This is a picture of former Supreme Court Associate Justice Harry Blackmun. He was nominated to the High Court under President Richard Nixon as a conservative in 1970, but over time, he became more liberal, which was reflected in his rulings.
He turned in this direction mainly because Blackmun authored the majority opinion in the Roe v. Wade decision, which was handed down in 1973, invalidating a Texas statute that banned abortion except when a pregnant woman's life was in danger. The Court's judgment in the companion case of Doe v. Bolton held a less restrictive Georgia law to be unconstitutional as well. Roe was based on the right to privacy announced in Griswold v. Connecticut (1965), and it established a constitutional right to abortion in the United States. Blackmun's opinion in Roe made him a target for criticism by opponents of abortion, and he received voluminous negative mail and death threats because of it (you can read about all of this and more from here). Blackmun labored intensively to find a justification for his ruling that respected both the law and women’s bodily autonomy, and again, built on the right to privacy stated in Griswold (which was also used as a precedent in the Obergefell ruling establishing the right to same sex marriage).
I’m telling you this to try and provide a bit of perspective on the staggering loss we just suffered in this country as noted here. And it’s true that we were warned this would happen. Hell, the Mississippi case that made its way to the insane SCOTUS of Hangin’ Judge JR was specifically targeted to overturn Roe now that Gorsuch, “I Like Beer” Kavanaugh and “The Christian Handmaiden” have been installed for that singular purpose. And I’m going to go out on a very short limb and predict that, now, we’re not going to hear a word out of anyone who specifically leaked the opinion weeks earlier (as far as I’m concerned, it was a conservative activist, probably Ginni Thomas, who couldn’t wait to take a victory lap).
So now, Harry Blackmun’s crowning achievement has been relegated to the legal dust bin, and it is likely that the lives of an untold number of women will now be utterly destroyed.
I’m reading people online now more or less “congratulating” everybody who blew off voting for Hillary Clinton in 2016, as well as anybody who supported these Republican lunatics who are chiefly responsible for this atrocity. Yeah, I think that fits.
Update 1: Uh, yep.
Update 2: Jumping Judas H. Priest On A Freaking Pogo Stick, Democrats! IS PERFORMATIVE BULLSHIT all you have to offer at a time like this (here)?
Do I need to remind you of what the other side would be doing right now if they were in a similar position? They would be fanned out ALL OVER THE PLACE on wingnut media screaming their heads off! And of course, if we were talking about a national political party that ACTUALLY KNEW HOW TO STRATEGIZE AT TIMES LIKE THIS, there would be about half a dozen bills in the House and the Senate codifying a woman’s right to an abortion coming out of committees as we speak!
Yeah, just sing in unison as we continue our descent into a fascist “Judeo Christian” corpocracy! Meanwhile, the other side will continue burning to the ground about 246 years of hard-earned progress!
Update 3: OK, fair enough, but it was still rotten timing (here).
Update 6/26/22: I don’t know what the hell Biden plans to do/not do in the matter of expanding the court (and this is a great column on this subject). Likewise, I don’t know what the hell he’s planning to do/not do when it comes to declassifying pot as a Schedule 1 drug. I also don’t know what the hell he plans to do/not do about student debt relief.
What I DO know is that this ridiculous indecision of his is ABSOLUTELY KILLING any momentum the Dems could try to generate for the mid-terms. I don’t know what it’s going to take for the “D” party to realize that running on a platform of “vote for me because I’m not a crazy Republican” JUST ISN’T GODDAMN GOOD ENOUGH!
Update 6/29/22: Banging my head against a wall as I read this (nothing against Karoli...if it turns out to be not true, I'll note that ASAP)...
Update 10/27/22: A terrific related post by Joan McCarter here...
...and sticking with lunatic Trumpism, some Repug wingnut in Michigan named Steve Carra wants to make 1/6 a holiday because of resistance to a tyrannical government, or something...just once I’d like to see one of these cowardly a-holes actually GO LIVE in a country with an ACTUAL tyrannical government and then tell us what it’s like – God forbid anything comes between them and their privilege...
...and Caroline Johnson of Rebel HQ discusses the ways that the wingnuts are typically hypocritical on the whole bit about someone trying to assassinate “I Like Beer” Kavanaugh, especially against a guy who turned himself in, versus the murderous Roy Den Hollander insanity as Johnson points out, and yeah, I don’t remember hearing much from the wingnuts about THAT one (yes, violence against anyone is wrong...I feel like I’ve said this a zillion times...blah blah blah)...
...and with today’s awful Roe news, it’s tempting to forget that the SCOTUS just struck down a New York state law against concealed carry (and good job by Sam to link this abomination to Heller...really fed up with being in a position where all we can do is wait for the next body blow from the wingnuts on the SCOTUS and their sycophants in Congress...and of course, this leads back to “Strip Search Sammy” Alito and Almost Silent Clarence Thomas, who of course said “yes, dear” while his wife plotted an insurrection against this country...and Thomas says, “this doesn’t matter,” huh? Then why the hell can’t anybody just bring any gun they want inside the Supreme Court during deliberations? What’s the point of metal detectors, then? Hey, someone is bound to create a “ghost gun” one of these days of plastic that can escape detection, so let’s just stop screening for weapons altogether then. Why not? And no, I’m not serious on that.)...
...and I know the national “right to life” coalition is just thrilled about today’s SCOTUS atrocity...well, it also looks like they’re trying to find ways to imprison people under RICO statues for even mentioning abortion, and not just the women seeking the procedure...just keep telling me that “The Handmaid’s Tale” is fiction...yeah, right...
…and RIP James Rado, co-creator of the musical Hair – this tune was performed by The Cowsills of course, another family band with a troubled history, including a founding family member who died in Hurricane Katrina (learned about the group from another great documentary on the Showtime cable channel)…I believe other members have kept the act going, to their credit.
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