12-04-2021, 02:37 PM
Doesn't look like anyone has posted on this yet. It deserves its own thread.
I am especially interested here in following/comparing the competing interpretations of the Constitution and Constitutional Law which will follow from the challenge to Roe. But I am also interested in the social/political consequences of overturning Roe. How would that affect the 2022 elections? Would it enable Dems to keep the Senate and House?
Critical Moment for Roe, and the Supreme Court’s Legitimacy
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/04/us/mississippi-supreme-court-abortion-roe-v-wade.html
WASHINGTON — Donald J. Trump, who appointed three Supreme Court justices while president, vowed that they would help overturn Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision that established a constitutional right to abortion. In arguments on Wednesday, there were more than a few signs that Mr. Trump had succeeded.
The court’s three Democratic-appointed justices, sounding anguished and angry, said that overruling Roe soon after a bare-knuckled political campaign to change the court’s membership would represent a tipping point, one from which the court’s legitimacy could not recover.
“Will this institution survive the stench that this creates in the public perception that the Constitution and its reading are just political acts?” Justice Sonia Sotomayor asked.
If the Supreme Court is perceived to be made up of politicians rather than judges, Justice Stephen G. Breyer said, “that’s what kills us as an American institution.”
The case illuminates competing and shifting conceptions of the role of the court. For decades, conservatives have argued that Roe amounted to judicial activism, announcing a right not found in the Constitution and overriding the political process to achieve an outcome that politicians would not.
Now, after nearly half a century in which that right has been woven into the societal fabric, the argument may have come full circle, with many liberals saying that a decision by the court to eliminate the right to abortion would amount to flagrant political activism.
Both arguments are grounded in concerns about the court’s legitimacy, which were brought into sharper focus by Wednesday’s proceedings.
I am especially interested here in following/comparing the competing interpretations of the Constitution and Constitutional Law which will follow from the challenge to Roe. But I am also interested in the social/political consequences of overturning Roe. How would that affect the 2022 elections? Would it enable Dems to keep the Senate and House?
Critical Moment for Roe, and the Supreme Court’s Legitimacy
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/04/us/mississippi-supreme-court-abortion-roe-v-wade.html
WASHINGTON — Donald J. Trump, who appointed three Supreme Court justices while president, vowed that they would help overturn Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision that established a constitutional right to abortion. In arguments on Wednesday, there were more than a few signs that Mr. Trump had succeeded.
The court’s three Democratic-appointed justices, sounding anguished and angry, said that overruling Roe soon after a bare-knuckled political campaign to change the court’s membership would represent a tipping point, one from which the court’s legitimacy could not recover.
“Will this institution survive the stench that this creates in the public perception that the Constitution and its reading are just political acts?” Justice Sonia Sotomayor asked.
If the Supreme Court is perceived to be made up of politicians rather than judges, Justice Stephen G. Breyer said, “that’s what kills us as an American institution.”
The case illuminates competing and shifting conceptions of the role of the court. For decades, conservatives have argued that Roe amounted to judicial activism, announcing a right not found in the Constitution and overriding the political process to achieve an outcome that politicians would not.
Now, after nearly half a century in which that right has been woven into the societal fabric, the argument may have come full circle, with many liberals saying that a decision by the court to eliminate the right to abortion would amount to flagrant political activism.
Both arguments are grounded in concerns about the court’s legitimacy, which were brought into sharper focus by Wednesday’s proceedings.
![[Image: 4CV0TeR.png]](https://i.imgur.com/4CV0TeR.png)
