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Niccolo Pizarro.

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A Supreme Court without respect

For any of us and apparently for each other.

Supreme Court overturns constitutional right to abortion By Amy Howe (scotusblog.com) on Jun 24, 2022 at 10:13 am

The Supreme Court on Friday eliminated the constitutional right to obtain an abortion, casting aside 49 years of precedent that began with Roe v. Wade.

The decision by Justice Samuel Alito will set off a seismic shift in reproductive rights across the United States. It will allow states to ban abortion, and experts expect about half the states to do so.

In one of the most anticipated rulings in decades, the court overturned Roe, which first declared a constitutional right to abortion in 1973, and Planned Parenthood v. Casey, which re-affirmed that right in 1992. The decision followed the leak in early May of a draft opinion showing that a majority of the justices were privately poised to take that step. On Friday, they made it official.

The vote to overturn Roe was 5-4. Justices Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett joined Alito’s opinion. Chief Justice John Roberts did not join the opinion. He agreed with the majority that the Mississippi abortion restriction at issue in the case should be upheld, but in a separate opinion, he argued that the court should not have overturned Roe.

The court’s three liberals — Justices Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor, and Elena Kagan — filed a joint dissent. They called the majority opinion a violation of women’s autonomy and said it would harm the court’s legitimacy and jeopardize other constitutional rights. [...]  An analysis by the Guttmacher Institute predicts that 26 states are likely to ban all or nearly all abortions. [...]

[...] In a rare joint dissent, Breyer, Sotomayor, and Kagan pushed back against the majority’s characterization of the decision as merely leaving the issue of abortion to the states. “We believe,” they wrote, “in a Constitution that puts some issues off limits to majority rule.” The dissenters also rejected Kavanaugh’s depiction of Friday’s ruling as “neutral” on abortion. The court, they said, “does not act ‘neutrally’ when it leaves everything up to the States. Rather, the Court acts neutrally when it protects the right against all comers.” [...] 

[...] The dissenters warned that, despite assurances to the contrary, “no one should be confident that this majority is done with its work.” The right to an abortion at the core of Roe and Casey, the dissenters explained, is “part of the same constitutional fabric” as the rights to contraception and same-sex intimacy and marriage. “Either the mass of the majority’s opinion is hypocrisy,” the dissenters suggested, “or additional constitutional rights are under threat. It is one or the other.”

[...] Notably, the dissenters finished by noting only that they dissented, omitting the word “respectfully” that commonly accompanies the dissent.

It will be interesting to see how the conservative justices stage the rest of their attack on the substantive due process rights of the Constitution. The easiest one to go after will be Obergefell, and same-sex marriage; depending on whether or not they’re feeling their oats that day -- and the vast overreach of this decision to strike down Roe and Casey, which was not even vaguely necessary, indicates that they will -- they’ll also probably strike down Lawrence v. Texas -- after all, it’s rather difficult to strike down someone’s marriage without deciding that the state no longer has to recognize them as a person. Once that’s gone, they can take out Griswold v. Connecticut, which will remove women’s right to birth control without the consent of their father or husband, and incidentally take along any right to privacy for anyone. Women will officially be only slightly better than chattel, and LGBTQIA people will be less than that. Officially.

I should imagine that the next case to take on Obergefell will be filed any day now, if it hasn’t been already.

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For me but not for thee, or, anti-maskers/anti-vaxxers and abortion

Would that anyone could be surprised.

Vaccine skeptics and anti-maskers who invoked 'my body, my choice' in the pandemic are now lining up to support the end of Roe v. Wade (insider.com)

The leak of the Supreme Court draft opinion that would end Roe v. Wade has been met with approval by many conservatives who championed the very same notion of bodily autonomy and personal choice throughout the pandemic.

Rep. Paul Gosar of Arizona, for example, urged the justices to move ahead with the decision on Tuesday. Yet, while railing against vaccine mandates last June, he said that they ultimately mean that "personal autonomy means nothing. It is no longer your body, it is no longer your choice."

Bodily autonomy has become a familiar line of argumentation from anti-vaxxers, vaccine skeptics, and anti-maskers in recent years. "Medical freedom," "bodily autonomy" and "my body, my choice" became watchwords of an anti-vaccine movement turbocharged in the COVID-19 pandemic.

[...] But the concept of personal control over what medical choices one takes gained prominence in the abortion-rights movement that led to the landmark 1973 judgment of Roe v. Wade. Then, it was applied to the decision of whether or not to bear a child to term.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott invoked that thinking last December when railing against vaccine mandates, telling Fox News' Sean Hannity the issue was about "whether or not somebody is going to have something put into their body that they do not want put into their body," Rolling Stone reported.

