Was the Anti-Abortion Influence Campaign an Open Secret at the Supreme Court?

There’s new evidence at least one justice not only knew of the clandestine operation, but welcomed it.

Pema Levy
Dec 8, 2022

On Thursday, the Reverend Robert Schenck testified before Congress about the anti-abortion influence campaign he ran targeting the Supreme Court, recounting the bombshell revelations that have clouded the highest court in scandal first reported in November by the New York Times. While speaking to the lawmakers, Schenck shared a new detail: that at least one justice knew about his efforts—and approved of them. “

Justice Thomas commended me,” Schenck recalled of one interaction, “saying something like: ‘Keep up what you’re doing. It’s making a difference.'”

Continued: https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2022/12/rob-schenck-clarence-thomas-supreme-court/


There’s a Glaring Weakness in Justice Alito’s Case Against Roe v. Wade

BY KATE SHAW AND STEVEN MAZIE
MAY 27, 2022

It has been more than three weeks since the bombshell leak of a draft opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization—the pending Supreme Court case that could end abortion rights in America as we know them. Justice Samuel Alito’s draft pronounces Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision recognizing a constitutional right to terminate a pregnancy, “egregiously wrong from the start.”

Laced with contempt for a right that has stood for 49 years, the Dobbs draft overrules Roe along with the 1992 follow-on decision Planned Parenthood v. Casey. The weaknesses of the draft are many: a shockingly narrow view of constitutional rights; an insistence that killing “an unborn human being” poses a “critical moral question” with no acknowledgement that commandeering wombs might raise an ethical quandary, too; reasoning that, despite dubious disclaimers, puts other rights—including contraception, sexual intimacy, and marriage equality—at risk.

Continued: https://time.com/6182093/roe-v-wade-alito-abortion-reliance-interests/


If Roe v. Wade Is Overturned, What’s Next?

After building toward such a moment for half a century, pro-life legal efforts aren’t likely to stop there.

By Jeannie Suk Gersen, The New Yorker
April 17, 2022

In 2003, when the Supreme Court held, in Lawrence v. Texas, that criminalizing gay sex was unconstitutional, it insisted that the decision had nothing to do with marriage equality. In a scathing dissent, Justice Antonin Scalia wrote, “Do not believe it.” Then, in 2013, when the Court struck down the federal Defense of Marriage Act’s definition of marriage as being between a man and a woman, emphasizing the tradition of letting the states define marriage, Scalia issued another warning, saying that “no one should be fooled” into thinking that the Court would leave states free to exclude gay couples from that definition. He was finally proved right two years later, when the reasoning on dignity and equality developed in those earlier rulings led to the Court’s holding that the Constitution requires all states to recognize same-sex marriage.

Continued: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/04/25/if-roe-v-wade-is-overturned-whats-next


USA – The Authoritarian Plan for a National Abortion Ban

Some on the right want the Supreme Court to go beyond ending Roe.

By Michelle Goldberg, Opinion Columnist, NY Times
April 5, 2021

The anti-abortion movement was never going to stop with overturning Roe v. Wade.

For years, Republicans have argued that their goal was to return the issue of abortion to the states. At no point was this believable; since 1984, the Republican Party platform has called for a constitutional amendment banning abortion. Having spent decades denouncing abortion as a singular moral evil, the anti-abortion movement will not be content to return to a pre-Roe status quo, where abortion was legal in some places but not others.

Continued:  https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/05/opinion/us-abortion-bans.html


These States Could Lose the Right to Abortion Overnight

OCT. 27, 2020
By Madeleine Aggeler

With the appointment of Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court, the legal battle over reproductive rights in the United States is likely to intensify quickly. There are currently 17 abortion-related cases one step away from the Supreme Court. And now, with a 6-3 conservative majority on the Court, the future of Roe v. Wade — the 1973 case which ruled that abortion is a constitutional right — is more uncertain than ever.

Barrett, a devout Catholic and former mentee of the late conservative Justice Antonin Scalia, evaded questions about abortion during her confirmation hearing. But pro-choice groups like NARAL and Planned Parenthood have called her a “clear and present danger to Roe and reproductive freedom,” and “a particular insult to the legacy of Justice Ginsberg.” Indeed, Barrett was a member of an anti-abortion, “right to life” group in Indiana as recently as 2016, and in 2013, she gave two talks to anti-abortion student groups at the University of Notre Dame.

