“… good f’ing timing for Gavin Newsom here in Cali. He probably already cracked open the bottle of celebratory champagne.”
Even better than that for Newsom is the presence of Larry Elder in the race. If he had not been there, it was possible that the D base would not be so enthused to vote in large numbers and there was at least a good chance that Newsom would fail to hit the 50 mark. That would resulted in one of the conventional (though lackluster) Republicans making it with maybe 20 percent of the vote.
But now that Elder is there and can’t seem to shut up (just like Trump), the D base has mobilized and is turning up for Newsom. Every time Elder opens his mouth, Newsom’s margin increases by a point or two. I won’t be surprised if the final tally is like a 59-41 Newsom win or close to that.
“This game is in the refrigerator. The door is shut, the light is out, the butter’s getting hard, the jello’s jiggling.” — Chick Hearn
StukiMoi
2 years ago
“because it creates a new enforcement structure that allows private citizens to bring a civil lawsuit against abortion providers and to collect at least $10,000 in damages plus legal costs per abortion challenged successfully.
In addition, the law also allows potential lawsuits against not only clinics and doctors, but also anyone who aids or abets an abortion, including insurance companies and transportation providers. “
It’s America. Abortion has nothing to do with it. Just more of the same handing over ever more resources and power to ambulance chasing garbage.
Casual_Observer2020
2 years ago
Human life is not special. There are 7.2 billion lives and counting to prove it. Anyone thinking human life is special simply deluding themselves.
Kick’n
2 years ago
As far as abortion goes, what rights/status does a fetus have in America? Do they get a SSN? What benefits are they entitled to? Do they have citizenship? If a pregnant immigrant makes it to Texas is the fetus already entitled to citizenship???
It’s really quite odd that a baby’s rights are quite different depending upon whether it happens to be inside a womb or not. Ethically, what’s the difference between killing a baby after it has been born and killing it inside a womb? The effect is entirely the same as far as the baby is concerned, so why do the anti-life brigade think one is OK but not the other?
So are you willing to have a special tax so that you will support every one of those children. I am thinking maybe the people that want to rule over other should pay for it. Let’s say a 50% surtax?
Cansip
2 years ago
This law is absurd, they clearly did not allow any timeframe for abortion, 6 weeks is a lie.
Hey! This is “feel good” Murica! Next you’ll have Texas Vigilantes patrolling every interstate in and out of Texas lookin for baby bumps! A lucrative profession! Django lives baby! Yuk Yuk Yuk……I’m lovin it! Ask yourselves why At&t and United Healthcare were lobbying the same Texas Legislators to the tune of 100K?
Mr. Purple
2 years ago
I wonder what all the women who comment on this site think.
54 year old female reader here. I’ve always been pro choice because I don’t want the government to decide the nuance of when a clump of cells become a baby. I thought women should be given the information and decide. Then other pro choice women wanted to obfuscate the details of fetus development from women seeking abortion so they don’t know the likely development of the fetus they are carrying and make an informed choice. Then I saw people clapping at the idea of making it legal to abort up to the day before birth. Then I hear Governor Northram talking about what to with a live unwanted baby in a failed abortion. I understand that to most pro life supporters, it is a baby at conception and they see an abortion as murdering a baby. They see abortion itself as “clearly unconstitutional “ because it deprives a baby of life.
With the far far move to the left in terms of pro choice, I was so upset, I thought about joining the pro life team instead of pro choice….but I still don’t like the government making that decision so I remain pro choice. However it is hardly unexpected that a conservative state put that definition a little far on the conception side given how far some states went to abort just before birth.
Given how divided the population is, perhaps the solution is to help pro abortion people move to pro abortion states.
There you go. Start dividing the nation for real! Have two Americas. That’ll work really well! Divide all the revenue, national security, national defense, etc. Then the world will really know not to count on us anymore.
I’m all for it. Not enough popcorn in the world to watch the results of Redistan not being able to leech off of California and New York anymore. Bye suckas, shoulda let all y’all go in 1861.
It is the woman’s body to do as she feels necessary that’s just how it is. Accept it and move on.
Jackula
2 years ago
Sure was good f’ing timing for Gavin Newsom here in Cali. He probably already cracked open the bottle of celebratory champagne.
Jojo
2 years ago
Meanwhile; Looks like there will be a big increase in border traffic between TX & Mexico of people looking for abortions. Can the vigilantes chase them down below the boarder?
