SC judge is retiring

https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/justice-kennedy-retiring-trump-gets-2nd-supreme-court-180417906--politics.html

I think we all know where this is headed

I came here to post this and you beat me to it!

Yes, we all know where this is heading. There are fetal heartbeat laws and life at conception laws that are blatantly unconstitutional on the books, and the forced birthers are just waiting for a new SCOTUS judge to test these laws on the national level.

If Chump gets a second term, I fully expect abortion to become illegal in the USA. I don't think they'll push it back to the states; the forced birther Dominionists want to eliminate the separation of church and state, and will force this through on a national level.

I am very, very worried about this. I'm 55 and sterilized, but I worry for the future of my country, and the world, with that piece of shit as POTUS.


Flame me all you want, but I sincerely wish that EVERY MAN who voted for that orange cheeto has to pay a huge child support bill every month. I wish that every woman who voted for that POS has an unwanted child, and cannot get a legal abortion. Because they voted for that asshole, they need to suffer the consequences. And when they bitch and moan about an unwanted child, I'll remind them of what they told others: keep your damn legs closed or your pants zipped up! Because I have given up trying to be nice to Chump supporters or trying to understand them.

The next oldest conservative SCOTUS justice is Thomas, who turned 70 a few days ago and is in good health. This means, barring any untimely or premature deaths or resignations, SCOTUS will have a solid 5-vote conservative voting block for the next 10 years, at least. And that assumes Breyer and Ginsburg somehow get replaced by a future Democratic president.

Watch that conservative block turn back the clock 50 years on abortion rights and gay rights.

McConnell steals a Court seat and Trump loses the popular vote by 3 million votes; taken together we end up with this horror show.

When are people going to learn that just because something isn't right or moral to them that they have a right to deprive others of it? Separation of church from state.

Just want to say I am all for separation of church and state. Yet I never get an answer to this question: The government might waste money but the taxes DO things like roads, public schools, space program, even welfare programs. But what does a church actually DO? Get criticized to ask that question.

Roe vs Wade did not legalize abortion. It was legal in New York beginning in 1973. The issue was already devolved to the states in the 1992 decision Planned Parenthood vs Casey. Since then, states have been allowed to pass every manner of anti choice law. States such as Maryland codified Roe with a ballot measure.

Roe will be overturned. However pro choice activists have choices they can make right now that aren't crying and pearl clutching and going on anti Trump rants. States such as MA and NJ need to pass their own laws. The non profits need to focus their fundraising on setting up networks to assist women in getting to states where they can get abortions.

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cfinboston
Roe will be overturned. However pro choice activists have choices they can make right now that aren't crying and pearl clutching and going on anti Trump rants. States such as MA and NJ need to pass their own laws. The non profits need to focus their fundraising on setting up networks to assist women in getting to states where they can get abortions.

Very wise words, cfinboston.

The truly sad part is that it's 2018, and we still have to fight this shit. You'd think that this would be settled law, but this is what happens when you elect dumb-and-dumber.

What Roe did in 1973 was to strike down state laws which banned abortion and set up the trimester framework which permitted some state intrusion beyond the first trimester. This framework has been weakened over the years but its essence has been left intact in the 1992 Planned Parenthood v. Casey decision.

This hasn't stopped states from passing tougher laws to make abortions tougher to obtain. Think about what Texas did in the last few years. State courts and lower federal courts have upheld some of the laws but have struck down others. But the SC was always a backstop to the overreach of those Red states, even if the case never got there.

This important backstop is in great danger of disappearing. If a state passes another restriction (there may be some in the state courts and lower federal courts already) and it gets to the SC when there are no longer 5 votes to strike it down, that is when Roe falls or at least becomes so much more badly weakened that it is no longer effective.

Then we will have a patchwork of states, some of which will still allow it and some which will be able to either restrict it a lot or ban it outright. Think about the status of same-sex marriage prior to the 2015 Obergefell decision which Kennedy wrote. Even if women are allowed to travel to other states to get an abortion, it may be prohibitively expensive to do so, especially when you consider that the Red states are clustered pretty close together in the South and Midwest.

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deegee
McConnell steals a Court seat and Trump loses the popular vote by 3 million votes; taken together we end up with this horror show.

And a horror show it is on multiple fronts--the inevitable rollback to environmental issues, abortion rights, voting rights, immigration, gay rights, and that's what immediately comes to mind. It truly is the stuff of nightmares.