No Mo' Roe

Look. We all knew that the Supreme Court was going to overturn Roe v. Wade because of the leaked opinion draft from Justice Samuel Alito from last month.  But certainly the final draft wasn't going to be nearly or even remotely as harshly worded, right? 

Well, the decision was just handed down officially, removing a constitutional right handed down nearly fifty years ago, and it turns out that the only changes from Alito's first draft were largely commas and conjunctions.

I'm just glad that Justice Alito no longer lives in his New Jersey hometown and doesn't commute to Washington on the air shuttle,  Because his hometown . . . is my hometown!

And who's to blame for this overruling?  Susan Sarandon.  Because she told us to vote for Jill Stein for President in 2016 instead of Hillary Clinton.  She also failed to codify Roe in 2009 when she had the power . . . oh, wait, that was the filibuster-proof Democratic-majority Senate of the 111th Congress!

Of course I was being facetious when I said Susan Sarandon was to blame.  Look, you stupid Twitter twits, Susan Sarandon is not a witch - she only played one in the movies!  (Now, Christine O'Donnell - she was a witch!)

So thirteen states automatically ban abortion as a result of this ruling, with another thirteen ready to do so.  And a federal abortion ban is not out of reach, lest any woman who lives in a illegal-abortion state like Iowa to go to neighboring Illinois, where abortion is legal.  And then women will either have to carry their babies to term - even if her child was fathered by a criminal or a family relative - will have to travel to Canada . . . and then the Supreme Court will decide there is no constitutional right for a woman to travel to another country to get an abortion. Then someone will decide that there is no constitutional right for anyone to travel to another country for anything . . . and the Canadian and Mexican borders become the new Iron Curtains under President-For-Life Ron DeSantis.   (It will be like the old Soviet Union; the only Americans who will be allowed to travel abroad are Olympic athletes and ballet dancers.)

Justice Alito said that this opinion should not be read as an attack on other rights rooted in privacy.  So Justice Clarence Thomas, who would not be sitting on the Court if a certain Colorado Democrat who shall remain nameless had not invited a comely blonde and future evangelical Trump supporter to his townhouse in 1987, wrote that decisions such as on contraception and gay marriage are definitely on the table.  And so folks opposed to such things will not stop at abortion.

President Biden urged pro-choice activists to come out and vote in November.  Right.  As long as inflation and gas prices remain big issues, this issue is not going to have a major impact on the 2022 midterms, least of all in the elections for the state legislatures that will now decide on abortion.  There's only one Democrat who even focuses on state legislative elections, and Martin O'Malley is only concerned with his wife's bid for Maryland Attorney General this year.  

I wish well all of those who fight to get this overturning overturned.  But, as I indicated three months ago, I want to be counted out.  Besides, I expect to be busy . . . checking out Irish real estate.

Odor In the Court

I know a man . . . he came from my hometown . . .. These are the very words he uses for what's going down . . ..

"[Roe v. Wade] 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 v. Wade] and [Planned Parenthood v. Casey] have enflamed debate and deepened division . . ..  We hold that Roe and Casey must be overruled.  It is time to heed the Constitution and return the issue of abortion to the people's elected representatives."

Thus spake Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, Jr., of my hometown in New Jersey, in his draft opinion on Dobbs vs. Jackson Women's Health Organization, which will likely obliterate a woman's right to abortion on the basis of the lack of a constitutional right to privacy.  This was despite his assurances when he first joined the Court in 2006.  This decision even surpasses his deciding vote in the Citizens United decision of 2010 that recognized corporations as people and money as free speech.

When this opinion gets handed down, it will likely be toned down, but the effect will be no different.  Abortion will be legal in only a few states, not all of them, and a Republican Congress and a Republican President as early as 2025 will no doubt criminalize abortion nationwide, with no exceptions for rape or incest - after the filibuster is done away with. 

And how many other countries have completely outlawed abortion?  About a couple dozen - mostly in Africa and Latin America.  European countries? One - Andorra, a country between Spain and France, which is so small the Rhode Island state militia could invade and occupy it in an hour.

The draft opinion was leaked in a breach of protocol that keeps Supreme Court drafts private, even as the right to privacy is, ironically, in jeopardy.  MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell interestingly pointed out that while Congress routinely puts out drafts of bills in progress, the Supreme Court - which apparently writes first drafts by painting them with broad brushes of dismissive language - refuses to be transparent. Chief Justice John Roberts, who loves the Court and his open to a ruling that preserves legalized abortion but allows for some restrictions - has demanded an investigation into the leak.  Too little, too late; this draft shows how reckless the justices can be in private and are.

And if the right to privacy is nullified through this ruling, what other rights could fall by the wayside?  Gay marriage? Interracial marriage?  If women in states where abortion is outlawed can't travel to states where it's legal to get one, the lack of the right to travel could be applied to anyone trying to leave the country once Trump comes back and establishes der Amerikanisches Reich.

The Democrats expect abortion to be a major issue that improves their chances in the 2022 midterms.  Uh, no, it won't be.  Yes, I still think it.  Inflation and the economy will remain the biggest issues going into November.  Abortion won't even make a distant third place - not as long as immigration and COVID remain potent issues.  The problem is that not enough Democrats and independents who are motivated by the overturning of Roe will tip the balance for Democratic candidates, and besides, the people most likely to vote on abortion are . . . pro-lifers.

Of course, if I had a black wife and we were having trouble making ends meet, we, knowing that our marriage could be nullified by a Supreme Court ruling, wouldn't likely base our electoral choices on the economy.

Rule THIS!

The Mississippi challenge at the U.S. Supreme Court to Roe v. Wade, which guarantees the right to an abortion, is likely to succeed.  Especially when you have conservatives - including one from my hometown, which is so reflexively Republican it doesn't have a single Democrat on its town council and has a slew of anti-Biden and anti-COVID-restriction signs on its lawns - determined to overturn it.

But, that's not a given.  I'm sure Chief Justice John Roberts, who wants to preserve the Court's integrity, can get another conservative justice to join with him and the liberal justices to come up with a compromise ruling that can let Roe v. Wade stand and still uphold mild restrictions in more conservative states.

What if Roberts can't do that? 

Well, in that case, if you're a pro-choicer . . . you're toast.

Oh yeah, don't think you can get Republicans voted out of office in the midterms because the only people who vote on this issue are . . . Republicans.

The end.