Roe v. Wade

An Originalist Argument For Abortion Rights

The constitution organizes the government, and assigns to different departments their respective powers. It may either stop here; or establish certain limits not to be transcended by those departments. The government of the United States is of the latter description. The powers of the legislature are defined and limited; and that those limits may not be mistaken or forgotten, the constitution is written. To what purpose are powers limited, and to what purpose is that limitation committed to writing; if these limits may, at any time, be passed by those intended to be restrained?

Chief Justice John Marshall, in Marbury v. Madison

Originalism, broadly speaking, is that theory of justice which holds that the intention of the writers of the law is the key to its interpretation; and that, as laws were written to be read, it’s not some obscure mindreading process but rather “what those words would mean in the mouth of a normal speaker of English, using them in the circumstances in which they were used.” (Justice O. W. Holmes)

This is the doctrine of interpretation used by Justices Thomas, Kavanaugh, and Gorsuch, and to which they habitually adhere in almost all of their legal opinions. As they represent that portion of the Court which may possibly be swayed by legal argument, it is with respect to their interpretation that any statutory or argumentary replacement for Roe v. Wade ought practicably be drafted.

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This Was Not A Win

The fundamentalist fringe of the Republican party believes they’ve won a major victory now that Roe’s been struck down. They’re wrong, but we’ll save that for later.

An awful lot of Republican voters celebrated this weekend, even as protesters flooded the streets in cities across the nation. Republican party insiders know better. They’re counting the marchers and examining the present demographics of Texas and Georgia, and they’re slowly coming to the realization that they may well have just lost the mid-term elections by a landslide. Democrats haven’t been this unified since before Obama.

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Once More With Rhythm

It’s like a bad divorce, and we’re the kids.

Mommy and daddy are sitting in the courtroom, contentiously splitting up the old Lionel Ritchie records and bickering over every meaningless detail. Two lawyers are each buying a new Porsche out of our college funds before this is done. And our only purpose for being in the room is to act as another token to be battled for.

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Texas Abortion Law: This Is A Good Thing

Even its proponents will often be compelled to admit: This is a strange type of law.

There’s precedent for granting bounties to private citizens, and it’s very probably lawful to use the civil courts instead of criminal for enforcement in this or a similar fashion. Even if it’s not, centering a counter-argument on this point is an error anyway. Those who invented the bill in the first place are attempting to choose the ground for the next fight over what is effectively a “heartbeat law” on abortion.

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I Don’t Care Who Won

It’s been a long night of vote-counting, and the numbers are still trickling in. Tentatively, TNFN believes that the Republicans will hold a bare majority in the Senate, the Democrats will keep the House, and Joe Biden will probably be our next president — after a long, painfully drawn out struggle over places like Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and potentially Arizona and Nevada. Some states, it’ll take days to count the mail-in votes, and that’s the way it should be. It means the system is working.

And that’s the news, the morning after Election Day.

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The CDC Isn’t Understaffed, And Other Myths

It’s social media; I should just let it go.  People hear something that supports their biases so they Share it without checking, and it becomes common wisdom.  Sometimes it’s gets to a point where everyone knows is true so it’s no longer even discussed, and if you argue you’re nuts.

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F&L: Donald Trump and MAGA

One could write volumes about Donald Trump the celebrity, the business mogul, the particularly slimy real estate developer, and so on.  I’m giving that a miss.  As a public person I find him odious and in business I’d resort to extreme measures to avoid him (I haven’t ruled out self-defenestration).  Beyond saying that, it’s entirely immaterial for our purposes.  Our subject is Donald Trump as president: the pros and cons of his tenure, his chance at escaping unscathed from impeachment to run again, and his likelihood of winning in 2020 based on the issues.  That should be enough for one article.

(What:  You didn’t honestly think I would give him a pass just because he’s the Evil One, did you?) (more…)

On Abortion (as a political issue)

I’m going to begin by making three statements:

  1. Roe v. Wade is, for the moderate future, settled law.  No politician currently running is going to overturn it.
  2. Science gives us no clear, simple, easy-to-understand answer here.
  3. There are a lot of people on every side of the discussion who will never be content with any compromise.

If you can accept each of these statements, there are two conclusions (more…)

Ford’s Accusation And What It Reveals

While on a trip to Maine last week, I was bombarded by soft-money ads against Senator Susan Collins.  Tens of millions of dollars are being spent by the Democratic Party to erode the approval rating of a moderate Republican during a year that she’s not facing re-election.  The premise of these ads is that she’s a horrible person for supporting Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, because he’s (according to them) planning to overturn Roe v. Wade.  As I understand it, however, these ads are but the latest in a long series, an organized campaign to assassinate the character of one of the last surviving moderates in the Senate. (more…)

Kavanaugh Is Not The Great Satan

It’s been 24 hours since Brett Kavanaugh was nominated to replace Justice Kennedy on the Supreme Court.  Since then I’ve seen him described as a religious ideologue, an ultra-conservative, and (my favorite) a sign that “The American Experiment Is Over”.

This isn’t a slight misstatement, a matter of nuance or a bending of the truth.  It’s laughably, ludicrously wrong.

Look, I get it:  Donald Trump nominated this guy, so he must be evil.  Given some of this president’s other nominees (though hardly all), that’s understandable, the more so if we also consider Mr. Trump’s high scores on the Supervillain Index.  (No cape, and his monologues (more…)