Dobbs Shows Roe And Casey Were Wrong On The Law And On The Science
The Supreme Court’s opinion destroyed the legal sophistry of Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey and their anti-science underpinnings.The Supreme Court’s opinion destroyed the legal sophistry of Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey and their anti-science underpinnings.GOP senator suggests Barrett, Kavanaugh lied during Senate confirmation. But here's what they said.
Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) appeared on Friday to accuse Supreme Court Justices Amy Coney Barrett and Brett Kavanaugh of lying when the Senate was considering their Supreme Court nominations.
What did Collins say?
After the Supreme Court officially overturned abortion precedents in a 6-3 ruling on Friday, Collins released a statement saying Barrett and Kavanaugh voted in an "inconsistent" manner with what they promised during their confirmation hearings.
"This decision is inconsistent with what Justices Gorsuch and Kavanaugh said in their testimony and their meetings with me, where they both were insistent on the importance of supporting long-standing precedents that the country has relied upon," Collins said.
She added, "Throwing out a precedent overnight that the country has relied upon for half a century is not conservative. It is a sudden and radical jolt to the country that will lead to political chaos, anger, and a further loss of confidence in our government."
But what did ACB and Kavanaugh say?
While it is impossible to know what each justice said behind closed doors, neither justice indicated during their Senate confirmation hearings that they would absolutely vote to uphold Roe v. Wade if the issue came before the Supreme Court.
Under questioning from Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-N.Y.), Barrett said she does not consider Roe v. Wade a "super-precedent," a scholarly legal term that describes "cases that are so well-settled that no political actors and no people seriously push for their overruling," Barrett explained.
"And I'm answering a lot of question about Roe, which I think indicates that Roe doesn't fall in that category," she added.
Barrett stipulated that legal scholars "across the spectrum say that doesn't mean that Roe should be overruled, but descriptively it does mean that it's not a case that everyone has accepted."
\u201cJudge Barrett on Roe & super-precedent definition: "to define cases that are so well-settled that no political actors and no people seriously push for their overruling. And I'm answering a lot of question about Roe, which I think indicates that Roe doesn't fall in that category."\u201d— CSPAN (@CSPAN) 1602614525
At his Senate confirmation hearing, Kavanaugh calledRoe an "important precedent of the Supreme Court that has been reaffirmed many times," but declined to say whether he believed it was "correct law."
"This is the point that I want to make that I think is important. Planned Parenthood v. Casey reaffirmed Roe and did so by considering the stare decisis factors," Kavanaugh then explained. "So Casey now becomes a precedent on precedent. It is not as if it is just a run-of-the-mill case that was decided and never been reconsidered, but Casey specifically reconsidered it, applied the stare decisis factors, and decided to reaffirm it. That makes Casey a precedent on precedent."
During his private meeting with Collins, Kavanaugh allegedly told the Republican lawmaker that he believed Roe was "settled law."
"We talked about whether he considered Roe to be settled law," Collins said after the meeting. "He said that he agreed with what [Chief] Justice [John] Roberts said at his nomination hearing in which he said that it was settled law."
Anything else?
Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) also expressed frustrations with Kavanaugh and Justice Neil Gorsuch.
"I trusted Justice Gorsuch and Justice Kavanaugh when they testified under oath that they also believed Roe v. Wade was settled legal precedent and I am alarmed they chose to reject the stability the ruling has provided for two generations of Americans," Manchin said in a statement.
However, just like his colleagues, Gorsuch did not say that he would uphold Roe if the matter came before the court. Gorsuch said "a good judge will consider [Roe] as precedent of the U.S. Supreme Court worthy as treatment of precedent like any other."
"Roe v. Wade, decided in 1973, is a precedent of the U.S. Supreme Court. It has been reaffirmed. The reliance interest considerations are important there, and all of the other factors that go into analyzing precedent have to be considered," Gorsuch explained.
Sen. Mike Lee schools Democrats with pro bono legal lesson after they claim SCOTUS justices were dishonest
Republican Sen. Mike Lee (Utah) schooled Democrats on Thursday who claim that Supreme Court justices who favor overturning Roe v. Wade lied during their Senate confirmation process.
What is the background?
After a leaked opinion draft written by Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito showed that five Supreme Court justices — Alito, Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett — are prepared to overturn Roe v. Wade, some lawmakers have accused the justices of dishonesty.
Every Supreme Court nominee is pressed about abortion precedents and the law doctrine of stare decisis during their Senate confirmation hearings. To avoid unethically revealing how they will vote if the issue comes before them on the court, justices typically provide general answers about respecting judicial precedents.
However, as Lee pointed out, respecting judicial precedents is not and should not be equated with never reconsidering their legality. In fact, overturning landmark precedents because of markedly improved jurisprudence has a long history in the United States.
What did Lee say?
During a Senate Judiciary Committee meeting on Thursday, chairman Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) charged that Alito had been dishonest during his confirmation hearings. Lee swiftly disproved such accusations and gave the committee a pro bono lesson in legal doctrine.
"I remember when [Alito] gave that testimony," Lee began. "He was correctly characterizing the standard under stare decisis. Stare decisis, of course we have to remember, is not an inexorable command — far from it."
Lee continued:
Stare Decisis takes generally the approach that it's better to have things settled up than settled right. Now that's the general principle. But it has limits. One of those limits is— you know, it's one thing to follow precedent when you're interpreting a statute. A statute can be changed; the Constitution can't be changed except under the very rigorous standards outlined by the Constitution and that's why it's difficult — it's intentionally difficult — that's also why we give diminished deference to precedent under the doctrine of stare decisis when it comes to a provision of the Constitution."
After explaining how stare decisis actually functions, Lee observed that "it's actually quite difficult to defend Roe."
"And the fact that you're having to rely on stare decisis to begin with says something about the fact that it's hard to defend Roe as an original matter [and] impossible to defend Roe as a textual matter," Lee said.
"There is nothing deceptive about saying that Roe being precedent is entitled to respect. That's the whole point of the doctrine of stare decisis," he explained. "The fact that the doctrine dictates that precedent be given due respect is not the end of the analysis; it states the reason for the analysis."
"I think it's unfortunate to denigrate the character and truthfulness of one of the most honest, decent human beings ever to serve in the federal judiciary and on the Supreme Court of the United States," Lee exclaimed.
"But more to the point here: I'd hope that you'd stop and consider the fact that nothing in his answers have proved untruthful."
Sen. Lee Addresses SCOTUS leak in Senate Judiciary Hearing www.youtube.com
Tradition And Stare Decisis Are More Reasons The Supreme Court Should Reverse Roe v. Wade
Famous for recognizing the value of long-established traditions, Edmund Burke was no apologist for institutional error.Today's top stories
www.theblaze.com
www.theblaze.com
thefederalist.com