After this ruling (Dobbs v. Jackson), about half of the states will enact near-total bans of abortion.
For example:
The Texas attorney general says abortion is now illegal in the state. He has given his staff the day off to celebrate and has declared June 24 an annual holiday for his office.
Fortunately, Texas has no other problems, allowing the police to spend all of their time arresting physicians and pregnant women.
Well Mr. Smug, since you’re always proclaiming that you’re a libertarian, what do you think of Mr. Thomas’ mutterings about contraception (Griswold)?
And that’s a great example of why I’m not a republican. People should be able to marry a giraffe if they want. To be honest, I’m not really happy about them overturning Roe. Most of what I’ve been complaining about is the rioting and protests. Along with some of the emotionally driven hostility expressed below.
Note to Smitty: you don’t get to classify me as a republican simply because you want one label for all of those who disagree with you. I do not support the republican platform, nor do I support the democrat platform. I’m certainly a conservative and I find more in common with the GOP these days than the loons running the asylum on the left.
To say there are strong feelings on both sides of this issue is obviously an understatement. But the justices in the majority, just like the dissenting justices, are doing what they believe is right. There are very strong arguments that the Constitution does not protect a right to abortion. That is not the same thing as saying abortion should be illegal. But by creating a right to abortion in Roe, the Supreme Court removed abortion from the democratic process. Because the legal justification for the Roe decision was so flimsy, any justice devoted to originalism or textualism became a threat to the right to abortion leading to justices being confirmed through gladiatorial combat.
I happen to believe that the majority opinion was correct on the law. I also agree with Kavanaugh’s concurrence that any law that sought to ban travel for purposes of obtaining an abortion would violate the constitutional right to travel. I agree with Justice Thomas that rather than finding unenumerated rights in “substantive due process” such rights would be better found in the privileges and immunities clause. But I disagree that the Court should revisit it’s other substantive due process cases like Obergfell and Griswold. But most of all, I believe that there are people of good character on all sides of these issues. I don’t consider people evil because they disagree with me about an issue, even one as emotionally charged as abortion. As for writing mean comments? Well…
Oh Dog, where to begin? I guess with the obvious “originalism or textualism” is not a coherent philosophy, it is a political/rhetorical device to support a desired outcome. None of these justices are supporting a right to bear only breech-loading muskets, for instance. To the contrary, they more recently signal that 2A is like the Chief Justice – “first among equals”. Your reasoning in support of this decision could as well be used to re-instate slavery, among other things, some of which Thomas is already advocating.
If by “gladiatorial combat”, you mean perjury, then we agree. But yeah, there are some Catholics who are happy about this who are not Evil.
Really mean response to a very well thought out argument. Not nice.
A genius in his own mind…fooling no one.
Shee-it, Causian it ain’t me that’s mean, it’s reality. I’m just pointing at it.
Exhibit A of “unhinged liberal”. Get your emotions in check or find some meds. There is no room for this hostility in a civilized society. And unfortunately I was right… the unhinged liberals have taken to the streets. 🙄
As the right has shown time and time again, there’s plenty of room for hostility in this society. Wouldn’t it be too bad if some of that came right to your front door, Steve? That would just be such delicious irony, we’d all hate to see that.
I live in Manhattan. The unhinged liberals are always at my door. I’m also not a republican as I’ve pointed out numerous times. I don’t condone violence in any form but the left never stops marching and screaming. It’s tiring.
Yeah you’re not a Republican, just the resident moron.
“Doing what they believe is right.” Wow. There is a justification that covers an enormous range of sins. Practically all of those that nations have killed for. It’s nice you think the justices are sincere in some way. It also means nothing.
Look, we have chosen not to have regular Constitutional conventions to adapt the Constitution to changing realities. Instead, we have had the Supreme Court interpret it to cover them. Alito, Thomas, et al, have decided to wrench it back into the past based on the wishes of the party in control of the inherently gerrymandered Senate.
The Dred Scott decision did essentially the same thing in 1857. Chief Justice Taney and his fellows also believed what they were doing was right. Look at how well that worked out.
Turning the clock back does not change time. Defying the will of the majority in a democray does not end well for the defiers. Their usually next move is to try and end democracy. They will still believe what they are doing then is right. So what?
But …
I like beer.
I love watching the criminals and anarchists throwing their psychotic temper tantrums in the street. No more federally mandated mass slaughtering of the innocents!
I assume, that since you’re so filled with compassion of the “innocents,” you’ll support a wide-ranging and comprehensive social support system for children living below the poverty-line, right?
Oh, wait — Conservative’s faux concern for children ends at the birth canal, so never mind.
Their lives have been protected. What they do with their lives now is up to them.
Here that, newborn infants? Snap to it and starting DOING something with your lives!
