The ruling in the Dobbs case overturning Roe v. Wade has unleashed forces in the United States that will screw America (and perhaps the world) for generations to come.
The Alito ruling engages in what has become routine intellectual theatre for conservative justices. It claims the ruling wasn't based on the individual religious beliefs of the justices about life and abortion but an unbiased review of the "history" of prior law and precedents in place at the time of key founding documents inscrutably chosen by said justices as reflective of Founding Father thought. Never mind that that cultivated list of documents BY DEFINITION excludes thoughts from anyone except white males. Never mind such analayis routinely cherry picks quotes from prior court rulings for current verbal affect even when the original ruling is quoted out of context. Never mind such analysis routinely gets the historical "facts" COMPLETELY WRONG. It looks scholarly, so it's good enough to fool the public, right?
The result of the decision not only removes the right to abortion from women, but the rationale cited alters any presumptions that will be incorporated in future legal reviews of any lawsuits in the area of abortion rights. By declaring there is no language directly or indirectly protecting the right to abortion to be found in the Constitution or the mindset of the Founding Fathers, the decision raises the hurdle facing any future litigation aiming to protect abortion rights where currently in effect because such rights exist WITHOUT the backing of percieved originalist justification.
There is another fallacy in the analysis of the decision that requires much more thought on the part of Americans.
President Biden spoke at midday on June 24 in response to the ruling and told the American people that this decision cannot be undone by Executive Branch actions or even new court cases. Correct.
Biden said it can only be undone by voting in fillibuster-proof control in the Senate and matching majority in the House of officials who will support a federal law explicitly establishing abortion rights. Not correct.
If voters respond in November 2022 and vote in appropriate majorities that support abortion rights, any federal law thus passed will immediately trigger new lawsuits from anti-abortion forces triggering waves of litigation from the anti-abortion states claiming the new law is unconstintutional because it prioritizes choice over life and -- based on the Alito reasoning which is now the law of the land -- there is no presumption in the Constitution that abortion has equal standing as a "right" with "right to life." Therefore, the Supreme Court will inevitably toss out the new federal law as unconstitutional.
The only way to undo the damage from Dobbs is to pass a Constitutional Amendment defining abortion rights. And there is no way such an amendment would gain passage from three fourths of the states in America.
The Dobbs decision has released a tanker ship of poison into an already-toxic political climate in America. While pro-choice forces attempt to vote in new politicians to re-instate abortion access, the "winners" supporting Dobbs have already shown they will not be content with their win. Many states have already introduced additional legislation imposing criminal penalties on those who might leave a "no-state" to obtain an abortion elsewhere, imposing criminal penalties on shipments of abortion drugs into their "no-state", etc. Clarence Thomas stated in his own supporting opinion that the same "logic" used to toss Roe should be applied to contraception, same-sex marriage and even gay sex.
The only way to overcome this hurdle would be for a heavily pro-choice Congress and pro-choice President to agree to expand the Supreme Court and swamp the current six originalist extremist justices with more rational minds and votes.
And for the exact same reasons, the same thing is true for the prospects of obtaining meaningful gun reforms.
The true impact of the Dobbs ruling is ultimately unknowable but it will be STAGGERING in its damage to not only the United States and its citizens but the WORLD. Sixty six percent of Americans want abortion rights preserved but are living within political constructs that are providing a minority the power to block the majority and actually reverse crucial rights. The United States already had a full plate of issues regarding energy, economic inequities and yes WARS involving major economic and energy powers. Those issues REQUIRE attention over the next 10-30 years to avoid political and environmental CALAMITIES that could last CENTURIES. The Supreme Court's ruling just took 659,000,000 eyeballs off those serious issues with consequences lasting for centuries and distracted them with a new serious issue that should have been settled law. The logic cited for the decision further clarified to the world that American justice will be driven primarily on principals of power rather than precedent and individual rights, turning America into the world's wealthiest loose cannon.
The future is definitely not bright in America as of June 24, 2022.
WTH
