Please Justice Breyer, Please

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I don’t understand how Justice Stephen Breyer (83yo) can watch Ruth Ginsburg’s replacement swing the Court against Roe and not realize he must go now, while Dems control Senate.

This 5-4 Texas anti-abortion rights decision is Ginsburg’s fault for not leaving when Obama could have replaced here. Obama gently asked in a meeting with her while Dems held Senate but she didn’t get the hint. Sadly now it could be happening all over again with Breyer.

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27 thoughts on “Please Justice Breyer, Please”

  1. mitch would stop the nomination — probably arguing that the nation is too divided as to which party is really in power to clearly give consent — by using delay, obstruction, lack of quorum or any other devious way he can come up with. 

  3. pogo – Thanks for your answer to my question on the OT

    Social media companies can’t ban Texans over political viewpoints under new law

    “Texas is about to make it illegal for big social media companies to ban users based on their political viewpoints.”

    “The legislation, now on its way to the governor’s desk, would require social media platforms like Twitter, Instagram and YouTube — those with more than 50 million monthly users in the U.S. — to produce regular reports of removed content, create a complaint system and disclose their content regulation procedures.”

    “How will a government not use this slippery slope to mandate how other companies and what they can or cannot allow their customers to say or to do, conducting private transactions,”

    Forcing a company to produce a report about private citizens’ behaviors online. Creepy.
    Do you just have to be a Texas resident or do you have to also post while in the state of Texas? Who is going to make social media companies do this? Could they just block anyone in Texas from using their platform altogether?

    Another piece of dumbassery, courtesy of the asshats in Austin.

  4. And, yeah, “Breyer retire” has a nice ring to it, but maybe POTUS Joe should just increase the number of Justices.

  5. but why stew over little niceties like replacing justices or unconstitutional laws when the whole shebang is being threatened?

    on 9/18 grab the popcorn, nestle in your comfy couch and watch a new ken burns series, the civil war sequel called “insurrection II”

    MAGA leaders are openly planning an event in September that pledges to return to the scene of the January 6th insurrection to “demand justice” on the hoax theory the people indicted at the insurrection are innocent political prisoners. This comes as GOP leader Kevin McCarthy is threatening companies to defy lawful requests from the bipartisan committee investigating the riot. MSNBC’s Chief Legal Correspondent Ari Melber reports on the developments.

  6. The TX social media law will likely not survive a dormant commerce clause challenge, and Facebook, et al. have plenty of money to mount that challenge. There is also a very strong preemption argument since regulation of the internet and the media companies that operate in it is traditionally a federal function.

  7. As to the thread topic, I reluctantly agree. While I am not as harsh as Poobah about RBG, the fact is that in this environment of systematic RW court packing at all federal court levels by sitting Republicans it is critical to install liberal judges while Democrats control the presidency and the Senate. That or cede our rights developed over the last 70 years. Women are the first targets and minorities will be next. 

  8. https://www.cnn.com/2021/09/03/us/texas-laws-abortion-education-voting-access/index.html

    “The new abortion law along with laws concerning public education and proposed legislation restricting voting access are part of a slew of measures that will greatly impact the lives of people of color. Civil rights advocates and some lawmakers say people of color are powering the population growth in the state and the measures enacted by Republican lawmakers will have dire consequences.“

    “What is happening in Texas is a deliberate attack by far-right politicians who will do anything to quell Black, brown, immigrant, and LGBTQ communities both in Texas and other Republican-controlled states across the country,” Martinez Rosas said. By merely existing, “Republicans see us as threats to their white supremacist agenda.”

  11. pat, of those 13 companies I have patronized 2 within the past year and had no real option with respect to one of them but with that one (AA) I do not routinely choose them, in fact I hate flying AA.  Options for flying from this region are pretty much limited to AA and Delta – both of which are in deeply red states that suppress voting or now in TX’s case, abortion rights (I just read the dissents to the SCOTUS weasel opinion and am now willing to drop the “woman’s right to choose” language and use the abortion rights language the liberal justices, particularly Sotomayor, are comfortable with), so I’m stuck with either flying one of them or cutting off my nose to spite my face, and as odd as it is, I’ve become pretty attached to my nose.  And one of the companies is central to our office systems and we have very little option but to patronize it, but nothing is on the horizon with respect to that company.   I seldom go into craft stores, but Michaels was the local alternative to Hobby Lobby, so I guess the real alternative will be to go to Walmart or Amazon for my crafting needs, and I’m OK with that (since I have virtually none).

