Posted on 05/06/2022 4:55:22 AM PDT by Kaslin
In February, five Supreme Court Justices voted in camera to overturn Roe v. Wade and send the issue of abortion back to the states, where it resided until 1973.
Justices Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett had all signed on to the majority opinion overturning Roe that had been drafted by Justice Samuel Alito.
The right-to-life movement was only weeks away from a stunning victory in its half-century struggle to overturn Roe.
This suggests that the leak to Politico of the Alito draft was the work of a saboteur seeking to derail the course of the court by the media explosion he or she knew it would ignite.
Whoever leaked Alito's draft, it was a violation of an oath, an unethical act and a betrayal that ought to see the perpetrator fired in disgrace and disbarred permanently from the practice of law.
But the crucial issue now is for the Alito Five, even if unwedded to the exact language of the Alito opinion, to stay the course until the ruling comes down in late June.
For, on the substance of the abortion issue, Alito's opinion is dead on:
"Roe was egregiously wrong from the start. Its reasoning was exceptionally weak, and the decision has had damaging consequences. And far from bringing about a national settlement of the abortion issue, Roe ... enflamed debate and deepened division. It is time to heed the Constitution and return the issue of abortion to the people's elected representatives."
"We hold that Roe ... must be overruled. The Constitution makes no reference to abortion, and no such right is implicitly protected by any constitutional provision."
Indeed, at the time of Roe, January 1973, the U.S. had a long history of punishing "abortionists," and the laws under which they were prosecuted were "spurred by a sincere belief that abortion kills a human being."
The nation remains divided, and the issue is best decided in this democracy, Alito argues, not by unelected justices on the Supreme Court but by democratically elected representatives of the American people.
Pro-abortion Democrats say a woman's "right to choose" must remain paramount and sacrosanct. But the "right to choose" what?
As resident Joe Biden just described it bluntly this week, it is the right to choose to "abort a child."
But at what point in a pregnancy does the pre-born child's right to life supersede a woman's right to abort that child. And who decides?
A New York Times front-page map this week shows that if Roe is overturned, states with liberalized abortion laws such as Illinois, California, Oregon, Washington, New York and most of New England would not be significantly affected.
It is the Republican states, the Trump states, the Mountain West and the South, where the overturning of Roe will free up Christians and social conservatives to write the regulations and restrictions that were abolished and outlawed by the Supreme Court's decision in Roe.
These states are where the post-Roe abortion wars will be fought.
But is this not how a democratic republic is supposed to work?
Remarkable, is it not? Those who do not cease to talk about right-wing threats to "our democracy" are today the loudest and most insistent that abortion not be sent back to the states for the people and their democratically chosen representatives to decide.
While Democrats see their base energized today, we are six months away from the election. And if the Alito draft becomes law, pro-choice Democrats will have to sustain their outrage and fight political battles in virtually all the red states.
Pro-life Republicans and conservatives should stand with the Alito Five and what they have done and what, hopefully, they are about to do.
For this is what a vast slice of the party and the conservative movement has fought for, worked for, marched for and prayed for, for half a century.
If Roe is overturned, it is never coming back. It is gone for good. No Supreme Court will ever reinstate it. It will be on the ash heap of history, as President Ronald Reagan used to say.
If Biden, Nancy Pelosi's House and Chuck Schumer's Senate majority want to make abortion the issue of 2022 by passing a federal law codifying Roe v. Wade, if they want to die on that hill, it's their call.
Democrats claim 60% of the nation wants Roe preserved and only 1 in 5 Americans wants Roe overturned.
Why, then, do they not pass that law codifying Roe at the national level and rely upon Roe's supporters to produce pro-choice laws in the states where they do not today exist?
If the Alito draft opinion survives and Roe is overturned, pro-lifers will have many people to thank.
Foremost among these are President Donald Trump, who elevated to the Supreme Court three of the five justices who voted with Alito, and Sen. Mitch McConnell, who saw to it that these three alone would make it.
I am not sure how smart Roberts is, but he should issue an immediate decision in the Roe v. Wade reversal and not allow the anarchists to fester openly.
I always thought Alito was the most consistent constitutional judge outside of Thomas on the bench. We’ll see. Being threatened by the evil hoards is very intimidating.
I think the final vote will go the other way, and I think it’s already been decided before the leak. Why do I think that? Because Roberts on the first day of the leak news, stated very reassuringly to the press that this was not the final decision.
He basically said don’t worry, I got this.
States passed laws on abortion from the beginning. By 1900, ALL STATES had laws making abortion a crime. Roe v Wade ignored it. The USSC should have NEVER taken the case. It was a state matter.
Surely the leaker wants the doors to close on the case.
Roberts doesn’t decide when to release the opinion. The majority does.
Justices circulate draft opinions to see what the other Justices in the majority are comfortable with.
There almost certainly is a later draft than what was released by the leaker.
Remember that this happened before in 1992. That’s how we got Casey.
What makes Pat so sure it wouldn’t be reinstated, in some form, in the future?
That’s not what Roberts said. He said, quite correctly that many drafts are circulated and that this doesn’t necessarily reflect the final views of any member on the case.
I know that there had to be some draft version that was later than what was released. It’s possible that the updated draft could be quite different from what was written.
It could be revised again. The justices circulate multiple drafts back and forth. That’s why releasing this was so damaging.
Deep State controls SCOTUS.
Period.
I agree. Also, the justice who is in any way affiliated with the leaker, has to recuse herself/himself from all and any review of the abortion issue that comes before the SCOTUS... FROM NOW ON! PERIOD.
Someone should hang Politico reporter upside down until they talk of the leaker. It’s pathetic that this hasn’t been solved yet. Or perhaps they know and they are just hiding it.
Kavanaugh and ACB will switch.
Totally agree, enough of these games, issue the damn decision.
The Supreme Court will be destroyed forever if any of them prove to be cowards now and pull back. The fate of our entire judicial system hangs in the balance.
I think the final vote will be 6-3. There’s a big difference between 6-3 and 5-4, when it comes to the debate afterward.
The leak will result in Roe staying in effect. Now there will be three votes at most to overturn it...maybe only two.
The leak will result in Roe staying in effect. Now there will be three votes at most to overturn it...maybe only two.
The leak will result in Roe staying in effect. Now there will be three votes at most to overturn it...maybe only two.
I suppose we will see.
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