The Senate just confirmed Alito as the 110th Supreme Court justice. This is terrible news.

placeholder wrote:The Senate just confirmed Alito as the 110th Supreme Court justice. This is terrible news.

God fucking dammit. I'd better get an abortion before they're illegal.

are you surprised? there was never a serious moment when this wasn't going to happen. i don't like alito, most of the democratic senators think he's too conservative to be a fair supreme court justice but he's qualified and they don't have a majority. this was a done deal from the start.

Crap.

Thank the Federalist Society.

"Judge Alito's confirmation is also the culmination of a disciplined campaign begun by the Reagan administration to seed the lower federal judiciary with like-minded jurists... It was a philosophy promulgated by Edwin Meese III, attorney general in the Reagan administration, that became the gospel of the Federalist Society and the nascent conservative legal movement.

Both Mr. Roberts and Mr. Alito were among the cadre of young conservative lawyers attracted to the Reagan administration's Justice Department. And both advanced to the pool of promising young jurists whom strategists like C. Boyden Gray, White House counsel in the first Bush administration and an adviser to the current White House, sought to place throughout the federal judiciary to groom for the highest court.

'It is a Reagan personnel officer's dream come true.'"

I hate this country a little more every G.D. day.

rachael wrote:

placeholder wrote:The Senate just confirmed Alito as the 110th Supreme Court justice. This is terrible news.

God fucking dammit. I'd better get an abortion before they're illegal.

That was good!! Made me laugh.

I'm curious to hear all y'all's views on this subject:

I am very nervous about the continuing legality of abortion, and the willingness of the Supreme Court to provide a check on executive power (when the executive is a Republican, anyway). But with regard to the abortion issue, do you really think it will be sent back to the states to determine it for themselves? There is a school of thought that insists that fighting to make abortion illegal again is what motivates the Republican base and wins them voters, but if it ever actually happened, those voters would a) be less motivated and b) suddenly be outnumbered by the throngs of newly-pissed off and motivated voters that would oppose such a step backward.

Who's right? Will the Jesus freaks get their way, or are the people in power just pretending they'll get their way?

I've said it before (not here) and I'll say it again.

Everyone to the left of Olympia Snow should have shut the hell up about Harriet Meirs. Last time I checked, the Democrats lost the election in 2004.

This is bad fucking news.

= Justin

Awkward -

There is some value to this conjecture about abortion as a mobilizing force on the for and against side. But what's not speculation is this -

If the Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade, many women who would have chosen to have an abortion will not have one. Many other women will seek one illegally and some of these will be hurt and die.

I say this not to be needlessly hysterical. It will be a result of that law being overturned. This may itself be a mobilizing force for the pro-choice, but even if abortion does become legal again there will be an interim period where bad things will happen that would not have happened otherwise.

= Justin

i've tried looking into this but i can't find it for sure. i don't think the supreme court can "revisit" things as they choose. so a case challenging Roe would have to come before them and include a broad enough judgement to prohibit abortion. this certainly isn't out of the realm of possibility but i'm curious about it's actual likelihood.

as for the Right using abortion as a wedge to trick voters, i think that's completely the case. few if any members of congress are actively trying to outlaw abortion. they more or less just tell anti-abortion voters "hey, i'm better than the other guy. i'll definitely give it a look but you know, my hands are tied"