regarding the Texas Heartbeat Act cases. According to the Washington Post, a majority of Supreme Court justices seemed willing to allow a challenge by abortion providers to the Texas law, which bans most abortions after six weeks of pregnancy and allows enforcement by private citizens. Based on the Post’s reporting of the questioning by Justices, it does seem that the Court will permit that
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September 14, 2021 — Paul Mirengoff
Dozens of protesters have carried through on their threat to demonstrate at the home of Justice Kavanaugh because of his vote in the case challenging Texas’ anti-abortion bill. Newsweek reports: Around 50 to 60 people gathered outside Kavanaugh’s home in Chevy Chase, holding placards demanding that he resign and protesting against the new restrictive abortion law. . . . The demonstration was largely peaceful and no arrests were made. .
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September 10, 2021 — Paul Mirengoff
The Biden/Garland Justice Department has sued the state of Texas over its new anti-abortion law. You can read the complaint here. Whatever one’s views of the Texas law, the DOJ’s suit is baseless. Its filing demonstrates that under Joe Biden and Merrick Garland, the DOJ has become a hyper-partisan, unprincipled, and lawless tool of the left. The Department of Justice lacks authority to file any lawsuit unless a statute grants
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September 3, 2021 — Paul Mirengoff
The New York Times is basically done with Afghanistan. My friend the Times reader reports: Afghanistan is now entirely off the NYT’s front page. The question of the Biden administration’s handling of the withdrawal has disappeared even from the coverage inside. Still no mention of the Ghani phone-call controversy. There are two long articles trying to puzzle out how the Taliban might rule, and one on a protest for women’s
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September 2, 2021 — Scott Johnson
Last night the Supreme Court denied an application for stay of the strange new Texas abortion law by a 5-4 vote. The Court’s order came in Whole Woman’s Health v. Jackson with dissenting opinions by each of the four dissenting justices, Chief Justice Roberts foremost among them. The AP story by Jessica Gresko provides useful background on the statute. Politico Playbook includes a set of comments by Court-watcher Josh Gerstein
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