The Justices in the decision. Top row, left to right:
Brett Kavanaugh, Elena Kagan, Neil Gorsuch, Amy Coney Barrett.
Bottom row, left to right: Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas,
Chief Justice John Roberts, Stephen Breyer and Sonia Sotomayor.
June 24, 2022: The Supreme Court of the United States rules in the case of Thomas E. Dobbs, State Health Officer of the Mississippi Department of Health, et al. v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, et al. Their decision contradicts and eliminates the decision of Roe v. Wade in 1973, stating that the Constitution of the United States does not give a woman the right to have an abortion, purposefully terminating a pregnancy.
The vote was 6-3. Voting to overturn the Roe decision: Chief Justice John Roberts, and Associate Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett:
* All were appointed by Republican Presidents: Thomas by George H.W. Bush; Alito by George W. Bush; and Gorsuch, Kavanaugh and Barrett by Donald Trump.
* All but Thomas had been appointed by Republican Presidents who had lost the popular vote, but became President due to taking the Electoral Vote by dubious means.
* And Gorsuch was appointed by Donald Trump after President Barack Obama, a Democrat, had appointed Merrick Garland to the seat vacated by the death of Antonin Scalia, but his nomination was unconstitutionally held up by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, so that a Republican President could appoint someone new to the seat.
Voting to uphold Roe: Associate Justices Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan, all appointed by Democratic Presidents: Breyer by Bill Clinton, and Sotomayor and Kagan by Obama.
Thus ended 49 years of America's women being guaranteed this right by the Constitution. To make matters worse, Kavanaugh had testified in his confirmation hearing that Roe was "settled law." Kavanaugh had also testified that he had never sexually assaulted any women, when women had testified in that hearing that he had. Therefore, on both counts, he was guilty of perjury, and should have been impeached and removed from the Court; disbarred, prevented from the practice of law anywhere in America; and imprisoned.
Among the pro-Roe signs picketing the Supreme Court were some reading, "I can't believe my daughter has fewer rights than I do" and "I can't believe I still have to protest this shit."
Several States soon passed legislation -- and some already had "trigger laws" in place for this very eventuality -- to strictly regulate abortion. The Guttmacher Institute has a map showing the severity of such laws. They list 13 States as "most restrictive." None of them has voted for a Democratic candidate for President since 1996. Of the 11 States that had been part of the Confederate States of America during the Civil War, Virginia was listed as "some restrictions/protections"; both Carolinas and Florida were listed as "restrictive"; Georgia was listed as "very restrictive"; and the rest were listed as "most restrictive."
On the night of June 25, I wrote this on Facebook:
You know who's going to make a lot of money this year? Doordash and Uber Eats drivers in Washington, D.C. Because those six Justices will never be able to eat out in peace again.
That is not a threat. But it is a prediction.
UPDATE: Today, I found out that none of the six live in the District of Columbia. Probably because it's majority-black. Three live in the Maryland suburbs, and three in the Virginia suburbs. Somebody posted their addresses. Which could be considered an incitement to harassment or violence. But I no longer care. I don't encourage violence, but if any of them gets hurt as a result of their decision, then they brought it on themselves.
Aside from the tax cuts passed by Trump, Bush and Ronald Reagan, this was the biggest victory for the conservative movement since the fall of the Soviet Union.
In the Congressional and gubernatorial elections to come that November, Republicans were predicting a "Red Wave," in revulsion toward President Joe Biden and his policies on the economy, especially inflation; while Democrats were predicting women rising up in anger at the Republicans, a "Roevember."
UPDATE: The results were inconclusive: The Republicans took control of the House by 5 seats, but the Democrats held onto control of the Senate, and gained some Governorships, in large part due to the threat of new abortion restrictions.
*
June 24, 2022 was a Thursday. These Major League Baseball games were played:
* The New York Yankees lost to the Houston Astros, 3-1 at Yankee Stadium. Justin Verlander outpitched Luis Severino. All the games' runs came in the 6th inning: The Astros' on a 3-run home run by Kyle Tucker, the Yankees' on a solo home run by Giancarlo Stanton.
* The New York Mets beat the Miami Marlins, 5-3 at LoanDepot Park in Miami.
* The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Atlanta Braves, 4-1 at Truist Park in the Atlanta suburb of Cumberland, Georgia.
* The Tampa Bay Rays beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 4-3 at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida. Harold Ramirez singled home the winning run in the bottom of the 10th inning.
* The Boston Red Sox beat the Cleveland Guardians, 6-3 at Progressive Field in Cleveland.
* The Baltimore Orioles beat the Chicago White Sox, 4-1 at Guaranteed Rate Field (now Rate Field) in Chicago.
* The Toronto Blue Jays beat the Milwaukee Brewers, 9-4 at American Family Field in Milwaukee.
* The Colorado Rockies beat the Minnesota Twins, 1-0 at Target Field in Minneapolis. The only run came in the top of the 6th inning, when Charlie Blackmon grounded into a force play that allowed Connor Joe to score. Germán Márquez (7 2/3rds innings) and Daniel Bard combined on a 3-hit shutout.
* The Chicago Cubs beat their arch-rivals, the St. Louis Cardinals, 3-0 at Busch Stadium in St. Louis. Kyle Hendricks (7 1/3rd innings), Chris Martin (2/3rds) and David Robertson (1) combined on a 5-hit shutout.
* The Kansas City Royals beat the Oakland Athletics, 3-1 at Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City.
* The Washington Nationals beat the Texas Rangers, 2-1 at Globe Life Field in the Dallas suburb of Arlington, Texas.
* The Detroit Tigers beat the Arizona Diamondbacks, 5-1 at Chase Field in Phoenix.
* The San Diego Padres beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 1-0 at Petco Park in San Diego. The only run came in the bottom of the 6th, when Austin Nola, batting against his brother Aaron Nola, singled home Eric Hosmer. It took 4 Padres to pitch a 5-hit shutout: MacKenzie Gore (5 innings, although he did throw 97 pitches), Nabil Crismatt (2), Luis García (1) and Taylor Rogers (1).
* The Seattle Mariners beat the Los Angeles Angels, 4-3 at Angel Stadium of Anaheim. Mike Trout hit a home run, and Shohei Ohtani went 1-for-3 with a walk and an RBI, but the Angels still lost.
* And the Cincinnati Reds beat the San Francisco Giants, 4-2 at Oracle Park in San Francisco.
No comments:
Post a Comment