——-
7 Sep 2021
Mexico’s supreme court decriminalizes abortion
Oriana Gonzalez
Mexico’s Supreme Court on Tuesday declared that it is unconstitutional to penalize abortion, with magistrates voting unanimously to decriminalize the procedure in the country.
Ah yes. Conservatives. Vaccines, the government is not going to tell me what to do with my body! Now women, they damn well better appreciate that we have the government telling them what to do with their bodies because they obviously are too stupid to figure it out for themselves.
Biology doesn’t answer the question of, when does a baby become a person. We all can agree that once the sperm and egg come together, it becomes a unique “thing”, and no more genetic material needs to be added in order for it to develop into a person. Does it become a person at that point, such that it should have legal rights? Some think so, others don’t, and they reach different conclusions despite agreeing on biology.
Because they are idiots. It is a zygote. The host has every option they want. So why don’t the right wing nut cases give a crap once the entity leaves the womb?
In your opinion, when does it become a person? When the heart beats? When it is “viable”? When it sticks it’s head of the birth canal? When it is disconnected from the mother? When it is old enough that the brain is completely formed? When it is old enough to have memories that it will retain? When it can walk? When it can care for itself?
I imagine how the world would look If men had this physical ability to give birth. How would this question look?
We can agree that a woman is a person and she is the person carrying the fetus and then baby. She may or may not have chosen pregnancy. She might have been forcibly penetrated and it could have been by a family member or a complete stranger. And there’s a high probability she wouldn’t know she was pregnant at 6 weeks- menstruation is not always precise.
Mish
2 years ago
The Court Ruling is more than a bit hypocritical
Abortion, the death penalty, and the shadow docket
Before we claim the Texas legislation is unconstitutional, perhaps we should consider the ethical issues. The Hippocratic Oath, the basis for medical ethics, is quite clear on the subject of abortion:
“I will use those dietary regimens which will benefit my patients
according to my greatest ability and judgment, and I will do no harm or
injustice to them.Neither will I administer a poison to anybody when asked to do so, nor will I suggest such a course.Similarly I will not give to a woman a pessary to cause abortion.”
The Hippocratic Oath is a television trope, not the ‘basis of medical ethics’. In its actual form (my father the MD could read Attic (ancient) Greek) it forbade physicians to consort with surgeons, and mandated fee kickbacks. It is certainly not an oath taken by real physicians.
No, you are wrong, , the oath has changed many times in history and word abortion is not used anymore . Some doctors do not even use the oath, there is no penalty either.
Turnabout is fair play. The CDC ignored the supreme court with their eviction mandate. And sanctuary cities are illegal. Seems one side is OK with ignoring the law as long as it suits their wishes, but fervently against it otherwise.
How can killing babies with a heart beat be be unconstitutional? And why is killing babies with a heart beat constitutional? Whatever way one justifies it killing is killing
You aren’t woke enough. The right is against abortion because they want to restrict women’s rights. Not because it’s murdering a baby. You need to watch more CNN to get your facts straight.
LIberals/progressives claim it is a woman’s right to choose what she carries in her body, hence abortion is justified up to the time of birth. However, I expect that will change quickly if/when a prenatal DNA test is developed for homosexuality. Similarly, when liberals/progressives realize that more girl babies are aborted than boy babies… “According to a 2011 Gallup Poll, if they were only allowed to have one child, 40% of respondents said they would prefer a boy, while only 28% preferred a girl.”
Killing female fetuses or actual babies at birth has been something that, while technically illegal, has been done in China and India for many years. It’s caused many societal problems in these countries including too many males and not enough females, meaning every woman gets to be a “princess” who only wants the richest, best looking, best connected men. Many men will never have a relationship with a woman. This also leads to more sexual assaults and rapes.
Typically when a country has an excess of males with too much testosterone, which isn’t generally good for society, they send them off to some war where many get killed, thus restoring proper male/female ratios.
It’s not yet a “baby” no matter how much you want to try and assign definitions to things you know nothing about. Iit’s a fetus until it is born or at least until it can survive on its own.
It is a baby no mater how much you try to rationalize killing the unborn. So I suppose a premature birth that requires supportive measures is not really a baby because it can not live on its own?
I’m perfectly fine with killing fetuses + babies that can’t survive on their own w/o machines + old people past their expiration date. Send them all to the Soylent Green tanks and put their protoplasma to better use.
