Supreme Court has voted to overturn abortion rights, draft opinion shows

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The document, labeled as a first draft of the majority opinion, includes a notation that it was circulated among the justices on Feb. 10. If the Alito draft is adopted, it would rule in favor of Mississippi in the closely watched case over that state’s attempt to ban most abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy.

A Supreme Court spokesperson declined to comment or make another representative of the court available to answer questions about the draft document.

POLITICO received a copy of the draft opinion from a person familiar with the court’s proceedings in the Mississippi case along with other details supporting the authenticity of the document. The draft opinion runs 98 pages, including a 31-page appendix of historical state abortion laws. The document is replete with citations to previous court decisions, books and other authorities, and includes 118 footnotes. The appearances and timing of this draft are consistent with court practice.

The disclosure of Alito’s draft majority opinion – a rare breach of Supreme Court secrecy and tradition around its deliberations – comes as all sides in the abortion debate are girding for the ruling. Speculation about the looming decision has been intense since the December oral arguments indicated a majority was inclined to support the Mississippi law.

Under longstanding court procedures, justices hold preliminary votes on cases shortly after argument and assign a member of the majority to write a draft of the court’s opinion. The draft is often amended in consultation with other justices, and in some cases the justices change their votes altogether, creating the possibility that the current alignment on Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization could change.

The chief justice typically assigns majority opinions when he is in the majority. When he is not, that decision is typically made by the most senior justice in the majority.

‘Exceptionally weak’

A George W. Bush appointee who joined the court in 2006, Alito argues that the 1973 abortion rights ruling was an ill-conceived and deeply flawed decision that invented a right mentioned nowhere in the Constitution and unwisely sought to wrench the contentious issue away from the political branches of government.

Full article here
https://www.politico.com/news/2022/05/0 ... n-00029473

if the SCOTUS overturns Roe vs. Wade there will be holy hell to pay. If they get away with it, what would be next, Brown vs. the Board of Education?
Legal experts: Alito's leaked decision also calls into question laws on birth control, privacy and same-sex marriage

As one Civil Rights lawyer explained, "The draft sets out a vision of substantive due process as inflexible — a right exists only if it’s been recognized for generations. No room for constitutional change to match a more tolerant and enlightened society. A recipe for no Roe OR Griswold OR Obergefell."

Griswold was the 1965 ruling that declared the Constitution protects the liberty of married couples to buy and use contraceptives without the government probing their decisions or lives.

Obergefell is the ruling that ultimately legalized same-sex marriage.
https://www.rawstory.com/alito-leak/
Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.-Huxley
"We can have democracy in this country, or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can't have both." ~ Louis Brandeis,

Re: Supreme Court has voted to overturn abortion rights, draft opinion shows

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Also from the Politico article:
Deliberations on controversial cases have in the past been fluid. Justices can and sometimes do change their votes as draft opinions circulate and major decisions can be subject to multiple drafts and vote-trading, sometimes until just days before a decision is unveiled. The court’s holding will not be final until it is published, likely in the next two months.
Sounds like it's one draft circulating, it might not be the final one. We just have to wait until an opinion is published.
"Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts." - Daniel Patrick Moynihan

Re: Supreme Court has voted to overturn abortion rights, draft opinion shows

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What a terrible time to be alive. So many people trying to kill us and destroy the greatest force for human welfare: Democracy.

It's indicative that this is the first time in a long time (if ever) that the SCOTUS has had a leak. Is it from a clerk of the 3+1, to arouse the Pro-Choice folks that for the first time in US History a SCOTUS will TAKE AWAY a right?
Or was it a clerk of the 5 who wants to give the anti-Abortion, anti-sex, anti-LGBTQ thugs an endzone dance.
"Even if the bee could explain to the fly why pollen is better than shit, the fly could never understand."

Re: Supreme Court has voted to overturn abortion rights, draft opinion shows

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If this is the opinion, think of what a court system with even more Republican nominated and approved Federal Judgeships will mean. Remember that it is not just the SCOTUS but also 13 Circuit Courts and 94 US District Courts that are Article III judges serving for life unless removed. There are also the Non-Article III Federal Judgeships that general serve for a period of time but cover areas such as the Magistrate Courts, Bankruptcy, Federal Claims Courts, Tax Courts and Territorial Courts.
Them that's got shall have
Them that's not shall lose
So the Bible said and it still is news

Yes, the strong gets more
While the weak ones fade
Empty pockets don't ever make the grade

Money, you've got lots of friends
Crowding round the door
When you're gone, spending ends
They don't come no more
Rich relations give
Crust of bread and such
You can help yourself
But don't take too much
To be vintage it must be older than me!
The next gun I buy will be the next to last gun I ever buy. PROMISE!
jim

Re: Supreme Court has voted to overturn abortion rights, draft opinion shows

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From law clerks to other employees of SCOTUS, there are a lot of suspects. Roberts won't be happy and SCOTUS' police force will be investigating. Either side could have leaked it to try and influence the final decision.