  12. pogo, which phrase of sotomayor’s is it you’re going to use in place of right to choose:

     “exercising their constitutional rights” 

    “medical procedures,”

    or one of the two phrases in her

    “The Court should not be so content to ignore its constitutional obligations to protect not only the rights of women, but also the sanctity of its precedents and of the rule of law.”

  13. https://www.texastribune.org/2021/09/03/texas-republican-abortion-civil-lawsuits/

    “It’s wide open,” said David Coal​​e, an appellate lawyer in Texas. “That is a radical expansion of the concept of standing.”

    “It’s a way of back-dooring and winking while constitutional violations are occurring,” Michaels said. “It is compromising democracy.”

    “Typically, in tort law, which is used to compensate people who have been injured, a person must have incurred some sort of personal harm in order to sue someone else. That’s the very nature of what a civil court is intended to remedy in such a case, several legal experts told the Tribune. Texas’ new abortion law, however, gives that privilege to anyone.“

    Republicans are agreeing to pay for delivery, childcare, healthcare, housing, clothing, and, secondary education for those women forced to carry to term, right?

    Snitching, it’s a new, cottage industry in Texas. ~Jobs~

    Abortion Stops in Texas After Supreme Court Inaction

  14. pat, she does not hesitate to refer to the right being denied as the right to get an abortion. I’ve always (almost) couched it as a woman’s right to choose. It is, but it’s the right to choose an abortion or not. She acknowledges in discussing the TX law that the right denied is the right to obtain an abortion. Justice Breyer is even more direct. I’m ok with acknowledging that the right to choose at question is the right to choose an abortion.

  15. Senate Judiciary Committee to hold hearing on Supreme Court’s abortion ruling and ‘shadow docket’ – CNNPolitics

    […]

    The hearing will examine the Supreme Court’s use of the so-called “shadow docket,” the nickname for emergency actions taken by the court that do not go through the full briefing and hearing process of a formal opinion.

    […]

    The order came on the heels of two other major shadow docket orders the justices issued last month: one requiring the Biden administration to revive a Trump-era immigration policy and another throwing out the Biden administration’s eviction moratorium.
    “At a time when public confidence in government institutions has greatly eroded, we must examine not just the constitutional impact of allowing the Texas law to take effect, but also the conservative Court’s abuse of the shadow docket,” Durbin said in the hearing announcement, which also referenced a sharp dissent Justice Elena Kagan issued that criticized how the conservative majority has been using the shadow docket.
    [continues]

     

    the pertinent part of elena kagan’s dissent:

    Today’s ruling illustrates just how far the Court’s “shadow-docket” decisions may depart from the usual principles of appellate process. That ruling, as everyone must agree, is of great consequence. Yet the majority has acted without any guidance from the Court of Appeals—which is right now considering the same issues. It has reviewed only the most cursory party submissions, and then only hastily. And it barely bothers to explain its conclusion—that a challenge to an obviously unconstitutional abortion regulation backed by a wholly unprecedented enforcement scheme is unlikely to prevail. In all these ways, the majority’s decision is emblematic of too much of this Court’s shadowdocket decisionmaking—which every day becomes more un- reasoned, inconsistent, and impossible to defend. I respectfully dissent.

  17. https://www.cnn.com/2021/09/03/tech/match-bumble-texas-abortion-law/index.html

    Here’s the first corporate weigh-in on the Texas abortion ban.

    “Bumble (BMBLF), which is based in the state capital of Austin and led by CEO Whitney Wolfe Herd, said Wednesday that it has created a fund “supporting the reproductive rights of women and people across the gender spectrum who seek abortions in Texas.”