Casual_Observer2020
2 years ago
I posted this before:
Rulings without explanations
The Supreme Court opinion link to nl.nytimes.com was different from most major rulings by the court.
This one came out shortly before midnight on Wednesday. It consisted of a single paragraph, not signed by the justices who voted for it and lacking the usual detailed explanation of their reasoning. And there had been no oral arguments, during which opposing lawyers could have made their cases and answered questions from the justices.
Instead, the opinion was part of something that has become known as link to nl.nytimes.com In the shadow docket, the court makes decisions quickly, without the usual written briefings, oral arguments or signed opinions. In recent years, the shadow docket has become a much larger part of the Supreme Court’s work.
Shadow-docket rulings have shaped policy on voting rights, climate change, birth control, Covid-19 restrictions and more. Last month, the justices issued shadow decisions forcing the Biden administration to link to nl.nytimes.com and to reinstate a Trump administration immigration policy. “The cases affect us at least as much as high-profile cases we devote so much attention to,” Stephen Vladeck, a University of Texas law professor, told me.
Shadow-docket cases are frequently those with urgency — such as a voting case that must be decided in the final weeks before an election. As a result, the justices don’t always have time to solicit briefs, hold oral arguments and spend months grappling with their decision. Doing so can risk irreparable harm to one side in the case.
For these reasons, nobody questions the need for the court to issue some expedited, bare-bones rulings. But many legal experts are worried about how big the shadow docket has grown, including in cases that the Supreme Court could have decided in a more traditional way.
“Shadow docket orders were once a tool the court used to dispense with unremarkable and legally unambiguous matters,” link to nl.nytimes.com. “In recent years the court has largely dispensed with any meaningful application of the irreparable harm standard.”
Why the shadow docket has grown
Why have the justices expanded the shadow docket?
In part, it is a response to a newfound willingness by lower courts to issue decisions that apply to the entire country, link to nl.nytimes.com. By acting quickly, the Supreme Court can retain its dominant role.
But there is also a political angle. Shadow-docket cases can let the court act quickly and also shield individual justices from criticism: In the latest abortion case, there is no signed opinion for legal scholars to pick apart, and no single justice is personally associated with the virtual end of legal abortion in Texas. The only reason that the public knows the precise vote — 5 to 4 — is that the four justices in the minority each chose to release a signed dissent.
Critics argue that judges in a democracy owe the public more transparency. “This idea of unexplained, unreasoned court orders seems so contrary to what courts are supposed to be all about,” Nicholas Stephanopoulos, a Harvard law professor, link to nl.nytimes.com. “If courts don’t have to defend their decisions, then they’re just acts of will, of power.”
During a House hearing on the shadow docket in February, members of both parties link to nl.nytimes.com. “Knowing why the justices selected certain cases, how each of them voted, and their reasoning is indispensable to the public’s trust in the court’s integrity,” Representative Henry Johnson Jr., a Georgia Democrat, said. Representative Louie Gohmert, a Texas Republican, said, “I am a big fan of judges and justices making clear who’s making the decision, and I would welcome reforms that required that.”
The shadow docket also leaves lower-court judges unsure about what exactly the Supreme Court has decided and how to decide similar cases they later hear. “Because the lower-court judges don’t know why the Supreme Court does what it does, they sometimes divide sharply when forced to interpret the court’s nonpronouncements,” link to nl.nytimes.com, a University of Chicago law professor and former clerk for Chief Justice John Roberts. Baude coined the term “shadow docket.”
Six vs. three
The court’s six Republican-appointed justices are driving the growth of the shadow docket, and it is consistent with their overall approach to the law. They are link to nl.nytimes.com willing to be aggressive, overturning longstanding precedents, in campaign finance, election law, business regulation and other areas. The shadow docket expands their ability to shape American society.
The three Democratic-appointed justices, for their part, have grown frustrated by the trend. link to nl.nytimes.com, Justice Elena Kagan wrote, “The majority’s decision is emblematic of too much of this court’s shadow-docket decision making — which every day becomes more unreasoned, inconsistent and impossible to defend.” In link to nl.nytimes.com, Justice Stephen Breyer said: “I can’t say never decide a shadow-docket thing. … But be careful.”
Roberts also evidently disagrees with the use of the shadow docket in the Texas abortion case. In his dissent, joining the three liberal justices, he said the court could instead have blocked the Texas law while it made its way through the courts. That the court chose another path means that abortion is now all but illegal in the nation’s second-largest state.