It says "First Draft" so this is old since the case was argued a while ago. No breakdown on how the justices voted, it is fluid. We just have to wait.
"Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts." - Daniel Patrick Moynihan

Re: Supreme Court has voted to overturn abortion rights, draft opinion shows

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A well know neuroscientist tells us that free will is an illusion. Others in the field say, yeah baby, we've got it! I am either unwilling or unable to decide which is correct. There's a joke in there somewhere, just needs teased out.

No one can think of everything, but most can consider the ideas of others and re-form convictions should their brains be so wired and overturning be warranted.

The farther one is away from consequence, the easier it becomes to act as truth.

Therefor, I submit the following:

All biological females between 18 and 50, would vote nationwide to enact an amendment to the U.S. Constitution which will either make abortion a right or explicitly deny the practice but for medical necessity. To help with participation, $1,000 Dollars, tax free is to be paid in cash, on the spot, to each woman upon casting a vote. No men will be allowed within ½ mile of the polling site, for security.

Should the amendment secure a right, case closed. Should the law of the land prohibit, then all religious organizations operating within the United States are to have their tax exempt status withdrawn, and the monies collected be used for the care, feeding, housing, education, and any other needs for the resulting humans until such time as they can be contributing members of our planet.

If it seems I've lost my mind, I used to drink!
This isn't going well, is it?

Re: Supreme Court has voted to overturn abortion rights, draft opinion shows

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Alito cites judge who executed women for witchcraft and legalized spousal rape in Supreme Court draft ruling

The draft of an opinion by Justice Samuel Alito was leaked Monday night, showing the legal justifications the Supreme Court intends to use to block abortion in half of the United States.

Columbia Journalism School professor Emily Bell cited an excerpt from the opinion in which Alito mentions 17th century judge Sir Matthew Hale as he sought to make the case that justices misinterpreted history in their Roe v Wade decision.

"Two treatises by Sir Matthew Hale likewise described abortion of a quick child who died in the womb as a 'great crime' and a 'great misprision..." the decision states.

While many anti-abortion activists debate "personhood," most seem to agree that a woman shouldn't be forced to carry a dead fetus that could ultimately kill her. Miscarriages are exceedingly common, and happen in up to an estimated 30 percent of all pregnancies.

Hale also ensured women were executed for being witches.

"A 12 mo. sixpenny pamphlet published by the well known E. Curll 'at the Dial and Bible against St. Dunstan's Church in Fleet Street' was issued in 1712 under the title Witchcraft Farther Display'd, along with an account of Jane Wenham since her condemnation and also an account of the trials in 1661 at Cork of Florence Newton; this contains an abstract of the trial before Sir Matthew Hale in 1664 at Bury St. Edmonds, Suffolk, of Amy Duny and Rose Cullender, who were both convicted, March 10, and both were hanged, March 17, 1664, wholly unrepentant and denying the crime," recalled the Spring 1926 issue of the Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology.

The two women were convicted of "bewitching Elizabeth, Anne and William Durent, Jane Bocking, Susan Chandler, Elizabeth and Deborah Pacey (or Pacy)," the Journal recalled. A colic baby was left with Amy Duny one night crying desperately for relief and Duny let it suck on something. The Journal explained that in the early 1900s a mother would use "castor oil or its equivalent." She took the baby to a doctor known for curing "bewitched children."

"That wise man advised her to hang the child's blanket all day in the chimney corner and at night wrap the child in it, and if she saw anything in it not to be afraid, but to throw it in the fire. She did as directed, a great toad fell out of the blanket and ran about the floor (toads seem to have run in those days)," said the century-old journal. "A young man (not named or produced as a witness) catch'd this Toad and held it in the Fire with a Pair of Tongs: immediately it made a great Noise, to which succeeded a Flash like Gunpowder, followed by a Report as great as that of a Pistol; and after this, the Toad was no more seen."

This "evidence" was used to not only convict one woman but hang her for witchcraft. "It obtained credence from men of the deservedly high standing of Hale..."

