The McConnell Court

by | May 4, 2022 | Editor's Blog | 6 comments

If the leaked memo from Supreme Court is correct, Roe v Wade has been overturned. It’s a bit shocking, even if it was predictable. Conservatives are giddy, even if trying to focus more on the unprecedented leak than the impact on low-income women who can’t afford to travel for health care. Liberals and progressives are outraged. 

If the decision holds, it’s terrible news for our country on multiple fronts. The most awful consequence will women and girls dying, either from botched abortions or troubled pregnancies. Conservatives, of course, equate fetuses and women. They believe that the mass of cells and protoplasm that make up most abortions are as significant as the young women who carry them. In their minds, reversing Roe will save more lives than it takes. It’s twisted logic unless you believe that a soul forms at conception and is equal to a person who has established an identity, built relationships, has hopes and dreams, and developed consciousness.   

The credibility of the court itself will be another victim of the decision. Liberals and progressives already believe that Mitch McConnell rigged the court by denying Obama an appointment and then rushing through Amy Comey Barrett. According to Senators Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski, both Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Comey Barrett indicated that Roe was settled law and that the decision would stand. At the very least, if the leaked decision is right, the Trump appointees misled them. Most liberals and progressives will consider the ruling illegitimate, making all further rulings dubious at best. 

Relatedly, the legacy of the Roberts court will also take a hit. His court will be known for divisive, highly partisan decisions. From Citizens United to gutting the Voting Rights Act to overturning Roe v. Wade, the Roberts court will go down in history as an activist court that widened the divisions in our country by increasing the influence of the wealthy and powerful at the expense of marginalized and regular citizens. Speech may be free but it takes money to be heard. Voting is a privilege to be restricted to those who can jump through hoops, not a right fundamental to our democracy. And safe abortion will be a medical procedure for women lucky enough to live in a blue state or rich enough to cross state lines. It’s really the McConnell Court, an extension of GOP ideology, not jurisprudence.

The country will also be a victim of this ruling. At a time when we desperately need unifying events, this decision will further divide us. We’ll see another summer of protests in states across the nation. After conservatives celebrate the decision, their exuberance will return to victimhood as companies write off red states so their female employees can get the health care they need, not the proselytizing of Christian fundamentalists. The fight that conservative believe they’ve won is just beginning. 

Politically, progressive believe that the decision will fire up their base and boost turnout dramatically. I’m not so sure. I think there will be a backlash, but it may take more than just gutting Roe to get the attention of enough voters to make a big difference. The decision will anger and energize activists, but those folks are already planning to vote. It’s an issue that is not directly impacting a large enough subsection of the less informed electorate to drive turnout. I suspect we’ll have to hear some horror stories before the anger gets beyond the activists. Unfortunately, we will probably have to wait until a few 12-year-olds give birth to their abusers’ children or some 14-year-old girls die of botched home abortions before opposition to the decision galvanizes. 

All of that said, the decision could change the tenor of the midterm election, making it as much a referendum on the court as on Biden. That would be good for Democrats, but still might not make enough of a difference to alter the forces that determine outcomes. Voters will be mostly self-interested and, while a lot of politicians are talking about abortion rights, most the electorate will still be thinking about inflation. 

If the decision that leaked is the one handed down by the court, the country will be worse off. The Supreme Court will have lost some of its legitimacy to about half the nation. Women and girls will certainly die as a result of the decision. More children will have children. And our divided country will be a little more divided in the coming years. 

6 Comments

  1. cocodog

    The American Bar Association (ABA) has played a role in who gets to sit on the court for years. This is not new. Congress has the responsibility of vetting and affirming justices to the court. The evidence was clear, during his hearings, Brett Kavanaugh did not have the character required for a justice. He had unexplained charges of unusual behavior in his life and what can be described as an affinity for beer, which was jokingly referred to by him as, “I like beer.” Although, folks drink, it never comes up, unless they have made fools of themselves. Why members of congress choose to ignore what was solid evidence of behavior that fell below the standard of judicial demeanor set for judges speaks to the inability of congress to do the people’s work. These Trump appointees are obviously political hacks, who are not concerned with judicial integrity. Like the guy who appointed them, lying is a skill necessary for survival. Through the years, I have not agreed with many of the court’s rulings, but never have I found reason to doubt a judge’s integrity. Like most things Trump participated in, the end result has weakened the union.

