Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito’s opinion in the Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health
Organization, overturning the Roe and Casey precedents finding a “right” to abortion hidden in the penumbras of the Constitution was – in its most concise form – a broad indictment of judicial arrogance and overreach.
Justice Alito wrote:
In interpreting what is meant by the Fourteenth Amendment’s reference to “liberty,” we must guard against the natural human tendency to confuse what that Amendment protects with our own ardent views about the liberty that Americans should enjoy. That is why the Court has long been “reluctant” to recognize rights that are not mentioned in the Constitution. Collins v. Harker Heights, 503 U. S. 115, 125 (1992). “Substantive due process has at times been a treacherous field for this Court,” Moore v. East Cleveland, 431 U. S. 494, 503 (1977) (plurality opinion), and it has sometimes led the Court to usurp authority that the Constitution entrusts to the people’s elected representatives. See Regents of Univ. of Mich. v. Ewing, 474 U. S. 214, 225–226 (1985). As the Court cautioned in Glucksberg, “[w]e must . . . exercise the utmost care whenever we are asked to break new ground in this field, lest the liberty protected by the Due Process Clause be subtly transformed into the policy preferences of the Members of this Court.” (Emphasis CHQ)
But some judges around the country apparently didn’t take Justice Alito’s admonition seriously.
In Louisiana, Democrat Judge Robin Giarrusso blocked enforcement of new laws prohibiting abortion. The judge in the state district court in New Orleans issued an order preventing implementation of three separate laws severely restricting abortions that were to come into effect upon the high court's ruling last Friday.
NewsMax reports the judge placed a temporary restraining order on implementation of the three laws, in advance of a hearing on July 8 in which the groups behind the suit hope to gain a permanent injunction.
In Utah, Reuters reported Planned Parenthood said 3rd District Court Judge Andrew Stone had granted a temporary restraining order to block a 2020 abortion ban that took effect after the Supreme Court ruling last week.
The UK’s Guardian reports a Florida ban on abortions after 15 weeks is also the subject of a request for a temporary block. A ruling on that is expected Thursday – a day before the law is scheduled to take effect.
In Arizona, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and an abortion-rights group filed an emergency motion on Saturday, seeking to block a 2021 law they worry can be used to halt all abortions.
And Reuters reported abortions can resume in Texas after a judge on Tuesday blocked officials from enforcing a nearly century-old ban the state's Republican attorney general said was back in effect after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the constitutional right to the procedure nationwide.
The temporary restraining order by Judge Christine Weems in Harris County came in a last-ditch bid by abortion providers to resume services after the Supreme Court handed the responsibility for legislating on abortion back to the state legislatures.
However, Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton said in a Friday advisory that while the state's 2021 trigger ban would not take effect for 30 days after the Supreme Court's ruling, prosecutors could immediately pursue cases based on pre-1973 laws.
Baby killing “clinics” in Idaho, Kentucky and Mississippi have also sought to have state court judges invalidate legislation to regulate abortion passed by the peoples’ representatives.
In Idaho, a Planned Parenthood affiliate asked the state's highest court to block enforcement of a "trigger" law banning abortion that the Republican-controlled state legislature passed in 2020 due to take effect Aug. 19.
And constitutionalist Attorneys General, Governors and legislative leaders are fighting back.
"To be clear, there is no right to abortion contained in the Commonwealth's Constitution - and we will stand up against any baseless claim to the contrary," Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron said in a statement.
In states where federal court orders were blocking abortion restrictions based on the Roe precedent, those orders are now being lifted. South Carolina's ban on abortions after a fetal heartbeat is detected is now in effect, Attorney General Alan Wilson said on Monday, after a federal judge put on hold an injunction that had prevented its implementation.
It appears that the same hubris that infected the United States Supreme Court in 1972 when Roe v. Wade pulled a “right” to an abortion out of thin air continues to affect state court judges who are arrogating to themselves the power to legislate that state constitutions grant to their General Assemblies.
Prolife and constitutionalist conservatives must recognize that retaining the power to kill babies is one of the central shibboleths of the Democratic Party and its allies in the abortion industry. With billions of dollars at stake they are not going to simply rollover and accept that they are out of business in some 26 states. We had our weekend of thanksgiving and celebration, now it is time for conservatives to get back to the job of defending the Constitution and the lives of the unborn in our state courts and legislatures.
Roe v. Wade overturned
Justice Samuel Alito
Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization
Joe Biden
abortion
Roe v. Wade
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Judge Christine Weems