Yet in May that year Abbott imposed one of the most restrictive abortion bills in the US, banning abortions after six weeks even in the case of rape or incest.

He also called on the Supreme Court to follow through with the draft opinion, the Houston Chronicle reported.

"The conceptual inconsistency would be laughable if the issues weren't so crucially important," Prof. Timothy Caulfield, an expert in public-health ethics at the University of Alberta, told Insider....

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That entire bottom line is so true ... and so very depressing

Gemma Correll.

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Really? ... I mean ... REALLY?

Trump sues Hillary Clinton, DNC for more than $70 million over 2016 election, ‘spurious’ Russia collusion claims PUBLISHED THU, MAR 24 20222:27 PM EDT Dan Mangan, cnbc.com

Former President Donald Trump on Thursday sued Hillary Clinton, the Democratic National Committee and others for allegedly conspiring to “weave a false narrative” during the 2016 presidential election that Trump and his campaign were colluding with Russia.

Trump’s RICO suit says that Clinton, who was his Democratic opponent in that election, and other defendants as part of the purported scheme falsified evidence, deceived law enforcement authorities and exploited access to “highly-sensitive data sources” in a way that “even the events of Watergate pale in comparison.”

The Republican ex-president, who is highly litigious, filed the suit in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida more than five years after defeating Clinton the race that was the subject of the supposed plot to harm his chances in the election....

I mean ... REALLY?

I would honestly expect this to be dismissed with prejudice (that is, the suit could not be resubmitted/refiled, although that decision can be appealed). First, apart from anything else, there’s an official government document -- from his own administration, yet! -- that says that the campaign was at least “receptive” to said collusion. 

Also, leave us not forget: the election he’s suing over is the election that he won. It will be difficult -- to put it mildly -- to persuade a judge or jury that he was significantly damanged in any way.

The only way this makes even a little sense is if he’s getting out in front of the idea that he persuaded/encouraged Russia on its current invasion path. That it’s likely that internal polling of the GOP is indicating that their voters are somewhat blaming him for the current situation. (NO! You think?) Otherwise, it’s just baffling.

Well, unless he’s bringing this lawsuit in front of one of the judges he appointed to the bench. expecting them to toady up to the bar to repay the favor. I will note that such desires have not, to date, significantly paid off for him.

I have to admit, I feel sorry for Clinton in all this. She has got to be so so very tired of dealing with the fallout of an election she lost. Tired of dealing with him at all. And yet, on we go.

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I mean ... it’s not likely to pass. Quite apart from anything else, Russia could and probably would -- not entirely unreasonably, unfortunately -- say that it’s a direct act of war. (Also, given what’s happening with abortion and Texas, the government probably does not want to authorize a law that is almost literally the same thing as that godawful Texas law, in a slightly different context -- authorizing third parties to do what it will not. It would not look good in court, I think.)

Also, in this country, at least, a chunk of the real estate, such as it is, would be largely planes and yachts. (...OK, the idea of flipping massive luxury yachts into affordable housing in the marinas of the ultra-rich is thoroughly amusing, if improbable.)

H.R.6869 - To authorize the President of the United States to issue letters of marque and reprisal for the purpose of seizing the assets of certain Russian citizens, and for other purposes.

Introduced in House (02/28/2022)

This bill authorizes the President to issue letters of marque and reprisal to privately armed individuals and entities to seize the assets of certain Russian citizens.

Specifically, the holder of such a letter shall be authorized to employ all means reasonably necessary to seize any asset, such as a yacht or plane, outside of the United States that belongs to a Russian citizen on the Office of Foreign Asset Control's List of Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons.

WHO WANTS TO BE A PRIVATEER?!

If this passes I'd want to seize the real estate of the oligarchs on that list and flip them into affordable housing.

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Joey Alison Sayers.

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COVID in unusual places

... Well, if anything would convince some of those antivaxxers to get vaccinated, this probably would ... though I suspect they simply won’t believe it’s true. And now that we’ve basically surrendered to the disease, I suppose it doesn’t matter as much.

COVID Infects Penis, Testicles and Prostate – Causes Pain, Erectile Dysfunction, Reduced Sperm Count (scitechdaily.com) By NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY MARCH 4, 2022

Testicular pain, erectile dysfunction, reduced sperm count and quality, decreased fertility are direct consequence of infection, new study shows.

Multiple tissues of the male genital tract can be infected with SARS-CoV-2, reports a new Northwestern Medicine study in large animal models. The study, in SARS-CoV-2 infected-rhesus macaques, revealed the prostate, vasculature of testicles, penis, and testicles were all infected with the virus.