    “Match Group (MTCH) is also headquartered in Texas. The Dallas-based company owns Match.com and dating apps including Tinder, Plenty of Fish, OkCupid and Hinge. CEO Shar Dubey said she was creating a fund to ensure that employees and their dependents would be able to seek care outside of the state.“

    “The law also covers anyone, not just medical providers, who “aids or abets” a restricted abortion. However, because the law only applies to restricted abortions in the state of Texas, Match Group’s Dubey wouldn’t be liable for providing financial support to employees to receive out-of-state care, according to Elizabeth Sepper, a health law expert and law professor at the University of Texas at Austin.“

    “…Lyft (LYFT) CEO Logan Green said on Twitter that his company would create a legal defense fund to protect any drivers sued under the law for driving a person who receives an abortion.“

    “…Uber (UBER) CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said on Twitter that Uber would also cover any legal fees incurred by its drivers under the law, saying “drivers shouldn’t be put at risk for getting people where they want to go” and telling Green “thanks for the push.”

  18. those TX folk who are hellbent on recognizing embryos (a fetus isn’t until 10 weeks) as living entities will next turn their wrath on men who get vasectomies, who use condoms and who masturbate.  given their mobility spermatozoa are quite lively.    males, beware.  you’re next.

  19. Anyone who collects a bounty for snitching should have to fork over that cash, and, have their wages garnished for support.  Republicans hate POC and poor folks, so why make more of them?  

    Maybe this is to replace the population Republicans have killed by lying about covid and making more lax gun laws.

  20. interesting background on desantis (and the internecine war of gop prez wannabees) in vanity fair.  here’s an excerpt:

    Although DeSantis looks like a front-runner now, a lot can go wrong between now and the New Hampshire primary. For one thing, DeSantis’s supposed success at managing COVID is being torched by the delta variant raging out of control in Florida. DeSantis also needs to win reelection in 2022 (a recent poll showed him losing to Republican turned Democrat Charlie Crist). But assuming DeSantis prevails, former staffers told me that his abrasive personality could become a liability under the pressures of a national campaign. DeSantis is known to only trust his wife, Casey, a former newscaster, and his staff has seen heavy turnover. “He has zero relationships. He just doesn’t speak to you,” one former staffer told me. In May, Politico reported that former DeSantis staffers set up a “support group” to commiserate over their experiences working for him. DeSantis didn’t respond to requests for comment.

    DeSantis’s biggest challenge, though, will be navigating his fraught relationship with Trump. “Trump fucking hates DeSantis. He just resents his popularity,” a second Trump confidant told me. (“Ron is a good guy,” Trump said.) According to a source, advisers for Pompeo have been promoting DeSantis in hopes of stoking Trump’s jealousy. “Pompeo’s people are building up DeSantis as the leader of the Republican Party to piss Trump off,” the source said.

  23. I wish to again  say,  I deeply regret attacking  Jack  here , both to him, this group, and our host. 
    I was wrong and I am sorry . 
     

  24. As for Ida –
    This one may be the turning point .  For the simple reason it hit  the media center  of the free world .  Along with all those “crackers” on Grand Isle , La. 
    As Craig said a few posts  before Ida. 
    The only money we as country should spent there is to remove the mess, and help the people there to retreat. 
    Climate  Refugees –
    Europe’s right ward shift  was fueled by the Syrian  drought  that sparked the their civil war. 
    Our   own border crisis  was driven into high gear  by 2  Cat 5 cyclones  back to back. 
    I could go on to dawn  with this list .  going back  decades .
    And each year,  I have seen it getting faster and faster. 
    Case in point  –
    Two weeks before Ida ,  the Central Park weather station  recorded it’s  All Time Rainfall Record. with out the help of a tropical cyclone.  Ida creamed that .
    Our entire political  land scape  was fueled  by this Climate Denier  movement .
    They proved  that being a liar , does not bring shame, it brings readers   In fact  it’s a way to make money.
    The only fly in their plan was this  would all arrive after they were dead. 
    Bad guess . 
     
     
     

  25. One more bad guess  –
    The right always thought  that Covid  was  like the “flu” .  You get it , recover , and go back to work . 
    If we have learned  any thing  about this virus  it’s effects  on the human body  are long lasting , and unknown.
    Now we are  driving our kids  into that fate. 

  26. One last comment  –
    The Taliban  have no money  they are in a drought .
    They import most of  their electricity, food,  and all their  fuel.
     
     We have  the hammer over them .
     

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