RobDownSouth
Oh Look....
- Joined
- Apr 13, 2002
- Posts
- 75,200
- The good Republicans (sarcasm here) of Idaho enacted one of the most draconian anti-abortion laws in the nation.
- The state law, as written, came in direct conflict with established United States federal law. Like Idaho resident RightGuide, they often disregard the US Constitution except for the Second Amendment.
- A federal judge, citing the obvious conflict between state and federal law, correctly ruled the law unconstitutional.
- So far, so good.
- The state, naturally, immediately appealed.
- Very unusually, the state appealed directly to the United States Supreme Court, attempting to bypass the Court of Appeals.
- The state's rationale was "preborn babbies are at risk!" (and also that the state was on the hook for hundreds of thousands of dollars for the cost of airlifting 8 and 9 month pregnant women with life-threatening conditions to out of state hospitals).
- Even more unusually, the Supreme Court agreed to hear the case by a vote of 6-3. They obviously saw a chance to put another nail into abortion availability.
- It is virtually unheard of for the Supreme Court to take an appeal directly from District Court.
- Oral arguments were heard in April.
- The state of Idaho was represented by a lawyer named Joshua Turner.
- We'll never know exactly what Joshua Turner presented to the court, but a verbal bloodbath ensued. He endured hostile questioning from all four female justices.
- So the court recessed, and supremely (pun intended) pissed-off Justice Amy Barrett declared she could not support the position of Iowa in this case. She would vote in favor of the federal government.
- The other justices voted as a bloc, so normally this would have resulted in a 5-4 decision favoring the state of Idaho.
- Right?
- WRONG!
- Chief Justice John Roberts immediately recognized the Supreme Court was supremely in peril: In an election year, ruling in favor of more abortion restrictions, with the five MALE justices voting in favor of an abortion ban and the four FEMALE justices voting against.
- This would result in the worst case "bad optics" available....in an election year!
- Roberts desparately sought out a political solution to a political case, but Justices Alito, Thomas and Goresuch said, nope, we're outta here and left.
- This left Roberts and Kavanaugh alone to come up with a plan.
- Roberts lamented ever taking the case before the Appeals Court could rule....it seemed so cut-and-dried!
- Kavanaugh, ever the sneaky political hack, had a "brilliant idea": Do NOT make a ruling, dismiss the state's case as flawed and let them relitigate this again next year after the election!
- Roberts informed the rest of the Justices who mostly agreed for various reasons because nobody was getting their way and the Supreme Court publicly said they "unwisely" opted to decide the case before all arguments were heard. (the unsaid private message was "Don't bring Joshua Turner back before this court ever again".
So the state's draconian anti-abortion law is still technically void as unconstitutional until the state refiles appeal paperwork, which will likely take a year.
LINK
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