The surprising discovery was made utilizing a PET scan specially designed to reveal sites of infection spreading over time in a whole-body scan. Scientists didn’t know what they would find, but they expected to see the virus in the lungs and high up in the nose near the brain because people were experiencing loss of taste and smell.

“But the signal that jumped out at us was the complete spread through the male genital tract,” said lead investigator Thomas Hope, professor of cell and developmental biology at Northwestern Feinberg School of Medicine. “We had no idea we would find it there.”

“These results indicate that the testicular pain, erectile dysfunction, hypogonadism, reduced sperm count and quality, and decreased fertility associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection are a direct consequence of infection of cells of the male reproductive tract and not indirect mechanisms such as fever and inflammation,” Hope said....

So basically, if you have a prostate, penis and testicles and catch the coronavirus, COVID will make sure that not only does your junk not work right any more, it’ll shrink your balls, make it less likely that you can father children, and make it all hurt all the time. And this is because, basically, COVID makes your entire body get sick. It doesn’t just directly infect your lungs and respiratory system, it directly infects pretty much everything. Whee!

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Niccolo Pizarro.

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Ketanji Brown Jackson nominated to US Supreme Court

Biden nominates Ketanji Brown Jackson to be first Black woman to sit on Supreme Court (cnn.com) By Jake Tapper, Ariane de Vogue, Jeff Zeleny, Betsy Klein and Maegan Vazquez, CNN Updated 2:24 PM EST, Fri February 25, 2022

President Joe Biden nominated Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court on Friday, setting in motion a historic confirmation process for the first Black woman to sit on the highest court in the nation.

“Today, as we watch freedom and liberty under attack abroad, I’m here to fulfill my responsibilities under the Constitution, to preserve freedom and liberty here in the United States of America,” Biden said at the White House as he introduced Jackson.

“For too long, our government, our courts haven’t looked like America,” Biden said. “I believe it’s time that we have a court reflects the full talents and greatness of our nation with a nominee of extraordinary qualifications, and that we inspire all young people to believe that they can one day serve their country at the highest level.”

Jackson, 51, currently sits on DC’s federal appellate court and had been considered the front-runner for the vacancy since Justice Stephen Breyer announced his retirement.

“I must begin these very brief remarks by thanking God for delivering me to this point in my professional journey. My life has been blessed beyond measure and I do know that one can only come this far by faith,” Jackson said.

“Among my many blessings, and indeed the very first, is the fact that I was born in this great country,” she added. “The United States of America is the greatest beacon of hope and democracy the world has ever known. I was also blessed from my early days to have had a supportive and loving family. My mother and father, who have been married for 54 years, are at their home in Florida right now and I know that they could not be more proud.”

So now it begins.

Assuming that Manchin and Sinema don’t freestyle the way they can, and assuming that Murkowski and Collins get whipped into line by the Republicans, I would expect that the final vote for Jackson’s confirmation will be 51-50, or something like that. 

Timing is going to be complicated at the moment by NM senator Lujan’s stroke (vox.com); the Senate is, at the moment, technically Republican -- Harris wouldn’t actually get to break ties because the vote right now would be 50-49 Republicans. Hopefully Lujan can be back by the time of the vote, but given that his minor stroke resulted in brain surgery and time spent in an outpatient recovery facility, that he could be back to vote within a month seems a touch optimistic.

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[Photo ID: activist holding a sign that says "They have you fighting a culture war to keep you from fighting a class war."]

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Firsts: Speed Skating

Erin Jackson: First Black Woman to Win Gold in Solo Speed Skating Event (theroot.com)

Erin Jackson, 29, has made history becoming the first Black woman to win gold in a solo speed skating event at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, reported CNN. Team USA reported she performed the women’s 500-meter event with a time of 37.04, coming in just 0.08 seconds ahead of Japan’s Miho Takagi.

This is also the first speed skating gold for a U.S. woman since Bonnie Blair in 1994...

American Erin Jackson wins 500m speed skating gold at Winter Olympics after teammate gave up spot By George Ramsay and Patrick Sung, CNN Updated 11:50 AM ET, Sun February 13, 2022

US speed skater Erin Jackson won the women's 500m gold medal at the Winter Olympics in a time of 37.04 on Sunday.

Jackson almost missed competing in the 500m at the Olympics after she had slipped during qualifying trials, but her teammate and friend Brittany Bowe gave up her own spot to ensure the world No. 1 was able to go to Beijing -- and it paid off.The 29-year-old Jackson is the first US woman to win a speed skating gold at the Olympics since Bonnie Blair did so in 1994, as well as the first Black woman to win an individual medal in speed skating at the Olympics, according to Team USA...