Damn straight. Learn yourself some object permanence! Work on that neck so you can lift your head up! You don’t have to be a slave to Big Tit!
Todays GOP and their sub-human followers only care about kids because the clergy of their cult needs a steady supply of kids to diddle.
This changes nothing in the decent states of the US, but I feel terrible for the repressed intelligent people living in regressive red welfare states. Religion remains the most destructive, dangerous nonsense around.
Except the GOP…see Pence, are calling for a federal ban on abortion. Then there’s the Thomas dicta going after same sex marriage, birth control etc.
I’m sure the liberals are out buying new shoes right now so they can enjoy a nice weekend of rioting, looting, and screaming at the sky. Wonderful.
Rioting was over the race issue, not abortion. Plus most of the “protestors” were black men who could give a shit re: abortion. 😮 Indeed, try to be somewhat logical w/your non sequiturs/deflections.
ok, ok, steverino and logic = oxymoron, eh. 😛
Yielding back the balance of my time …
Hope you’re right
Guess we’re gonna have to send more welfare to all those red state taker retards since no way are they taking care of those kids.
They have no intention of taking care of those kids, Mi. See Steverino’s post of 6/25 at 12:49pm above. (Second of two – Steverino’s a quickshot artist, I guess.)
It’s always funny when a guy who’s the definition of a punchline tries to make a joke.
I wasn’t making a joke. Nothing is more annoying than unhinged liberals marching and screaming.
The point stands.
But as we all know you’re totally cool with unhinged “conservatives” (MAGAts) marching and screaming.
When do conservatives ever march? If you’re talking about jan 6th, they should have shot all those morons.
Oh, fifteen million billion jagoffs waving fetus pictures around comes to mind…
…and that Unite the White rally
No shortage of pro-Rump covid superspreader events either. Come to think of it, do you pukes ever do anything BUT march?
Nothing, eh? Storming the capital? Making policy based on an imaginary man in the sky? Taking away human rights? Ever wonder why liberals are screaming? Because separation of church and state doesn’t apply here when it damn well should.
You are putting all conservatives in a box. I’m not religious but I consider abortion murder. And abortion certainly isn’t an acceptable form of birth control. Liberals never take accountability for anything. Always a “root cause”.
Liberals do protest a lot. Conservatives just go out and shoot abortion doctors and block access to clinics….
Bingo…
Sam Alito is basically Trump II, a megalomaniacal extremist drunk with power and a God complex. I’m sure in his own mind, his opinion reads as the 11th Commandment, “Thou shalt not abort”, and he expects the nation to worship him for that as well as giving everyone a nice gun to carry. What’ll probably happen instead is that an extremist from the other side will send him to meet his maker a lot sooner than he expected.
This ruling won’t last. It’s similar to when Trump was trying to make himself God for 4 years. It looked scary as hell, but it ended. The MAGA extremists still think they can win with rulings like this, but ultimately they’ll be seen as a kooky zealots who looked poised to win at times but got tripped up by their own lies, criminality, & arrogance… sorta like a certain large group of Germans in the 40’s.
The right wing mainstream media frequently mentions how Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein has advanced dementia. There are frequent mentions of open secrets among Congressional staffers reported in the media (The Senate is also part of Congress) that not only is Dianne Feinstein not the only member of Congress to have dementia, that she’s not even the worst.
I’m sure part of that is a reference to Charles Grassley.
Yet, the rightwing mainstream media only ever mentions Dianne Feinstein as having dementia.
I’m not going to go into personal details but I know people with dementia and it’s not just having (short term) memory problems, but it also includes falling for ‘fake news’, paranoia and anger associated with the paranoia.
In this vein, it’s pretty clear to me that Samuel Alito has fairly advanced dementia.
That the United States does not have a mechanism to remove this senile old fool from the supreme court is just another failing of its constitution.
The constitutional mechanism is there, but it requires a 2/3 vote in the senate, which is a near impossibility.
And the constitution also allows a procedure for an amendment to end lifetime appointments, but the hurdles to clear are even higher than those for the impeachment trial.
For good or ill, I think that impeachment/convictions and constitutional amendments are a thing of the past. The barriers are simply too high in a divided country.
They couldn’t convict Trump for attempting to overthrow the government, and for inciting a mob that might have killed the very senators who voted to exonerate. Given that, could anything prompt a successful removal? If Trump had joined ISIS and beheaded Betty White, would they have removed him? My money is on “no.”
Oh yes, thanks for the correction.
Yes…that’s reasonably accurate in a country gone insane,
Who appointed Alito? Why it was GWB who dragged the US into Iraq and Afghanistan.
The city of Austin has already instructed its police to not enforce this law.
I love Austin, my home for about a decade and a half. As I always say, it is the nicest California city which is not actually in California. (And with no state income tax or other California-level financial burdens.)
