Alito: The Chickens Come Home To Roost; Late Term Abortions Ban Ruled Constitutional
Posted on Wed Apr 18, 2007 at 10:12:58 AM EST
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Via AdamB, the SCOTUS upheld a federal ban on late term abortions. SCOTUSBlog reports:
Dividing 5-4, the Supreme Court on Wednesday gave a sweeping -- and only barely qualified -- victory to the federal government and to other opponents of abortion, upholding the 2003 law that banned what are often called "partial-birth abortions." Justice Anthony M. Kennedy wrote for the majority in the first-ever decision by the Court to uphold a total ban on a specific abortion procedure -- prompting the dissenters to argue that the Court was walking away from the defense of abortion rights that it had made since the original Roe v. Wade.. . . Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, speaking out in the courtroom for the dissenters, called the ruling "an alarming decision" that refuses "to take seriously" the Court's 1992 decisions reaffirming most of Roe v. Wade and its 2000 decision in Stenberg v. Carhart striking down a state partial-birth abortion law.
Ginsburg, in a lengthy statement, said "the Court's opinion tolerates, indeed applauds, federal intervention to ban nationwide a procedure found necessary and proper in certain cases by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. For the first time since Roe, the Court blesses a prohibition with no exception protecting a woman's health." She said the federal ban "and the Court's defense of it cannot be understood as anything other than an effort to chip away at a right declared again and again by this Court -- and with increasing comprehension of its centrality to women's lives. A decision of the character the Court makes today should not have staying power."
Kennedy's vote with the majority; Roberts and ScAlito joined Scalia and Thomas, makes clear that those of us who fought against both the Roberts and Alito nominations were right to expect this from those nominees. Roe and Casey will not survive if this Court gets to decide the issue.
Kennedy tries to compromise the issue by saying:
The proper way to make a challenge, if an abortion ban is claimed to harm a woman's right to abortion, is through as as-applied claim, Kennedy wrote. His opinion said that courts could consider such claims "in discrete and well-defined instances" where "a condition has or is likely to occur in which the procedure prohibited by the Act must be used." Kennedy said the Court was assuming that the federal ban would be unconstitutional "if it subjected women to significant health risks." He added, however, that "safe medical options are available." His opinion noted that the Bush Administration "has acknowledged that pre-enforcement, as-applied challenges to the Act can be maintained."
So Kennedy is inviting fact based challenges to the law? And in the meantime, women lose constitutional right to make private decisions with their doctors. Outrageous.
Ralph Neas of PFAW said:
"Today's 5-4 decision is further proof that the confirmation of right-wing nominees to the Supreme Court has disastrous consequences for Americans' rights and liberties.""The replacement of moderate Justice Sandra Day O'Connor with ultraconservative Justice Samuel Alito has brought the Court to the brink of judicial disaster.
“President Bush’s Supreme Court nominees are weakening Americans’ rights and legal protections. Today’s decision will energize a crucial public conversation with presidential candidates about the importance of future Supreme Court justices.”
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