As I just wrote, the super conservative Trump Heavy Supreme Court is ready to throw Roe v Wade into the garbage can, and restore states rights to adjudicate the issue on their own.
The leaked Alito first draft of a majority ruling, penned on February 10th, is a total takedown of Roe. Stating that the original ruling was egregiously flawed from its inception. That wasn’t even mentioned in the suit before the court! The Mississippi suit simply wanted to roll the abortion availability date back from 26 weeks to 15 weeks. Alito and the super conservative majority of the court jumped the shark, and fed the insane GOP Evangelical base.
Early leanings are that someone with access on the court released this almost 3 month old first draft in the hopes that it would ignite a popular revolt against the perceived ruling, and force the court to reconsider its ruling before releasing the final decision in June. And remember that in 1992, three conservative justices responded to a challenge to Roe by saying that the ruling was so baked into American culture that the court had to uphold it in order to retain its legitimacy.
There are two ways this can go from here. Either tomorrow, when it has wall to wall coverage, everybody can scream and yell, shake their heads, cluck their tongues, and then put it down to politics as usual, in which case the GOP, their Godless Evangelical base, and SCOTUS win.
Or, there can be a couple of thousand people standing on the steps of the Supreme Court tomorrow morning, screaming their lungs out. And networks like MSNBC and CNN can cover mass protests in cities like New York, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. All of which Justices can see, since they’re not sequestered.
And they’re back the next day. And the day after that. And the day after that. And so on. If we want to save Women’s reproductive rights, we need the kind of nationwide, mass protests that stopped Trump’s Muslim ban, and that brought justice to George Floyd. We need millions of men and women, in pink pussy hats, pushing their kids in strollers as they hold their signs aloft and make their feelings known.
Let’s just be clear here. The Alito first draft majority opinion is just plain fucking wrong! The Mississippi lawsuit only chose to shorten the available abortion date to 15 weeks. Alito and the rest of the far right GOP supermajority voluntarily went the extra yard, and completely overturned Roe. You want your reproductive freedom? Well, it’s time to fight for it!
I saw a clip of Alito during his confirmation hearing on TV a little while ago. He was kinda, sorta polite in his phrasing but be basically said he doesn’t believe he should give a flying fuck about public opinion. HIS moral beliefs are all that matter. Oh sure he spoke of the Constitution and law, but the bottom line is that SCOTUS decides what is or is not Constitutional when interpreting the law of the land. He goddamned well knew that and he seemed almost contemptuous of the concept that precedent mattered, or was part of Constitutional law.
I also want to note that among the six GOP appointed “Justices” only one (Thomas) was nominated by a President that won the popular vote and he was confirmed by what was then one of the most (if not the most) narrow margins in history. Bush 43 lost the popular vote by a half million votes and only “won” the EC with major cheating from his baby brother Jeb (then Gov. of FL) delivering that state’s electoral votes by 537 votes in a count that was never completed. He put Roberts and Alito on the Court. And as we all know Trump lost the popular vote by almost three MILLION votes in 2016 yet got to put three more Federalist Society Fascists on the Court!
Alito was part of all that Federalist Society Planning all along, and he couldn’t WAIT for this moment. He basically told Congress this was exactly what he hoped he would one day be able to do – substitute his own moral beliefs for that of the strong majority of Americans who disagree with him as well as the legal, precedent setting opinions of Justices who came before him.
Trump’s picks are, along with Thomas of the same mind as Alito. Roberts probably is too although he wanted to spend decades chipping away at reproductive rights instead of overturning them outright. Unlike the others he does care about how history will judge his tenure as Chief Justice and he’s been trying to rein in the zealots but with Barrett’s confirmation he no longer matters.
Alito is suspected to make decisions and then assemble a half-baked set of reasons why it’s correct. Which is what he’s done with this one.
If there is any hope it is that Roberts can convince kavanaugh. He clerked for Kennedy,
kavanaugh will never forgive women after his confirmation when Ms. Ford brought his misdeeds to light and women had issues with those misdeeds…well, crimes actually.
The conservatives on the s.c. want to usher in the era of women as chattel and this is a nice first step. Remember too-thomas has already said women do not have a right to birth control so that is next on the chopping block since there are a lot of ‘pubes in governors’ mansions and state houses who think that also. It’s pretty safe to assume the ones against Roe are also against Griswold, Casey, and all the rest of the decisions giving women any control over their bodies.
Margaret Atwood was an objective observer looking at this country and saying “ladies, you’d better do something before this happens”. Women in this country did squat and they will not like the position they are about to be involuntarily accepting: broodmare for the state.
Nice that you have no fucking clue what women have been doing for the last 50 years.
But thanks for playing.
Hey, everybody, remember that whole “expand the SCOTUS” thing that came up last year over this very issue? Look to be hearing a HELL of a lot more about that AND forcing Thomas out if they go with Alito’s opinion.
With an institutionalist as prez and reactionary morons (i.e. ‘pubes) waiting for 2024? Sure hope you’re not holding your breath for that one.
Outside of some assassination attempts on some of the more odious members-thomas, alito, kavanaugh, barrett…we’re stuck with these idiots until they drop dead from heart attacks, etc. May that day be soon.
**eyeroll** Did I say where that talk would be coming from? No? Then quit presuming you did. Also, funny thing about institutionalists…they can and do accomplish radical things when the public pressure gets intense enough. It’s just that they don’t do the fireworks display you seem to be demanding when they pull it off. Look no further than student loans for an example.
Uncle Silence doesn’t seem to realize that Loving is another of the decisions they want to roll back.