R-politicos are secretly happy to keep abortion legal, no doubt. If only to have this issue to use as a campaign cudgel, ad infinitum.
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We should not read Robertsâ opinion as endorsing Roe or Casey. He expressly states that â[n]either party has asked us to reassess the constitutional validityâ of Casey. This is an invitation to a challenge which asks the Court to do just that.
It is also worth noting that Robertsâ opinion further narrows the already-shrinking barrier provided by Casey by centering the analysis entirely on the level of burden created by the regulation challenged, not on whether the regulation has any benefit to women (aside from preventing abortions by restricting their availability or raising their cost).
Finally, although Breyer announced the plurality opinion, the only binding precedent from this decision is what Roberts wrote. So, read Breyerâs flowery and spirited decision if you like, but the controlling voice here is Robertsâ narrow decision based on stare decisis and inviting an overruling of the very opinions he just relied upon.
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Top priority should be creating two or three new states: DC, Puerto Rico, and maybe something out of Guam, the Marianas, etc. If Republicans want to keep the sacred 50, combine the Virginias, Dakotas and Carolinas
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I am surprised by this outcome and need to read the opinions to figure out what it means for future cases. Roberts flipping his vote based on stare decisis is unexpected, almost like heâs trying to set up a rearguard action for defending the first 15 years of his tenure.
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Avi Asher-Schapiro
@AASchapiro
Lots to digest in this
piece, including this revelation: Bob Woodward was sitting on clear evidence that seems to show Brett Kavanaugh had a history of brazen, shameless public lyingâand the Post never ran the story. https://nytimes.com/2020/06/28/business/media/martin-baron-washington-post.html?smid=tw-share
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Roberts is after the big-ticket conservative wishlist. Abortion is red meat for the base - the ideological crusade is against the administrative state and voting rights. Roberts is reliably conservative on these issues.
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I donât have the slightest doubt that Roberts would have voted the other way if he thought Trump would do a 2nd term. And the 4 dissenters are just freaks.
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Shorter Roberts: Iâd love to deny women the right to have control over their own bodies but, as you can see, my hands are tied.
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Every physician in every hospital ER has admitting privileges and they do the admitting when a patient has complications from outpatient surgery as they have done in the past, as they are doing in the present, and as they will be doing tomorrow.
Do the dissenting justices think that the ER physician is going to leave the patient dying while the outpatient surgeon is tracked down and comes over to the hospital?
The patientâs own doctor will consult about care with the attending physician assigned by the hospital, as they have done in the past, as they are doing in the present, and as they will be doing tomorrow.
If this was not merely a TRAP law why arenât outpatient oral and plastic surgeons required to have admitting privileges also?
Sheesh - How hard is this to understand?
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Roberts all but invites someone to challenge Casey in his opinion. I do not think that his âassumptionâ is that Roe is settled law. He states merely that â[n]either party has asked us to reassess the constitutional validityâ of Casey in this case.
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Thatâs pretty cagey of Roberts. He covers his ass by blaming stare decisis but in doing so reveals that the contingent of Thomas, Alito, Gorsuch and Kavanagh are deciding on ideological and not legal grounds. They sound like a bunch of âactivist judges,â donât they?
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Is John Roberts channeling Earl Warren?
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Anti-abortion minds all across the country are exploding right now. The strategy has always been to load the court with religious conservatives and, once you get the majority, they will pass through any random piece of anti-abortion crap that comes their way. Roberts continues to surprise as an incrementalist who does not want to disrupt the law all at once, but rather wants to piecemeal liberal values into small arguable chunks and then eradicate them
The one thing I do wonder about Roberts is if he had any thoughts or feelings at all bout what their voting rights dismemberment has wrought and what the reality of Citizens United has become. Remember, we were supposed to have the sunshine of disclosure to counteract the billions of dollars of dark money that is being thrown around.
Stay well, RBG, and may we live to fight another day.
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Not to be confused with Stare Confucius
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He canât do that and keep his credentials as a right wing political operative.
But, then, he knows he 's gotta bend to the emergent political reality.
So, this is what we get: sloppy fence straddling. Whatever jurisprudence is in it is for show.
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Susan Collins can think about it in retirement on January 1, 2021.
As to Roberts, he can read tea leaves. He can follow precident, and not act as god aweful political, or he can add two new chairs to the Supreme Court bench, and spend the next 15 years losing every case 6-5.
P.s. and Roberts is really about shilling for big bidâness. He is saving his capital for deregulation, corporate immunity, powerful controlling the levers of the courts and government.
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Roberts knows that the perception of the court as an unbiased body has been damaged by their actions on behalf of the GOP. The courtâs legitimacy in the eyes of non trumpanzee Americans is on the rocks and if dems take the WH and congress and add more justices, Roberts own legacy of failure will be reflected in the history books.
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I donât know. I see Roberts as a GOP institutionalist. And that institution canât last much longer with Trump at the helm. He seems to vote in a way that bypasses larger controversies that would motivate more people to vote against the GOP.
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Robertâs legal reasoning is impeccable. He had a chance to punt and he took it. He knows that if the court ever overturns Roe v. Wade the nation is going to blow up and ultimately the Republican party is going to flame out.
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Hopefully next year President Biden will fire the crappy CFPB boss that Trump put in place and hire someone like Katie Porter.
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