There was then an accusation that Duny and Rose Cullender appeared as a vision to two children who suddenly couldn't open their mouths. The children proclaimed "There stands Amy Duny," "There stands Rose Cullender!"

"The Fits were not alike," described the accusations. "Sometimes they were lame on the Right Side, sometimes on the Left: sometimes so sore that they could not bear to be touch'd; sometimes perfectly well in other Respects but they could not hear; at other times they could not see; sometimes they lost their speech for one, two and once eight days together."

This was used to justify that Cullender was a witch and she too was hanged.

"Convicted on Thursday, March 13, 1665, they were executed on Monday, March 17, Sir Matthew Hale being so satisfied with the verdict, that he refused to grant a reprieve," the Journal recalled.

Hale also has a history of supporting marital rape in his cases. The American Bar Association Journal dated September 1980 addressed the issue of spousal rape throughout the history of jurisprudence. Hale devised the "consent theory" in the 17th century stating that a husband can't be guilty of a rape.

"But the husband cannot be guilty of rape committed by himself upon his lawful wife, for by their mutual matrimonial consent and contract the wife hath given herself up to this kind unto her husband which she cannot retract," wrote Hale.

Hale's justification for spousal rape was used as recently as 1986, when in R v. Roberts, the Court of Appeal held that "consent had, on the facts, been terminated where there was a formal deed of separation, even though this lacked both a non-cohabitation clause and a non-molestation clause."

Sir Matthew Hale is the same legal influence that Alito uses to justify removing the right of women to get an abortion.
https://www.rawstory.com/samuel-alito-r ... -abortion/

Just shows the Repug jurist hasn't learned anything in the last 400 years.
Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.-Huxley
"We can have democracy in this country, or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can't have both." ~ Louis Brandeis,

Re: Supreme Court has voted to overturn abortion rights, draft opinion shows

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News reports are saying that Roberts and the justices have confirmed the authenticity of the draft and that SCOTUS police will be investigating.
The leak of the draft ruling on a high-stakes issue like abortion is being described as an extraordinary breach of protocol and tradition for the Supreme Court, whose nine justices and their clerks are known for being extremely discreet.

The document, which Politico said it obtained from a "person familiar with the court's proceedings," is marked "first draft" and dated Feb. 10, 2022 -- two months after oral arguments were heard in the case Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization.

"The Constitution does not prohibit the citizens of each State from regulating or prohibiting abortion," the draft states. "Roe and Casey arrogated that authority. We now overrule those decisions and return that authority to the people and their elected representatives."
The leaked document is part of that fluid process and is not the court's final ruling.

Though the document is from February, an unnamed source familiar with the deliberations told Politico that Justices Alito, Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett all initially supported a ruling siding with Mississippi and "that line-up remains unchanged as of this week."

A Wall Street Journal editorial this month suggested that Chief Justice John Roberts, known for his passion for established precedent and the court's reputation, may try to convince one of his conservative colleagues to join him in a narrower opinion that would not completely overturn Roe v. Wade.
If the Supreme Court rules to overturn Roe v. Wade, the power to decide abortion access would rest with the elected leaders of each
state.

As of today, more than half of the nation's 50 states are prepared to ban abortion if Roe is overturned, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a reproductive rights organization.
Twenty-one states already have laws on the books that would immediately ban abortion if Roe were overturned. Five additional states are likely to ban abortion should Roe be overturned, the Guttmacher report said.

Because the states that plan to ban abortion are focused in specific geographic regions, including the South, the expected effect is that women will have to travel much longer distances, at a greater cost and inconvenience, to seek abortion care, according to Elizabeth Nash, interim associate director of state issues at the Guttmacher Institute.

On the other side, states that support abortion rights, like California, Connecticut and New York, are also ones to watch if Roe is overturned because they could fortify laws that enhance and protect abortion access in their states, experts say.
https://abcnews.go.com/GMA/News/things- ... d=84465242

Sometimes drafts aren't finalized until a week before they're released.


Good news from a US employer.
Amazon.com Inc, the second-largest U.S. private employer, told its staff on Monday it will pay up to $4,000 in travel expenses annually for non-life threatening medical treatments including abortions, according to a message seen by Reuters.