  2. Mike Leonard

    Wealthy white women will always have easy access to abortion and contraceptives after the far-right blocks them for everybody else.

  3. Laura Reich

    It’s not only abortion rights on the line, it’s every minority. And let’s not forget birth control. The anti abortion crowd does not believe in that.

    • Russ Becker

      You’re absolutely right. When I was a post-doc doing research on birth control, I wondered why anti-abortionists weren’t supporting contraception. Then I realized–if you have sex, they want you to get pregnant. Then you and your unwanted child will suffer the consequences.

  4. JB

    Assumes facts not in evidence. This court hasn’t had any credibility since the second Brett Kavanaugh was confirmed. And the last vestige of its ghost was exorcised when Barrett was confirmed. So this decision can do no further damage to this court’s credibility.

    The very fact that Collins and Murkowski can claim shock and dismay with a straight face tells us far more about them than the justices that pinky swore not to do what they just did. Either they are naive to the point of stupidity, or they imagine that their voters are. Or, more likely still, they feel safe in their seats and why piss off McTurtlehead in order to save Roe when they could dodge having to do it by telling us they had Gotten Assurances. Keep in mind that Collins at least imagined that Fat Donny Two-Times was capable of Learning His Lesson. If she actually believes that, she’ll believe anything.

  5. Jay Ligon

    We knew that Justice Thomas was liar after his sexual harassment of Anita Hill and denial of responsibility for his actions. His wife has been selling his vote to right wing causes for many years. The Thomas household has enjoyed a king’s ransom of income from those efforts.

    Thomas got himself to the court as a partisan exercise. Perjury got him where he is today, and his opinions cannot be believed. How is it possible that he does not comprehend his conflicts of interest when he rules on cases in which his wife’s misconduct is part of the evidence? Thomas does understand his conflict, but he has always been mendacious and he is comfortable with it. He was only the beginning of the tarnishing of the court by the right.

    The Federalist Society has replaced the American Bar Association as the organization that vets the fitness of SCOTUS candidates. The agenda of the far right has supplanted competence or integrity. The far right agenda has given the court six radicals who may dominate our laws for a long time. It’s the world of the right wing, and we have to live in it.

    Merrick Garland was denied a vote based on his being nominated by a Democrat, and his seat remained open until Trump was elected. It was a partisan outrage and a clear denial of a presidential prerogative, but it worked. The right got the seat that should have been Garland’s.

    Two more Federalist Society-approved candidates were elevated to the court during Trump’s administration, including the mind-boggling rush to get Amy Coney Barrett her seat before the elections carried Trump out of the White House. Mitch McConnell’s rule about not appointing a justice in the final year of a presidency was a bold, transparent lie, but he broke his own rule. Who is going to stop him. He lies in public and we move on. When he rushed Barrett onto the court within a few weeks of Trump’s defeat, McConnell demonstrated his political skills, but his court is like him, completely and utterly unprincipled.

    Dirty politics and dishonest senators and judges have given America the most craven court in our lifetimes. Barrett complained that the court is unfairly accused of being political when she spoke at the right wing political event. She and both Brett Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch hid their views about Roe v. Wade when they lied to the Senate panel to secure their seats on the court.

    After their approval, they grabbed the first case they could to outlaw what they had earlier claimed was precedent. Without compunction they took away a basic right from Americans. Their disdain for precedent and their disdain for the rights of Americans is on display along with their mendacity. What else is the Federalist Society planning to take from you? Will they overturn contraception, gay marriage, Dredd Scott, Social Security, union membership, Brown v. the Board of Education? Once the court overturns precedent which has stood for nearly half a century, what else is on the right wing hit list?

    Our third branch of government has become a hyper-political hammer to make right wing ideas the law of the land. Politics have replaced integrity, precedent and scholarship. The court has become an attack on American values.

    Biden should put six more justices on the court before the next election.

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