Sotomayor felt ‘shell-shocked’ after U.S. Supreme Court’s abortion decision

By Karen Sloan, Reuters
January 4, 2023

SAN DIEGO - Liberal Justice Sonia Sotomayor on Wednesday told legal educators she felt a "sense of despair" at the direction taken by the U.S. Supreme Court during its previous term, during which its conservative majority overturned the constitutional right to abortion.

Sotomayor, who has dissented in major cases including the abortion decision as the court's 6-3 conservative majority has become increasingly assertive, described herself as "shell-shocked" and "deeply sad" after that term ended in June.

Continued: https://www.reuters.com/world/us/sotomayor-felt-shell-shocked-after-us-supreme-courts-abortion-decision-2023-01-04/

04.01.2023

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Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization

California: What constitutional law experts say about the abortion ballot measure

BY MELODY GUTIERREZ
OCT. 14, 2022

SACRAMENTO — With favorable polls and a pile of cash on hand, supporters of the California ballot measure to add abortion rights directly into the state Constitution have enjoyed an easy road in this election thus far. Gov. Gavin Newsom is using at least $2 million of his own campaign funds to air ads supporting Proposition 1, and supporters featured Hillary Clinton on a panel Thursday discussing the importance of further solidifying California’s abortion rights.

But the smooth sailing would end if it’s passed, the small and underdog opposition campaign is promising ahead of the Nov. 8 election.

Continued: https://www.latimes.com/california/newsletter/2022-10-14/california-politics-abortion-measure-gas-taxes-ca-politics

Republicans won’t stop until abortion is banned across America. And it could be

It is time for liberal Americans, and all American women, to face this reality: there will soon be no safe states

Moira Donegan
Thu 15 Sep 2022

Republicans want to ban abortion nationwide, and they have the nerve to claim that this is a compromise. This week, Senator Lindsay Graham, of South Carolina, introduced a bill to ban all abortions everywhere in the United States at 15 weeks. Abortion is already banned before 15 weeks in 15 states.

It is banned outright in Alabama, Arkansas, Idaho, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas and Wisconsin. Indiana’s ban on abortion went into effect just this Wednesday. It is banned at six weeks – in practice a total ban – in Georgia and Ohio. West Virginia passed an abortion ban, too. It won’t be the last.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/sep/15/republicans-wont-stop-until-abortion-is-banned-across-america-and-it-could-be

15.09.2022

national abortion ban

Roe v. Wade hasn’t been overturned. The rule of law might have been.

The Supreme Court just declined to uphold the Constitution.

By Erwin Chemerinsky
Sep 2, 2021

The Supreme Court’s decision, in the wee hours of Thursday morning, declining to enjoin a Texas law that bans abortions after about the sixth week of pregnancy, immediately prompted the reaction that “Roe v. Wade is dead” and “Roe v. Wade got overturned.” But Roe v. Wade wasn’t expressly overturned. The landmark 1973 ruling was, as former secretary of state Hillary Clinton tweeted, “gutted.” The insult to the injury of the court’s decision is that a 5-to-4 majority didn’t countermand the court’s own holding in Roe. Instead, in a cowardly unsigned opinion, members of the majority — over the signed dissents of Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and the court’s three liberal justices — declined to carry out their central and sacred functions: to protect constitutional rights and uphold the rule of law.

Continued: https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2021/09/02/roe-overturn-texas-constitution/

Roe v. Wade is solid constitutional law. The U.S. Supreme Court will overturn it anyway

BY ERWIN CHEMERINSKY, SPECIAL TO THE SACRAMENTO BEE

JUNE 12, 2021

I expect in about a year that the Supreme Court will overrule Roe v. Wade and
end constitutional protection of abortion rights.

On May 17, the Court granted review in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health
Organization, which concerns a Mississippi law that prohibits abortions after
the fifteenth week of pregnancy. In light of the current composition of the
Supreme Court, there are five and maybe six votes to overrule Roe and allow
states to prohibit all or virtually all abortions. The case will be argued in
Fall 2021 and likely decided in June 2022.

Continued: https://www.sacbee.com/opinion/op-ed/article251699748.html

USA – Anthony Kennedy’s retirement puts abortion rights at risk

Anthony Kennedy’s retirement puts abortion rights at risk
The departure of Kennedy, long a swing vote on the Supreme Court, is an opening for the anti-abortion movement.

By Dylan Matthews
Jun 27, 2018

Anthony Kennedy, the longest-serving member of the Supreme Court, is retiring.

Within minutes of his announcement, CNN senior legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin tweeted this: “Anthony Kennedy is retiring. Abortion will be illegal in twenty states in 18 months. #SCOTUS.”

Nothing is guaranteed, of course, but Kennedy has, since at least 2005, been the swing vote on many of the Court’s most ideologically charged decisions — including preserving Roe v. Wade.

Continued: https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/6/27/17510896/anthony-kennedys-retirement-puts-abortion-rights-at-risk