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Politico: SCOTUS Striking Down Roe v. Wade According to Leak
Do we trust Politico? Can we trust a leak from the most leak-free branch of the government? Here’s their breaking story:
The Supreme Court has voted to strike down the landmark Roe v. Wade decision, according to an initial draft majority opinion written by Justice Samuel Alito circulated inside the court and obtained by POLITICO.
The draft opinion is a full-throated, unflinching repudiation of the 1973 decision which guaranteed federal constitutional protections of abortion rights and a subsequent 1992 decision – Planned Parenthood v. Casey – that largely maintained the right. “Roe was egregiously wrong from the start,” Alito writes.
“We hold that Roe and Casey must be overruled,” he writes in the document, labeled as the “Opinion of the Court.” “It is time to heed the Constitution and return the issue of abortion to the people’s elected representatives.”
This is all very, very odd. The Supreme Court is famed for not leaking decisions before they are officially announced. In the past, there hasn’t been even a hint of which way a pending case may break. If the leak is accurate, it violates a sacrosanct tradition which will damage the court’s reputation and congenial relations between the justices and their staff.
The 98-page draft allegedly came “from a person familiar with the court’s proceedings in the Mississippi case along with other details supporting the authenticity of the document.”
One Alito quote reads: “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 and Casey have enflamed debate and deepened division.” The leaker claims Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett agree with Alito.
If the leak is genuine and Roe v. Wade will be overturned, I think this helps the conservative side, at least slightly. It lets some hot air out of the balloon before the official announcement, lessening any possible midterm blowback. Far, far more importantly, it will save babies’ lives.
Published in General
I think that the senior Justice in the majority assigns the opinion, but doesn’t have to write it personally.
New lefty justice confirmed… A leak happens. Hmmm
I wonder if anybody working the Capitol Police or MPD is making any preparations right now….
Facebook has some live cams from SCOTUS building. https://www.facebook.com/watch/live/?ref=search&v=692633145357577
Send him/her/them to Gitmo.
If true (via Instapundit):
and
Both true…and critical
That train is so far from the station I can’t believe there are any left that do not already think the leadership are frauds and liars. Excluding the willingly duped.
Roberts is a Beta man who will always worry about the reputation of the Court.
Look at the document in the story. Would a first draft be formatted the same way as a final release? One wonders.
They do say he changed his mind last-minute on an Obamacare case.
A guest on the Federalist podcast a few months ago mentioned a consequence of the Kung Flu lockdown. Telemedicine increased and abortionists started prescribing more chemical abortions. It made the situation worse as the girls’ progress wasn’t being confirmed and they weren’t being monitored while taking the medicine. The guest predicted that states like California would use this precidence to ship out chemical abortions if Roe is overturned.
I am a pro-choice woman of four wanted children who has long hoped Roe v Wade would be overturned as it is most definitely a decision that belongs to the states. Since I live in blue Washington, I fully expect abortion will be legalized here by our legislature, and that’s the way it should be. If a state doesn’t want abortion and a law to that effect is passed by their legislature, that’s okay too. In 1791 the 10th amendment clearly stated those rights not specifically spelled out in the US Constitution belonged to the individual states. The Supremes need to take this seriously in future decisions.
Barricades are now up around the building and MPD is patrolling.
The Ministry of Truth is going to have busy first week.
I think it’s authentic- I read the article and part of the draft. It’s a draft and not final- so it can change. Votes can still change though it’s unlikely. The person who writes the decision can also change. This is Alito’s draft- it could end up being Thomas who publishes the decision.
It appears to be a likely 5-4 decision. Thank God for Donald Trump. I hope I’m not getting my hopes up!
Jon, thanks for the report and the link.
I’ve read the purported draft opinion. I’m not particularly impressed by the proper formatting — it is proper, but it’s pretty easy to format something.
I find that the purported draft reads like a SCOTUS opinion. If it’s a hoax, it’s an elaborate one, and very well done.
I’m very familiar with the tone of SCOTUS opinions. I’m not sufficiently familiar with Justice Alito’s style to be able to identify this writing as his.
If genuine, this could be the end of a staffer’s promising young career.
But it’s also the sort of emotionally-charged issue that I could imagine an idealistic young progressive might think worth sacrificing her career for.
We are on same side on this issue. Leave it up to the states. But the leak part is NY Time Pentagon Papers stuff. Looks like a Yale law grad Sontamayor clerk. Figures. Hope she gets disbarred.
If we are lucky. Have not trusted this guy since the Obamacare decision.
Let’s hope. With a request they disbar the law clerk who leaked it and impeach the Justice who suggested it. Sorry, great Latina!
Gavin Newsom has already announced that California will become a “sanctuary” for women around the country seeking abortions, including paying airfare. (I can’t find a shareable link; google it for dozens.) Given the immense sociopolitical polarization of this particular moment, I imagine that numerous states will take up the same cause as a result of the issue returning to state legislatures. It’s a shame, but making abortion illegal again will not stop most abortions from taking place.
Since Laura Ingraham clerked for Justice Thomas, I thought I’d watch a bit to see her take. At one point, she mentioned some names that have come up, but said she wouldn’t mention any on TV. She did say that when she attended her orientation, Rehnquist said that if anyone leaked anything, that person’s career was over.
– is my take.
Scotusblog thinks it’s legit
Did Alito write it alone, or did the ghost of Scalia help? Are there any references to fortune cookies or applesauce?
Also, do people, as they read it, fancy they can faintly hear the music of angelic choirs echoing somewhere off in the distance? Or perhaps some muffled snarling as if from angry demons under the floorboards?
Theoretically you’re correct, of course, but what about the crazies?!? I kid (a bit), but most women I know are not versed in civics and will see this as a Republican coup d’etat, not a return to federalism. And, well, I’m dreading it.
So what? Isn’t the issue about what the states can do vis a vis their citizens? My old pals in Oklahoma just passed a Texas style very restrictive abortion decision re: 15 weeks. So a 15 year old chick who gets knocked up and wants an abortion can’t get a leftist abortion group to give her a bus ticket to Colorado to get an abortion? Give me a break.
This is exactly what I was expecting to happen if Roe was overturned.
I was starting to think that the decision not leaking was a sure sign that SCOTUS was going to disappoint me again.
Career-ending? Have you met the Left?
Are you sure about Kavanaugh?