May 16 2022 18 mins 11
The Alito leak brought abortion front and center again
A leak out of the Supreme Court suddenly made abortion and Roe v Wade the main topic of outrage from the Left.
But, aside from whether or not the opinion aligns with yours, what are the reasons that the Roe and Casey decisions should be overturned? Are there reasons (that are not religious ones or regarding morality) that those decisions don’t hold up legally?
Listen in to find out. As a bonus, I’ll read the introduction to the Alito opinion after the main show so you can some of his reasoning.
Mentioned links:
Supreme Court leak stuns nation
10 key passages from Alito’s draft opinion, which would overturn Roe v. Wade
Is Roe v. Wade About to Be Overturned? If So, What Are the Implications?
U.S. Supreme Court launches probe into leak of draft abortion opinion
Alito’s draft opinion [PDF]
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Show transcript
A leaked draft of a Supreme Court opinion is completely unprecedented, and the content of the one leaked on the evening of May 2nd is remarkable in its own right. It appears, according to the opinion written by Justice Samuel Alito, that the Court is prepared to overturn Roe v Wade because it was poorly decided. That’s something that lawyers from both sides of the aisle have agreed with over the years. Inventing a constitutional right to abortion out of whole cloth is what the Court did, overriding the laws of every state and basically legislating from the bench.
Some are suggesting that overturning Roe would be “undemocratic” and would “politicize the Court”. What they fail to realize is that Roe itself was undemocratic and was itself politicizing. The idea that the “right” to abortion was somehow actually in the Constitution is dishonest from the start. Even worse was the whole trimester setup and what was allowed at each step of the way. Was that in the Constitution? No, it was plain legislating, a power that the Court should never have. We have a legislative branch of government for that, and so that politized the Court. And there is nothing less democratic than a few Justices writing rules for the entire nation, overriding the laws of every state. Overturning Roe restores democracy and gets the Court out of the political realm. Removing the issue from edicts from on high and back to the people is what democracy is all about.
Apparently, that’s the last thing Democrats want; to give the people a vote. Fine then, pass a law through Congress where something like this, that lays out when certain procedures are allowed, is supposed to be created. That, too, is the democratic way, where our representatives make the laws, not a majority of a panel of 9 Justices.
But do you see what the Democrats want to do in order to get that passed? They want to use a misuse of the judicial branch of government and turn the Court into what’s been called a “super-legislature”; rather than merely deciding cases based on the text of the Constitution, they can additionally create laws out of thin air. This is an abuse of the process. But remember; live by the sword, die by the sword. Once you create a “law” in this manner, later on, when the court changes hands by the luck of what President gets to name the justices, you can easily see new laws, or removal of old laws, just as easily. And because these Justices have lifetime appointments, those “laws” will be just as hard to change.
And if that process sounds familiar, that’s because it is very much like Congress, except the legislative branch represents the people much more accurately.
In the meantime, an investigation has begun into the identity of the leaker. This is the first time in the 233 year history of the Court that something like this has happened. Leaks coming from the other two branches of government have become common, so who could have done this to the Supreme Court is a big question in DC right now.
There are 3 categories of people who could have done this; one of the Justices, one of their clerks, and one of those employees who work in the building, people like typesetters or copiers. It’s also possible that friends or family of one of these people could have seen some work that was brought home, though I kind of dismiss that because you’d think that the air of secrecy that the Court operates under wouldn’t allow that sort of thing.
If it was a Justice, they should be impeached, regardless of who it is. If it was a clerk, they should be disbarred. If it was an employee, they should be fired and never be able to work in DC again. It’s as simple as that. If there is no tangible punishment, then this is just the first of many leaks to come, and this will subject the Court to the whims of public opinion. There is a proper place where public opinion is to be taken into consideration, and it should come as no surprise that I’ll say it’s in Congress. But the vast majority of the public are not Constitutional scholars, in spite of what your Facebook or Twitter feeds might suggest. What is or isn’t constitutional should be left to those that our nation set aside for that job. If you want a law passed, like I said, then do so in the branch of government set aside for that.
That’s why prosecuting the leaker to the fullest extent of the law is so important. Now that a potential opinion of the Court is out there, everyone’s going to sound off. Not only that, but the reaction from those on the Left has been frightening enough that Justice Alito has currently been shuffled off to an undisclosed location.
We cannot allow leaks in the judiciary. Ever.
A few final thoughts. I’ve mentioned that the process is important a few times. Each branch of government should stay in its lane. Only then do the checks and balances that are built into the system work properly. What I’ve noticed is that the Left cares more about outcome than process. It doesn’t matter whether something is in the Constitution or not, or whether the Supreme Court makes up laws that it doesn’t have the authority to make. It only matters that they get their way. I believe the Right cares more about using the proper process, and to show that, I’ll read the introduction to Alito’s opinion after the main show is over in my customary 10 minutes or less. He covers the process problems with both the Roe v Wade and the Planned Parenthood v Casey decisions. Most people defending Roe or Casey need to read this first. There’s a link in the show notes to the PDF of the entire draft opinion.
Also, please note that no moral arguments have been made, and not a single Bible has been thumped. They exist, and I believe there is morality involved, but they are not needed in order to overturn Roe.
And finally, based on a lot of the rhetoric coming from the Left, it seems like they’ve rediscovered the definition of “woman”. There must be a bunch of newly minted biology degrees out there.
The post Episode 325: Will Alito’s Leak Mean the End of the Roe? appeared first on Consider This!.