The justices are likely to settle the question in a more lasting way next year. They will hear oral arguments this fall in a Mississippi abortion case — the more traditional kind, outside the shadows — and a decision is likely by June.
For more on the Texas abortion law:
Republican lawmakers in Arkansas, Florida and South Dakota pledged to link to nl.nytimes.com.
“Patients are crying. There’s a lot of link to nl.nytimes.com,” one Planned Parenthood director said.
Public opinion will play a greater role in shaping abortion policy. Here are link to nl.nytimes.com.I posted this before. The
Doug78
2 years ago
Great. Now we can divide ourselves into baby killers and baby savers with each side taking the moral high ground. Why don’t we discuss the morality of killing by drones for that matter.
Everyone agrees with the following two statements:
1. Every person should have a right to do whatever they want with their own body, so long as they don’t harm anyone else.
2. No one should be allowed to kill another person for their own convenience.
Everyone also agrees on the biology. The only disagreement is when a “person” is formed, and that is a religious issue, so it isn’t likely that agreement on the subject can be reached. Keep in mind that libertarians believe in freedom of religion, so therefore, a libertarian would respect the right of both sides to disagree.
“Society?” Isn’t that a pretty odd reason for deciding when a person begins? Which society? There are many societies on earth, not just one, and many of them have different positions. Can I cite those societies as proof that a person is formed at conception?
Esclaro
2 years ago
It all makes sense when you consider the fact that most Americans are brain dead morons. This is especially true in Texas where a cabal of old white men decide everything and the majority minority population goes along with it in the hopes of being accepted by their white masters. Buena suerte, pendejos!
Mackkenzie
2 years ago
It’s off topic, but does anyone understand why shipping companies are preferring to ship empty containers out of US ports when there are US exporters with full containers ready and willing to pay for transport? Can someone explain what’s going on here? Why ship an empty container back to China rather than take a full container that you can collect shipping fees on? Something doesn’t add up.
Webej
2 years ago
Permitting abortion clearly was not on the minds of the people who authored the constitution.
If an overwhelming majority of Americans think it should be lawful, why not change the law?
That is how democracies are supposed to work.
That is the route most other OECD democratic countries have taken.
Why the tortured exegesis of a document that does not contain the question nor the answer?
The reason the law has not been changed at the national level is that liberals/progressives realize they cannot pass legislation in the House and Senate even though they currently have control.
“I knew you before I formed you in the womb, before you were born I set you apart…” Jeremiah 1:5. I know many here do not believe in God, but for those who do, this verse makes clear when we become an individual (with rights).
After completing the sentence, I still don’t understand why this is relevant?
” Before
I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth
out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto
the nations.” King James Version
God knows us and sees us as an individual before we are born. Therefore if you believe in God, there is not other way to view abortion except as murder.
You repeat the “standing” issue over quite a few posts. However, everything being reviewed essentially removes the idea of standing,”The person bringing the lawsuit — who does not have to have a connection
to the woman getting an abortion — is entitled to at least $10,000 in
damages if they prevail in court.” AP So how do you reconcile these two? IF the law states, in essence, that the plaintiff could be anyone, that is at odds of your assertion that, for example, only the father and grandparents could sue as the only ones with standing.
Carl_R
2 years ago
A law may be unconsitutional, but there are procedures to be followed in order to properly test it. If the Supreme Court wanted to overturn Roe v. Wade, they could easily have done so. I read their dicta as saying “yes, we will overturn this law, but you need to bring a proper test”. The problem with Conservative Justices is that they follow the rules, and that includes both following prior decisions, and sticking to procedural rules, rather than winging it on an ad hoc basis.
I didn’t read the decision, and relied on what was written above, and the phrase “states rights” appears nowhere in Mish’s article. That doesn’t mean it wasn’t in the ruling, and if it is, would change the meaning of the ruling significantly from what is written above. According to the article Mish quoted, the ruling said that the court lacked the jurisdiction to act because of procedural
technicalities. That is a ruling on the law, and decides the case. Anything they said in addition to that is dicta. Also according to that article, the ruling said that there were “serious questions regarding the constitutionality of the Texas law”. That has no legal effect, but suggests that the court will probably rule that it is unconstitutional if the case is brought again without the procedural issues.
One other thing to note is that US law is all about precedents.
