This just broke less than 5 minutes ago on All In with Chris Hayes. Chris reported that Politico has obtained a draft of the final opinion by conservative Justice Samuel Alito what will overturn Roe v Wade. In the written ruling from Alito, he claims that Roe was misjudged from the start, and it was time to return the issue of abortion rights back to the representatives of the states.
Politico states that the court already has a solid 5-4 majority, although Chief Justice Roberts has yet to decide. But if Alito, Thomas, Gorsuch, Kavanaugh and Barret are firm yes votes, then Roberts’s vote really doesn’t matter.
This is historic. This is the first time in history that a projected SCOTUS ruling has been leaked to the public before the decision is actually announced by the court. The general feeling is that it was leaked from someone on the inside, including the entire text, in an effort to rally popular support against the ruling before it is formally announced, possibly making at least one of the justices reconsider.
If true, this ruling goes far beyond the issue that was laid before the court. The Mississippi case simply looked to bar abortions after 15 weeks. The Alito decision goes far beyond that, stating that the original Roe v Wade decision was egregiously wrong, and must be immediately returned to the states.
Here’s the caveat. The date on the draft majority ruling is February 10th, 2022. Which means that things may have changed in conference since then. But reporting shows that Alito feels he has a solid 5-4 majority to issue this ruling.
This is less than 15 minutes old, but get ready to hear about nothing more than this for the next few days. Don’t touch that dial.
From the Politico report…
‘Alito’s draft opinion rejects the idea that abortion bans reflect the subjugation of women in American society. “Women are not without electoral or political power,” he writes. “The percentage of women who register to vote and cast ballots is consistently higher than the percentage of men who do so.”
Most succinctly put…
“Women are not without electoral or political power”
I guess we’re about to find out how much power that actually is. (Or not?)
Getting rid of the justices who do not belong on the court (i.e. barrett, kavanaugh, thomas-these three at the very least have no business on it) would be a very good start right now.
To the conservatives who pop up here sometimes (quite a few in recent days) I say keep YOUR fucked up, twisted version of Christianity out of people’s lives! I can already see/hear the parroting of Alito’s line that the word abortion isn’t in the Constitution. Riddle me this assholes – how many times does it appear in the Gospels and other parts of the New Testament in the Bible? ZERO. Yes, people did engage in practices back then to end pregnancies and your Jeebus and the Apostle’s didn’t have jack shit to say about abortion or preventing pregnancy in the first place! Not One Fucking Word!
And for you guys, think about how much you fucking HATE using condoms. Guess what? That will be your only option soon because next prescription contraception is going to be outlawed! Think about THAT you dumbass fuckwads! And women who don’t approve of abortion but DO have their doctor provide birth control YOU think about this too! Guess what? You get to be incubators no matter what. Even if carrying a baby to term is medically risky for YOU and could well cost you your life. Pregnancy is a health risk for women even when they have access to decent prenatal care!
You might be high-fiving over liberal tears tonight but YOU are going to wind up HATING what you have fucking wrought.
You know, it’s not even x-tian scripture which did, somewhat, after all derive itself in a small way from Judaism. There is absolutely squat in the xtian book about birth control, abortion, etc. and there is only one xtian fanatic within those pages (paul) using scripture to beat women with. Judaism in fact is QUITE clear on the fact that abortion is not only not “murder” but is REQUIRED when a woman’s health or life is endangered (even the woman herself is not allowed to risk herself in a dangerous pregnancy).
Ultimately this is about power and control over others. The warning signs were there over 40 years ago and ignored. Here’s the thing tho’: what do these morons think is going to happen when fully one half of the country’s workforce are forced out of work and into their homes (you didn’t think it was all going to end with JUST abortion being criminalized did you)? The reactionaries have won the major part of the battle and now it’s just clean up so women get ready for ALL of your rights to go up in smoke up to and including what you do for a living (the answer: spread your legs and start banging out fucking kids).
Schmucks.
This is the absolute worst thing that could have happened to the Republicans right now. Yes, even with the Trump investigations going on in the background. This looks like a law clerk leaked this at just the right time to cause the effect we’re seeing right now.
Quoting from my favorite film noir The Big Heat: “Never stir the people up. Otherwise, they start doing things.” Tell me for a second that every single voter on the Dem side isn’t stirred up over this news. Or that they won’t take steps to make this go the way they want. Either SCOTUS punts on this or the GQP has a new nemesis to their chances.
There are a couple of possibilities other than a clear leaking this in the hopes of changing the vote. One is simply a trial balloon by Alito to see how far he could push things right now – he’s doing far more than upholding the Mississippi law. Going for broke and overturning Roe is literal legislating from the bench as the case presented to the Court didn’t call for that. There’s still a month before the decision has to be handed down and perhaps he and his cohorts wanted to see how much outcry there would be and get some feedback from their fellow Fascists across the street in Congress.
Another possibility is that Alito or a cohort got the sense that Roberts (since he’s not the one writing such a huge decision that means he didn’t vote for this and the senior Justice in the majority would either write or assign the opinion according to custom) might get one other Justice to change their initial vote. Yes, we are fired up and will remain so but our outrage is nothing compared to what is coming from conservatives in the days and weeks ahead. However, what’s important isn’t what will be said publicly but the lobbying from Congress and the Fascist Federalist Society behind the scenes to toe the line. Given all the norms that were violated to get the current SCOTUS if you don’t think that norm (directly lobbying Justices) will be violated please send me some of what you’re smoking.
There are probably other reasons why one of the GOP assholes on the court would have leaked this but these are the two reasons I’ve heard articulated by pundits so far.
All due respect, Denis, even as I find those possibilities plausible, they sound even dumber than the move itself. A “trial balloon” right before midterms that could make their doomsday scenario of an expanded court happen? Putting Roberts in a position to yet again maintain his respectability at the cost of his conservative agenda, making a possible enemy out of him? Neither of these things are worth rolling the dice.
You think so? It could have the effect of energizing the portion of the ‘pube base that want Atwood’s fiction to become our non-fiction. There is a significant portion of ‘pubes that want exactly that.
KNOW so…there’s nowhere else for those Republican base voters to go but there and they were going to be voting for those candidates anyway. The trick was to OUR base complacent…so much for THAT.
I’d love for an abortion rights group to publicly state that they will offer any and all legal help to women who want an abortion but who live in a state where the LEGISLATORS decided to ban the procedure (or make it very, very, very, very difficult to get). What would this legal help entail? Simple. Suing EVERY SINGLE LEGISLATOR PERSONALLY for prenatal care for the entire term of the pregnancy and then child support for eighteen years (as is common in most states). The legislators wanted to do this–NOT the voters–so they should be held accountable.
Oh. Don’t you also find it hilarious that most legislatures decided to pass the buck on same-sex marriage by putting the issue to the voters via a state’s amendment process but they didn’t feel the voters would be ready to ban a MEDICAL PROCEDURE?
“Pro-choice Republican” senators Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins would have you believe that they didn’t see the immediate end of abortion rights coming.
They’d also have you believe that the world is FLAT.