[...] "I cried immediately, it was just a big release of emotion. A lot of shock, a lot of relief and a lot of happiness. I haven't fully processed everything quite yet, but it just feels amazing," Jackson told reporters. She added: "I had a little misstep on the backstretch, but I just tried to, I wouldn't say recover, because it wasn't anything big, but just tried to continue skating." At the US trials last month, Bowe had already qualified for the 1,000m and 1,500m in Beijing when she gave up her spot on the team to Jackson for the 500m. "Right after the race, I knew that if it came down to me relinquishing my spot for her to be named on the team, I would do that because she deserves it," Bowe told reporters earlier this week...

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Jen Sorensen.

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Mattie Lubchansky.

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Tips for understanding Black History Month

Tips for Understanding Black History Month- 2022 Edition (P. Djeli Clark, disgruntledhadrian.com)

It’s that time of year again, Black History Month. And look out white folks, cuz critical race theory is gonna eat your babies!

Every February in the United States, the country sets aside 28 (or 29 in a leap year) days to celebrate, discuss and engage Black History. Innocuous enough. And yet Feb. 1st seems to signal the beginning of a 28-day long ritual of whining. How come they get their own month? What about White History Month? It’s a cornucopia of misconceptions and endless micro-aggressive racial faux-pas.

Unfortunately, this isn’t just from the usual sky boxes of white obliviousness; there are black people (looking at you Fauxteps and Stacy Dash and whoever thee holy f*ck this clown is) who wade into the stupid with reckless abandon. In a world where people are frothing at the mouth about critical race theory (a thing they don’t understand), banning books, passing laws to not make white students uncomfortable, the stupid is getting supa extra thick, supa extra fragile, supa extra entitled, supa extra whiny and entering the fascistic. Remember how 2020 was supposed to be our age of racial reckoning? Yeah, welcome to the backlash. It always arrives right on time.

So here are a few tips to better understand the month before someone bans it: because if you’re going to battle the stupid, you’ll need this mental armor. As heavy as the stupid is right now, you might need your own fully equipped MECH!

This is an updated list from an annual post I’ve done for the last six years. You’d think everyone would have the pointers down by now right? Wrong. Have you seen the news? Because like evil in Mordor, the stupid yet stirs, and does not sleep….

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From Nate Powell.

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The women

Meet the women who could be Biden's pick for the next Supreme Court justice (cbsnews.com) BY MELISSA QUINN JANUARY 26, 2022 / 4:35 PM / CBS NEWS

News of Justice Stephen Breyer's expected retirement from the Supreme Court at the end of its current term has reignited questions of who will succeed him, as President Biden's pick is expected to make history.

Mr. Biden has pledged repeatedly that if given the chance to fill a vacancy on the Supreme Court, he would nominate the first Black woman, and White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters Wednesday he "certainly stands by that."

While the president declined to release a list of possible contenders for the Supreme Court during the 2020 presidential campaign, defying calls to do so from fellow Democrats, a number of names have emerged as likely to appear on Mr. Biden's shortlist. 

If Mr. Biden's replacement for Breyer is confirmed by the Senate, she would not only make history as the first Black woman to serve on the Supreme Court, but it would also mark the first time two Black justices would be on the high court at the same time. Four women would also be on the bench simultaneously.

I ... would say something about counting Thomas as one of the two black justices, but that would be unspeakably catty, and so I shall decline. Courteously.

Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson

(photo credit:  TOM WILLIAMS/CQ ROLL CALL/BLOOMBERG VIA GETTY IMAGES via cbsnews.com)

Jackson, 51, was one of Mr. Biden's first picks for the federal judiciary as president and is considered to be the frontrunner for the Supreme Court.

The president selected Jackson to replace Attorney General Merrick Garland on the influential U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, considered to be the nation's second most powerful court, in March 2021, and she was confirmed by the Senate in June.

Three Republicans — Susan Collins of Maine, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska — voted with all 50 Democrats to confirm Jackson.

At the moment, Jackson is considered the most likely candidate. Also under apparent consideration, according to the article, are: California Supreme Court Justice Leondra Kruger, age 45; very new DC Circuit Court Judge J. Michelle Childs, age 55; 7th Circuit US Court of Appeals Judge Candace Jackson-Akiwumi, age 43.

There’s only eight years between the group, so there’s no reason that any one of these qualified women couldn’t serve 20-30 years on the bench.

An article by The Guardian UK also includes other names that might be considered: Minnesota US District court judge Wilhemina Wright (58); 2d Circuit District of Appeals judge Eunice Lee (52); president and director-counsel of the Legal Defense and Educational Fund at the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) Sherilyn Ifill (59). Again, all quite accomplished and easily able to serve.