The decision makes the online retailer the latest company after Citigroup Inc, Yelp Inc and others to respond to Republican-backed state laws curbing abortion access, helping employees bypass them. It shows how companies are eager to retain and attract talent in locations that remain important to their operations despite legal changes impacting employees' health.
https://www.reuters.com/business/retail ... 022-05-02/
"Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts." - Daniel Patrick Moynihan

Re: Supreme Court has voted to overturn abortion rights, draft opinion shows

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Leaking this benefits Democrats and Republicans especially in this election year with a lot of primaries from here on. Republicans will say that the 3 justices they put on SCOTUS will overturn Roe and Democrats will rally their supporters to finally abolish the filibuster and enact Roe v Wade into federal statute law. Any statute Democrats enact can be overturned the next time Republicans hold the trifecta. Both parties aren't going to miss any opportunity to whip up their followers and the media on the right and left will make money from helping to whip up those followers.
Last edited by highdesert on Tue May 03, 2022 1:22 pm, edited 1 time in total.
"Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts." - Daniel Patrick Moynihan

Re: Supreme Court has voted to overturn abortion rights, draft opinion shows

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No, a broad federal law determine the freedom of women to choose when to carry a pregnancy is as important for social welfare and the economy here in the US as it is for third-world countries like Afghanistan. It isn’t right to let each State decide this issue. That exactly is playing into the hands of corporatists who plan on keeping Americans fighting over these social issue to ensure low service-sector wages are the norm and low corporate taxes continue to make Universal Healthcare a pipe-dream.

But the freedom for abortions (like many other rights) has been something that we have taken for granted. As the saying goes, “It’s a democracy... if you can keep it.”
"It is better to be violent, if there is violence in our hearts, than to put on the cloak of non-violence to cover impotence. There is hope for a violent man to become non-violent. There is no such hope for the impotent." -Gandhi

Re: Supreme Court has voted to overturn abortion rights, draft opinion shows

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CDFingers wrote: Tue May 03, 2022 1:10 pm Yeah: Roberts has launched an investigation into the leak. But the broader implications are that the decision must devolve to the states. The headline is misleading..

"California--where you get to choose. Texas--not so much."

CDFingers

If abortion devolves to the states, this type of decision could be a template for the NYSRPA vs Bruen decision.
"Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts." - Daniel Patrick Moynihan

Re: Supreme Court has voted to overturn abortion rights, draft opinion shows

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True dat!
Thomas Jefferson referred to the First Amendment as creating a "wall of separation" between church and state as the third president of the U.S.
Freedom of religion has ironically been used as the only excuse for making laws repressing legal rights of women and the LGBTQ+ community. It’s time to turn the argument around and have a legal definition once and for all that government cannot protect the rights of a single or few religion at the cost of the rights of any other religion or non-religious citizens in general. Governments simply cannot make laws restricting nor preferencing the rights and beliefs of any religion in the United States.

This seems so basic. Hardly worth discussing!
"It is better to be violent, if there is violence in our hearts, than to put on the cloak of non-violence to cover impotence. There is hope for a violent man to become non-violent. There is no such hope for the impotent." -Gandhi

Re: Supreme Court has voted to overturn abortion rights, draft opinion shows

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The States have quite a bit of autonomy under the Ninth and Tenth Amendments, the final arbiter being >drum roll< the SCOTUS. Strict constructionists want the Federal .gov weak except War--wage it, and the States strong except broke--bail it out. They are of suck. They cannot win unless they select the voters because their policies do not benefit a majority, only the top ten percent.

CDFingers
Crazy cat peekin' through a lace bandana
like a one-eyed Cheshire, like a diamond-eyed Jack

Re: Supreme Court has voted to overturn abortion rights, draft opinion shows

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Mikeinmich wrote: Tue May 03, 2022 2:44 pm We’ll, that took a lot of bravery. I could maybe do it now that I’m frankly sick of having a legal career, but I’ve been doing this a long time. I think as soon as they figure out who did it that Biden should immediately pardon them and hand them a f’in medal. Along with a big middle finger (or some good Italian gesture since it’s Alito’s opinion. )
Hmmm. I hadn’t considered that someone working on the staff of the Supreme Court leaked the document as a political act to get people to notice “Roe v Wade” is going away!

This just made news in Japan on NHK News.
"It is better to be violent, if there is violence in our hearts, than to put on the cloak of non-violence to cover impotence. There is hope for a violent man to become non-violent. There is no such hope for the impotent." -Gandhi

Re: Supreme Court has voted to overturn abortion rights, draft opinion shows

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I've yet to see any evidence that the leak was illegal. A breach of protocol, etiquette, and disregard for tradition, sure. But so is the draft decision.

Also the stupidest decision that the court could make this year. Motivates the left to turn out like nothing else would. If the Senate gets to 51, 52 D? The game changes. The right has been doing its best to antagonize a lot of very wealthy industries lately - entertainment and tech in particular. November is going to be existential. Again.

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