It’s possible this law was deliberately put into place knowing it would be struck down just to establish a precedent for something else (gun rights, vax rights etc). This case will definitely be fast tracked to the supreme court once there is an actual challenge under the law. So that could leap frog other cases / laws to establish a precedent.
goldguy
2 years ago
Americans love a good killing.
We love our endless wars.
We love killing innocence.
How dare anyone stop our freedom to kill???
TexasTim65
2 years ago
The American public in general has no interest in over turning Roe vs Wade. I said this before a couple weeks back that Roe vs Wade would be over turned right about the time the 2nd Amendment was repealed. Both are touch stones for rallying their respective bases but the reality is abortion and guns are 2 things Americans want and are going to keep.
Mish just showed in charts above that a overwhelming majority of people don’t want to over turn Roe vs Wade. I personally don’t consider <20% to a lot.
tbergerson
2 years ago
Overturning Roe is not unconstitutional. It is merely overturning precedent. Maybe the enforcement part in TX is. I mean endowing private groups the right to sue? That is insane. In the extreme. Unconstitutional? Cannot think of the argument why. The MS case is the touchstone and argument is in October. When they will rule is anyones guess.
The political analysis is important and Mish is right on. In a year in which the GOP stands to gain lots and lots of seats, this abortion issue will energize people and blunt the effect.
No it’s not insane in the extreme. It was the correct way to write the law – because it forces those brining suit to show standing.
Seriously, does anyone on this thread understand how the law works?
PostCambrian
2 years ago
Your analysis is spot on in this case. If California passed a law allowing people to sue others indoors that weren’t wearing a mask, Fox News would be howling and the Supreme Court would have struck the law down as unconstitutional. Most likely there are more deaths from Covid than there are abortions in California (it is hard to get good California abortion statistics since they do not report to CDC on this).
Such suits can already be brought – under endangerment statues. The reason they are not is that they would fail on the facts of them. There’s no way to prove or demonstrate by a preponderance of evidence that the act of not wearing a mask was the cause of harm.
shamrock
2 years ago
No one challenged this in a state court?
shamrock
2 years ago
California and New York can pass a law banning the sale or ownership of firearms, with the same “enforcement” mechanism, effectively shutting down every gun store in the state.
No they cannot, because there’s no way to prove harm – or standing. In fact, bringing such a suit would open up the people brining the suit to a frivolous law suit suit.
Eddie_T
2 years ago
So….when the pro-lifers weren’t able to overturn Roe in the Supreme Court, they made an end run round it in many of the southern state legislatures. Same dark money. Same conservative donors. Same Republican base.
In Texas they found they could motivate a powerful coalition of Evangelicals and Catholics to vote for state legislatures packed with religious conservatives willing to do anything it took to make abortions impossible to get.
Catholics and Evangelicals together make up 51% of the voting public.
Our far-right Lt. Governor made sure that ethics bills aimed at keeping dark money out of Texas politics couldn’t make it through the Senate, and voila, this is the outcome.
They don’t care if it gets overturned…they can still make hay with their big anti-abortion voting bloc.
“Public opinion in Texas about the availability of abortion has scarcely changed over the last several years. In this latest poll, 13% said abortion should never be permitted; 31% said “the law should permit abortion only in case of rape, incest or when the woman’s life is in danger”; 12% said it should also be allowed in other cases, “but only after the need for the abortion has been clearly established”; and 38% said “a woman should always be able to obtain an abortion as a matter of personal choice.”
“Using the terms ‘pro-choice’ and ‘pro-life’ is almost a party ID term; it’s meaningless in policy terms,” said Daron Shaw, a government professor at the University of Texas at Austin and co-director of the poll. “But you get some insight in the four-part question.”
The survey found 40% of voters label themselves “pro-life” and 41% as “pro-choice.” Among the pro-life group, 56% would permit abortions in cases of rape, incest and when the life of the mother is threatened; and another 10% would allow them in other cases. And among the pro-choice respondents, 76% would permit abortions with no restrictions and 20% would put some limits on when the procedure is legal.”
Freebees2me
2 years ago
The Supreme Court didn’t ‘rule’ that the Texas law was constitutional. Far from it.
The American legal system operates with two components: Procedural Due Process and Substantive Due Process.
The law suit asked the federal courts to enjoin enforcement. The Supreme Court declined to enjoin enforcement. This was a procedural issue. This was not a ruling on the substantive merits of the case.
