Ricochet is the best place on the internet to discuss the issues of the day, either through commenting on posts or writing your own for our active and dynamic community in a fully moderated environment. In addition, the Ricochet Audio Network offers over 50 original podcasts with new episodes released every day.
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
We also must deal with the press which will side with the crazies. Civil unrest ahead.
If Roberts votes with the majority, and writes the opinion himself, as someone mentioned previously he’ll try to make it as narrow as possible. He could end up making it so that abortion can only be restricted for MEN.
400 is nothing. 4,000 and 40,000 would still be nothing. the left could hire a mob that size very quickly.
I will say this, we went from talk about “birthing persons,” “menstruating individuals” and “I can’t define a woman because I’m not a biologist” to WOMEN’S RIGHTS!!!!! in a heartbeat.
If the law clerk is disbarred, as she should be, will get job at MSCBC paying her 3 time a firm in NY would pay her. And the then be the designated “Supreme Court” expert.
I am willing to believe all of the following, simultaneously if necessary: (a) it was leaked by a liberal clerk; (b) it is a trial ballon to head off a 5-4 decision in favour of overturning Roe; (c) the FBI will not find any liberal to be at fault, but will find a conservative scapegoat (or multiple scapegoats); (d) the GOPe will find a way to turn this into an electoral disaster.
Or maybe the next SCOTUS nominee, or the Vice President…
No way KE. Either the states make the decision about when women can abort or the states too. I doubt even Roberts is this stupid. So I think it will be 6-3. Thank you Donald Trump and Cocaine Mitch.
Would agree if normal D.C. political B.S. But this is Supreme Court stuff. A third branch. And involving an explosive case. I would be shocked if the FBI caved on this one. If so we are really screwed.
https://www.facebook.com/watch/?ref=external&v=1441688716280054
Live link
Watch Live: Outside SCOTUS as Nation Learns of Alleged Draft Ruling Overturning Roe v. Wade (breitbart.com)
One could say the suspension on the progressive bus is so good you barely feel anything when they run over an identity group on their way to comfort white women.
Last week: “Do you think men can get pregnant?”
Them: “That’s an interesting question that really gets to the heart of the truth about gender, and how people define themselves.”
This week: “If men can get pregnant, doesn’t that mean they have the right to an opinion on the abortion issue?”
Them: “You know, go bleep yourself.”
My take (based on news reports and blogging since I have no first-hand knowledge of Supreme Court matters):
1) It’s a legit first draft from February. It’s 2-3 months old, so there could have been quite a few changes, both from Alito himself and also incorporating comments from other justices.
2) This draft implies that the original vote in the conference was 5-4 to overturn. If Roberts had been in the majority, he would have written a narrow opinion to uphold Dobbs but not overturn Roe/Casey because he was the only one to hold that view in oral arguments, but this one is broad, so Roberts did not agree with the 5-justice majority. Thus, Thomas assigned Alito to write the majority opinion. It intrigues me that Thomas did not write the opinion himself given that he is such a strong pro-life voice.
3) Robert is unlikely to be the leaker because he is a strong institutionalist and would not do something that would harm the court or break precedent. His call for the FBI to investigate also makes it unlikely that he is the leaker.
4) There is sure to have been and continue to be internal negotiating, so it’s not certain that the final vote will be to overturn Roe (or possibly even to uphold Dobbs). But it makes it very likely that Roe/Casey will be overturned because the majority coalition aligns with the questioning in oral arguments.
5) The leaker was probably a liberal clerk on the staff of one of the liberal dissenters who wanted to crank up the pressure on Kavanaugh and Barrett. They will find the leaker who will be fired and disbarred, but he will become a leftist hero.
6) Will Roberts write a concurring opinion that upholds Dobbs but does not agree with the sections that overturn Roe/Casey?
Great one James. So we need a counter-protest before the decision comes down. Trannies for free births!
7) Another interesting question is why Roberts didn’t cast a tactical vote with the 5 justices to uphold Dobbs to make it 6-3 and then assign himself to write a narrow opinion. You would think the 5 justices would have to go along with Roberts narrow opinion. But perhaps the 5 justices agreed among themselves not to concur with such a narrow opinion, leaving Roberts no option to cast a tactical vote. Maybe Alito only wrote a first draft in February instead of last fall because there was horse-trading going on among Roberts and the 5 and Roberts lost.
Maybe because he wanted to see which way the wind was blowing. Like the Obamacare decision. But pow looking at Gorsuch, Barrett and Kavanaugh knows he is out foxed. Thank you DT and Cocaine Mitch!
But there were mean Tweets!
One thing that might come out of it, if true, is pointing out for people the 50 years of leftist propaganda that if Roe v Wade was overturned, women would be forced into back alley abortions. When that doesn’t happen, they’ve got some splainin’ to do.
The fury at MSNBC in the 11th Hours was overwhelming. There was not a single commentator who suggested that this might be a good and proper decision.
The leaker is already being called a hero in many quarters.
Other than Thomas, of all of the justices I would trust to get it right Alito would be no. 2. If Thomas wrote this you know what the reaction would be. Too explosive to give to the three relative newbies. Or the pussy Roberts. Alito can do it.
Obviously Thomas agrees with you. If the CJ is in the majority he assigns the opinion. If the CJ is in the minority, the opinion is assigned by the most senior Justice in the majority and that would be Mr. Justice Thomas.
will take either one.
Roberts’ overarching goal is to de-politicize the Court, and surely he is clever enough to understand that Roe is the decision that politicized the Court in the first place. Sure there will be some short-term heat, but the only way to achieve his long-term goal is to overturn Roe and kick the abortion hot-potato from SCOTUS confirmation hearings back to the state legislatures.
What’s more galling to me is progressives suddenly claiming to care about the Constitution.
Yep. They are all emotions, and anger at MEN telling a woman about her body. The notion of the Constitution does not occur to them.
Who is going to be there will be a new push for court packing from all of those who yearn for the norms, from Corporate media, Biden and democrats in congress (I bet even the bulwark will give it’s view that only true conservatives will push for court packing).
Oh, so the young clerk didn’t go to North Idaho A&M?
I like the improvement
I find it hard to believe. That type of full-throated opinion to over throw such a controversial precedent is unprecedented. If true, the leak was by a dem.
More likely, it is false and is going to be used to fire up the dem base, who really need it after the Biden debacle.
And why would anyone suppose it was a clerk and not a justice? I’m still skeptical, but time will tell.