A sharply divided U.S. Supreme Court on Monday stood by its most recent abortion precedent. Chief Justice John Roberts joined the court’s four liberals, citing the Supreme Court’s adherence to precedent, to invalidate a Louisiana law that required doctors at clinics that perform abortions to have admitting privileges at a nearby hospital.
Louisiana’s law is virtually identical to one struck down by the court in 2016, which found that the admitting-privileges law in Texas was medically unnecessary and that it significantly limited access to abortion.
But since then the composition of the court has changed significantly, and abortion opponents had high hopes that the new conservative majority would reverse course. Roberts, who dissented from the 2016 decision, apparently decided, however, that the value of abiding by precedent was more important.
In his concurring opinion, Roberts wrote that “The legal doctrine of stare decisis requires us, absent special circumstances, to treat like cases alike. The Louisiana law imposes a burden on access to abortion just as severe as that imposed by the Texas law, for the same reasons.”
Writing for the plurality, Justice Stephen Breyer said the Louisiana law “would place substantial obstacles in the path of women seeking an abortion” in the state, that it offers “no significant health-related benefits” and that the law “consequently imposes an “undue burden” on a woman’s constitutional right to choose to have an abortion,” and therefore violates the Constitution.
In a dissenting opinion, Justice Clarence Thomas wrote that, “Our abortion precedents are grievously wrong and should be overruled,” and that the high court has “neither jurisdiction nor constitutional authority to declare Louisiana’s duly enacted law unconstitutional….”
The above comes from a June 29 story on NPR.
Catholics need to resign themselves to the fact that abortion is forever in America. All those rosaries for an end to abortion? This is what happens. Consecrating America to Mary? This is what happens. America is thoroughly pro-gay marriage, pro transgender, pro abortion, pro secularism, and it’s not going to change, and America is in danger of becoming anti-American and anti founding principles. Conservative religious people, not just Catholics, have lost the culture war. It’s over. Now time to decide what to do, knowing those facts, that won’t be a waste of time and effort. I suggest abandoning politics completely, giving up on that, and focusing on our own families and parishes. It’s over for conservative Christians at the federal and state levels.
When a mother prays for her children to come back to the faith, those prayers may be answered long after her passing. But does that invalidate the efficacy of her prayers? I don’t think so. Christians in Russia after the Bolshevik revolution had a long wait before religious freedom was restored; now I wonder if there is more religious freedom there than here. Were then those years of suffering and prayer in vain? I don’t think so. The truth is always worth fighting for, even if for a time the minions of Satan seem to have won the day. And I grant you, the culture wars are largely lost as of now. But for Christians to abandon the public square is just what the Marxists/progressives want. Their totalitarian streak would grow to the point of outright persecution absent the voices of conscience from conservatives. If we don’t fight, we will bring shame upon the name of Jesus.
Corey this is a joke right? Never give up unless you align yourself with the Devil with despair and hopelessness. It’s not over, ever until we win and win big and we will one day because Jesus will be the victor. Never, never give up. I still believe it will be a landslide for Trump.
i cant for the life of me figure out why catholics dont understand basic civics. If a law is unconstitutional, stop trying to replace the judges who are telling you it is unconstitutional. Amend the Constitution!
I could say the same about basic understanding of marriage.
“Amend the Constitution!”??!!?? To quote John McEnroe, “You can’t be serious!” YFC, I can’t understand why you think amending the constitution is easier than replacing inferior judges. 2/3 of state legislatures must propose a constitutional convention or 3/4 of the states if Congress calls for a convention. But maybe in a strange way you are correct. One can envision the following scenario: the democrats win big in November, call for a constitutional convention to pass an expanded ERA, expanded to include LBGTQ++, and if that fails to get the requisite number of states, rely upon the old stand-by, the ever new and improved radical Supreme court, to mop up what remains of the Moral/Natural Law and obliterate the Judeo/Christian tradition upon which this country was built. Yes, YFC, you may be right.
If you want to quote John McEnroe, go right ahead. Then take a civics class. The Chief Justice told you today that even though he is a practicing catholic, he is not going to undo the judgements of the Court going back to the 1970s. He just isn’t, and he is the darling of the right wing. If you want abortion to be illegal in the US, you have to amend the Constitution. It’s not that difficult of a concept, and when you think about how much angst there has been over the years to create a court to overturn Roe, For almost 50 years, the right has tried to create a court to overturn Roe. Not happenning.
One more vote is all we need.
The Human Rights Amendment lost by 1 vote in the Senate.
And your point? It would be temporary win anyway because the truth and Jesus will win in the final victory.
It is delusional to think the current Chief Justice is the “darling of the right wing”. The final nail in that coffin was when he voted for Obamacare.
YFC if it does happen will you be sad that one of the most sacred acts of the political left (killing babies) would no longer be considered a right?
“YFC”, legalized abortion was brought to us by 7 activist Supreme Court justices and their twisted version of the constitution. The document is fine, some of those who are in the position to interpret it are not.
It’s not in the Constitution!
Justice Roberts said the Louisiana law was unconstitutional because the Court said a nearly identical Texas law from 2016 was unconstitutional. Stare Decisis Nothing more.
As in, for example, Plessy v Ferguson?
Stare Decisis….Like Dred Scott?
I’ve been following the court for years. Roberts had a very consistent record until about two years into the Obama administration. His consistent record changed overnight with the Obamacare decision about 8 years ago. He’s been playing politics ever since. Why?
First, for the court decisions that Obama/liberals care about, I’ve observed that Roberts will vote with the liberals. However, if a conservative justice votes with the liberals, then Roberts will usually vote with the conservatives. In other words, Roberts is a conservative who always ensures that the liberal view prevails on important cases.
Second, two things happened around the time that Roberts changed. The first is that Obama gave a State of the Union speech. During the speech, Obama made a verbal barb against the Supreme Court’s decision making skills. Repulsed by the barb, Justice Alito slowly nodded his head back in forth in reaction. Within a year, there were also two media reports that journalists had made complaints that someone appeared to have hacked their computers in highly sophisticated attacks. Even though both journalists were liberal, they both had written critically of Obama.
This leads me to believe that Obama realized through the “State of the Union” incident that he wouldn’t be able to get the Court’s conservatives to budge on issues, especially Obamacare. To change this, he leaned heavily on one of his corrupt intelligence appointees (probably the NSA) to hack the computers of the Court’s conservatives for the purposes of blackmail. They found it on Justice Roberts computer.
In my view, the possibility of blackmail needs to be included in the vetting of future Supreme Court justices.
Christ said, “I am….the truth.” He died on the Cross for the truth. The 8th commandment tells us to love truth and to show love for others by respecting their reputation. Baltimore Catechism on the 8th Commandment.
Siror Madam
It has been 72 ho9urs since my post of 6/30 at 8:11am. Is the moderator on extended holiday for Canada Day and July 4?
Respectfully