The news media is OVERHYPING this case in order to stir-up the Biden Court Packing initiative. It also focuses attention off of the BIden Administration’s unmitigated debacle in Afghanistan.
Don’t fall for the complete hysteria about the Texas abortion law and the Supreme Court’s refusal to enjoin it.
Typically when someone will be irreparably hurt by a law that appears (or even has a low chance) to violate the constitution, a stay will be issued. The Supreme Court’s ruling effectively means that no lower court will issue a stay and neither will the Supreme Court. It isn’t hysteria. The stay should have been issued until the law is ruled upon.
Procedurally, the courts were asked to enjoin judges from enforcing the law. That’s a total non-starter for an injunction. Civil Procedure 101 stuff.
The people asking for the injunction procedurally screwed up. The bottom line is that the Supreme Court’s refusal was not a statement that the law is constitutional, which is what Mish’s post is inferring…
Finally, someone in this thread who isnt acting like a hyperventilating 8th grade girl….
Greenmountain
2 years ago
The other issue is physicians and other medical staff. If I lived in Texas I would be nervous about being sued. Maybe there are better places to practice medicine where I do not have to watch out for vigilantes at every turn. For the party of law and justice I guess it is now every person for themselves. I have a gun, I can file a law suit. Either way I can get you. Fun!
My comment may be overstated but it is my understanding that ‘standing’ is broadly defined to mean anyone who thinks an abortion has taken place. So it is not someone who has been directly harmed but harmed in the sense that a personal value has been harmed. ie – life begins with an electrical charge. What happens when a mother’s life is truly in danger. Will we now err on the side of the unborn to avoid lawsuits? And allow mothers to die?
randocalrissian
2 years ago
There is literally nothing now to stop the liberal side of the nation and all blue states from passing a $10,000 lawsuit law to enable the vaxxed to sue the unvaxxed.
Actually, there are a bunch of reasons why your assertion fails. In two words: science and facts. Neither of which can support such a suit – especially when it comes to showing damages.
The legal system is already a disfunctional parking lot. The criminals get to park in the shade, while the the attorneys get paid to sit in their office and wait-out the delays.
Even better than that for Newsom is the presence of Larry Elder in the race. If he had not been there, it was possible that the D base would not be so enthused to vote in large numbers and there was at least a good chance that Newsom would fail to hit the 50 mark. That would resulted in one of the conventional (though lackluster) Republicans making it with maybe 20 percent of the vote.
But now that Elder is there and can’t seem to shut up (just like Trump), the D base has mobilized and is turning up for Newsom. Every time Elder opens his mouth, Newsom’s margin increases by a point or two. I won’t be surprised if the final tally is like a 59-41 Newsom win or close to that.
In addition, the law also allows potential lawsuits against not only clinics and doctors, but also anyone who aids or abets an abortion, including insurance companies and transportation providers. “
according to my greatest ability and judgment, and I will do no harm or
injustice to them.Neither will I administer a poison to anybody when asked to do so, nor will I suggest such a course.Similarly I will not give to a woman a pessary to cause abortion.”
The Supreme Court opinion link to nl.nytimes.com was different from most major rulings by the court.
This one came out shortly before midnight on Wednesday. It consisted of a single paragraph, not signed by the justices who voted for it and lacking the usual detailed explanation of their reasoning. And there had been no oral arguments, during which opposing lawyers could have made their cases and answered questions from the justices.
Instead, the opinion was part of something that has become known as link to nl.nytimes.com In the shadow docket, the court makes decisions quickly, without the usual written briefings, oral arguments or signed opinions. In recent years, the shadow docket has become a much larger part of the Supreme Court’s work.
Shadow-docket rulings have shaped policy on voting rights, climate change, birth control, Covid-19 restrictions and more. Last month, the justices issued shadow decisions forcing the Biden administration to link to nl.nytimes.com and to reinstate a Trump administration immigration policy. “The cases affect us at least as much as high-profile cases we devote so much attention to,” Stephen Vladeck, a University of Texas law professor, told me.
Shadow-docket cases are frequently those with urgency — such as a voting case that must be decided in the final weeks before an election. As a result, the justices don’t always have time to solicit briefs, hold oral arguments and spend months grappling with their decision. Doing so can risk irreparable harm to one side in the case.
For these reasons, nobody questions the need for the court to issue some expedited, bare-bones rulings. But many legal experts are worried about how big the shadow docket has grown, including in cases that the Supreme Court could have decided in a more traditional way.