If Austin could secede from Texas, it would. That is an especially difficult situation since it is the seat of Texas government.
I know a person who used to live in Austin more recently who said the city has gone down hill a great deal recently as the population roughly doubled to 1 million in just 20 years. Austin is likely another victim of its own success.
In regards to this decision by the city council, it might be an effective model for other ‘blue cities’ in red states to follow.
As many people seem surprised by but shouldn’t be (civics teaching and common sense seem to be lacking) no city/county/state/fed can enforce every law. Various officials choose which laws to focus their police on enforcing.
While I’m surprised this was the city of Austin making this decision and not Travis County, if the city/county refuses to arrest/prosecute, it really can tie the hands of Texas (not sure about all states.)
In regards to investigating and arresting, the Texas legislature can mandate enforcement at the state level through the Texas Rangers, but they already have their own criminal investigations to work on. Even more so though, at the prosecutorial level, a recent Texas top criminal appeals court ruled that the state Attorney General can not prosecute in an elections case without the approval of the district attorney.
So, all eyes in Texas could fall on the Travis County District Attorney.
Same old song. New verse.
Ever since I first moved to Austin, and undoubtedly even before that, Austinites have lamented the rapid pace of change and growth. Even 30 years ago people talked about how much it had gone downhill. That’s just what Austinites do.
That’s what happens when you have a great place. You can’t keep it a secret, and then other people move there, and that growth changes the very things that attracted them.
Here’s a joke frequently told there:
– How many Austinites does it take to change a light bulb?
– 100. One to insert the new light bulb, and 99 to talk about how much they loved the old light bulb.
Watch…they’ll create a special law enforcement detachment to enforce the Texas anti abortion laws in Austin.
Texas Brownshirts here they come.
Everyone who lives anywhere thinks “it’s gone down,” typically starting right *after* they arrived, so I wouldn’t pay too much attention to that.
Austin has gone downhill. It always had an east-west traffic issue…now it’s everywhere. Then the housing became overpriced and it’s definitely hotter etc. than it used to be. I’m happy to no longer live there.
So aren’t you basically saying you are enjoying the benefits of a red state while surrounded by liberals? If Austin seceded, I’m sure they’d look a lot more like California than Texas.
That is probably accurate. It’s probably true of any city with a massive university within a relatively conservative milieu. Madison is a lot like Austin in that respect. Wisconsin is conservative outside of Madison and Milwaukee. My conservative friend is concerned that her conservative nephew is going to be corrupted by UW!
But Austin enjoys a healthy hybrid of the two cultures. It is kind of hippie and redneck at the same time, absent the pretentious know-it-all snobbery of California. I liked it a lot.
Oh yeah. I love Austin. My second favorite city behind New Orleans.
What are the benefits of red states, easier access to meth and child marriage?
You forgot that 18 year olds can buy as much firepower as they can afford there, Mi. That a big plus if you wish your kids were dead!
No taxes and strong law enforcement. I couldn’t care less about any other issue.
Steverino…hmmm…riddle me this…who pays for law enforcement when there are no taxes?
Most red states are high on crime and what passes for spending is usually underwritten by taxpayer in blue states.
So what are the advantages of red states again?
Austin is a lot different now from when you lived there. And it’s always been too hot.
Figaro, is that a serious question? I’m talking about the real world. Not fantasyland.
“Strong law enforcement”. Like Uvalde.
You live in your own puerile fantasy…please stay there.
He’s talking about a world where he’s not too much of a chickensh*t to own up to what he is. Our adorable little friend is the saddest type of Republican: the one that’s so ashamed of himself he probably calls himself a libertarian. They’re just like Republicans, but even more spineless.
I’m successful and happy. My life is fine. The rest of you can continue to march and cry and scream. I’m good. Thanks for all of your very angry, hostile emotional rhetoric. Good luck. Peace and love. Sucks to be you.
Uh huh…people that need to say they’re successful and happy…generally aren’t.
Steve the more you go on about being this Master of the Universe, the more I picture you in your parents’ basement in, oh let’s say, suburban Topeka, pacing back and forth dressed almost but not exactly like Michael Douglas in Wall Street (though the suspenders are a dead match; almost a full paycheck from managing the Red Lobster but SO worth it) telling a 3/4 lifesize cardboard standee of Sean Young that you rescued from the mall dumpster to “hold my calls”.
I never voted for a republican candidate until 2012. The irony, Nature Mom, is It was angry, unhinged people like you who forced me to vote republican. I do hope you find happiness. There’s too much hate in the country today.
As I said, a chickensh*t, closeted GOP liar.
We know, Steve, you love to tell us you’re different. We all know better – you’re just the same as the rest of your subhuman Republican friends.
Dude I totally have hinges. Horseshit doesn’t anger me, though I do know enough not to step in it.