Continued: https://www.thecut.com/2020/10/what-are-trigger-laws-anti-abortion-roe-v-wade.html


What to make of Amy Coney Barrett’s answers on Roe v. Wade so far, according to experts

‘I can’t pre-commit,’ Barrett said on the second day of confirmation hearings

Lena Felton
October 14

Abortion access took center stage within the first hour of the Senate Judiciary Committee’s questioning of Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett on Tuesday. That was no surprise; along with the Affordable Care Act and LGBTQ protections, it’s been one of the most contentious issues since President Trump nominated her. Trump has pledged to appoint justices that would overturn Roe v. Wade, the landmark case that legalized abortion nationwide in 1973.

The Judiciary Committee’s ranking Democrat, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (Calif.), who was second in the questioning lineup, started with a long introduction to the topic, describing watching other young women in the 1950s try to obtain illegal abortions. The issue is “of a great importance, because it goes to a woman’s fundamental right to make the most personal decisions about their own body,” Feinstein said.

Continued: https://www.thelily.com/what-to-make-of-amy-coney-barretts-answers-on-roe-v-wade-so-far-according-to-experts/


Beyond Abortion: What’s at Stake With a Right-Wing Court

Amy Coney Barrett’s nomination to the highest court could spell bad news for LGBTQ equality, voting rights, and health care

Max Ufberg
Oct 12, 2020

Somehow, with the election less than a month away and Capitol Hill still reeling from a recent Covid-19 outbreak, Judge Amy Coney Barrett’s first Supreme Court confirmation hearings are set to begin today. Assuming the Senate votes to confirm Barrett — a woman who’s been described as an ideological heir to Justice Antonin Scalia — conservatives will take a 6–3 majority on the Supreme Court, giving the U.S. its most right-wing Court since 1950.

A conservative Supreme Court could rewrite the law around a number of issues, including reproductive rights, voting rights, health care, and law enforcement immunity. Below is a snapshot of what’s at stake with Barrett’s nomination.

Continued:  https://gen.medium.com/beyond-abortion-whats-at-stake-with-a-right-wing-court-2267f7a2d68c


Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Champion Of Gender Equality, Dies At 87

September 18, 2020
NINA TOTENBERG

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the demure firebrand who in her 80s became a legal, cultural and feminist icon, died Friday. The Supreme Court announced her death, saying the cause was complications from metastatic cancer of the pancreas.

The court, in a statement, said Ginsburg died at her home in Washington surrounded by family. She was 87.

"Our nation has lost a justice of historic stature," Chief Justice John Roberts said. "We at the Supreme Court have lost a cherished colleague. Today we mourn but with confidence that future generations will remember Ruth Bader Ginsburg as we knew her, a tireless and resolute champion of justice."

Continued: https://www.npr.org/2020/09/18/100306972/justice-ruth-bader-ginsburg-champion-of-gender-equality-dies-at-87


Want to overturn Roe, Republicans? Get ready for what comes next.

Want to overturn Roe, Republicans? Get ready for what comes next.
July 3, 2018

by Charles Lane, Opinion writer
July 2, 2018

Justice Antonin Scalia did not frame his opposition to Roe v. Wade in terms of opposition to abortion per se. His complaint was that the 1973 ruling created a nationwide constitutional right to abortion, thus channeling the issue into the federal courts and away from normal political processes.

By “foreclosing all democratic outlet for the deep passions this issue arouses,” wrote Scalia, who died in 2016, in his dissent from the court’s 1992 reaffirmation of Roe, “by banishing the issue from the political forum that gives all participants, even the losers, the satisfaction of a fair hearing and an honest fight, by continuing the imposition of a rigid national rule instead of allowing for regional differences, the Court merely prolongs and intensifies the anguish.”

Continued: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/want-to-overturn-roe-republicans-get-ready-for-what-comes-next/2018/07/02/eb8ad380-7e09-11e8-bb6b-c1cb691f1402_story.html


USA – Justice Kennedy, the pivotal swing vote on the Supreme Court, announces his retirement

Justice Kennedy, the pivotal swing vote on the Supreme Court, announces his retirement
What Justice Kennedy's retirement means for the Supreme Court

by Robert Barnes June 27, 2018

Justice Anthony M. Kennedy announced Wednesday that he is retiring from the Supreme Court, a move that will give President Trump a chance to replace the pivotal justice and solidify a more conservative majority on the court that plays a crucial role in American life.

“It has been the greatest honor and privilege to serve our nation in the federal judiciary for 43 years, 30 of those years on the Supreme Court,” Kennedy, 81, said in a statement released in the afternoon of the last day of the term. He said his final day will be July 31.

Continued: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/courts_law/justice-kennedy-the-pivotal-swing-vote-on-the-supreme-court-announces-retirement/2018/06/27/a40a8c64-5932-11e7-a204-ad706461fa4f_story.html?utm_term=.2e7c4ab3a380