“Shadow docket orders were once a tool the court used to dispense with unremarkable and legally unambiguous matters,” link to nl.nytimes.com. “In recent years the court has largely dispensed with any meaningful application of the irreparable harm standard.”
Why have the justices expanded the shadow docket?
In part, it is a response to a newfound willingness by lower courts to issue decisions that apply to the entire country, link to nl.nytimes.com. By acting quickly, the Supreme Court can retain its dominant role.
But there is also a political angle. Shadow-docket cases can let the court act quickly and also shield individual justices from criticism: In the latest abortion case, there is no signed opinion for legal scholars to pick apart, and no single justice is personally associated with the virtual end of legal abortion in Texas. The only reason that the public knows the precise vote — 5 to 4 — is that the four justices in the minority each chose to release a signed dissent.
Critics argue that judges in a democracy owe the public more transparency. “This idea of unexplained, unreasoned court orders seems so contrary to what courts are supposed to be all about,” Nicholas Stephanopoulos, a Harvard law professor, link to nl.nytimes.com. “If courts don’t have to defend their decisions, then they’re just acts of will, of power.”
During a House hearing on the shadow docket in February, members of both parties link to nl.nytimes.com. “Knowing why the justices selected certain cases, how each of them voted, and their reasoning is indispensable to the public’s trust in the court’s integrity,” Representative Henry Johnson Jr., a Georgia Democrat, said. Representative Louie Gohmert, a Texas Republican, said, “I am a big fan of judges and justices making clear who’s making the decision, and I would welcome reforms that required that.”
The shadow docket also leaves lower-court judges unsure about what exactly the Supreme Court has decided and how to decide similar cases they later hear. “Because the lower-court judges don’t know why the Supreme Court does what it does, they sometimes divide sharply when forced to interpret the court’s nonpronouncements,” link to nl.nytimes.com, a University of Chicago law professor and former clerk for Chief Justice John Roberts. Baude coined the term “shadow docket.”
The court’s six Republican-appointed justices are driving the growth of the shadow docket, and it is consistent with their overall approach to the law. They are link to nl.nytimes.com willing to be aggressive, overturning longstanding precedents, in campaign finance, election law, business regulation and other areas. The shadow docket expands their ability to shape American society.
The three Democratic-appointed justices, for their part, have grown frustrated by the trend. link to nl.nytimes.com, Justice Elena Kagan wrote, “The majority’s decision is emblematic of too much of this court’s shadow-docket decision making — which every day becomes more unreasoned, inconsistent and impossible to defend.” In link to nl.nytimes.com, Justice Stephen Breyer said: “I can’t say never decide a shadow-docket thing. … But be careful.”
Roberts also evidently disagrees with the use of the shadow docket in the Texas abortion case. In his dissent, joining the three liberal justices, he said the court could instead have blocked the Texas law while it made its way through the courts. That the court chose another path means that abortion is now all but illegal in the nation’s second-largest state.
The justices are likely to settle the question in a more lasting way next year. They will hear oral arguments this fall in a Mississippi abortion case — the more traditional kind, outside the shadows — and a decision is likely by June.
For more on the Texas abortion law:
I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth
out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto
the nations.” King James Version
to the woman getting an abortion — is entitled to at least $10,000 in
damages if they prevail in court.” AP
So how do you reconcile these two? IF the law states, in essence, that the plaintiff could be anyone, that is at odds of your assertion that, for example, only the father and grandparents could sue as the only ones with standing.
technicalities. That is a ruling on the law, and decides the case. Anything they said in addition to that is dicta. Also according to that article, the ruling said that there were “serious questions regarding the constitutionality of the Texas law”. That has no legal effect, but suggests that the court will probably rule that it is unconstitutional if the case is brought again without the procedural issues.
“Using the terms ‘pro-choice’ and ‘pro-life’ is almost a party ID term; it’s meaningless in policy terms,” said Daron Shaw, a government professor at the University of Texas at Austin and co-director of the poll. “But you get some insight in the four-part question.”
The survey found 40% of voters label themselves “pro-life” and 41% as “pro-choice.” Among the pro-life group, 56% would permit abortions in cases of rape, incest and when the life of the mother is threatened; and another 10% would allow them in other cases. And among the pro-choice respondents, 76% would permit abortions with no restrictions and 20% would put some limits on when the procedure is legal.”