It's All Alito's Fault
If Justice Alito hadn't taken the seat of Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, would the South Dakota legislature have done this?
In a word, wow. Can anybody recall any time in the thirty-three years since Roe v. Wade that a state legislature has thrown down the abortion gauntlet this boldly? With federal courts stubbornly striking down even the most modest partial-birth abortion bans, there can only be one reason why South Dakota lawmakers are feeling their oats to this robust a degree - the slight move to the right of the SCOTUS, and perhaps the belief that Justices Stevens and/or Ginsberg may also be calling it quits in the very near future. Otherwise why would they waste their time passing a comprehensive abortion ban (which doesn't even include the rape/incest exceptions that I could live with) that wouldn't last the time it would take for NARAL to obtain a federal judge's injunction blocking it?
This new statute is clearly intended to rise to Olympus where, it is hoped, the Roberts-Scalia-Thomas-Alito-[McConnell? Luttig?] bloc will finally put Roe out of its well-earned misery. And maybe Kennedy would join the majority as well, if he's reading the prevailing winds. I guess we'll find out just how much of the social Left's hysteria was justified.
Just imagine if Roe was overturned right smack in the middle of the 2008 presidential campaign. On the Left it would be like the movie Scanners come to life.
We should be so fortunate....
[HT: CQ]
South Dakota moved closer to imposing some of the strictest limits on abortion in the nation, as the state Senate approved legislation that would ban it except when a woman's life is in danger.
The bill, designed to wage a national legal fight about the legality of abortion, passed 23-12 Wednesday. It next returns to the state House, which has passed a different version.
The measure would make South Dakota the first state to ban abortion in nearly all circumstances. Doctors would face up to five years in prison for performing abortions unless a woman needed one to save her life.
In a word, wow. Can anybody recall any time in the thirty-three years since Roe v. Wade that a state legislature has thrown down the abortion gauntlet this boldly? With federal courts stubbornly striking down even the most modest partial-birth abortion bans, there can only be one reason why South Dakota lawmakers are feeling their oats to this robust a degree - the slight move to the right of the SCOTUS, and perhaps the belief that Justices Stevens and/or Ginsberg may also be calling it quits in the very near future. Otherwise why would they waste their time passing a comprehensive abortion ban (which doesn't even include the rape/incest exceptions that I could live with) that wouldn't last the time it would take for NARAL to obtain a federal judge's injunction blocking it?
This new statute is clearly intended to rise to Olympus where, it is hoped, the Roberts-Scalia-Thomas-Alito-[McConnell? Luttig?] bloc will finally put Roe out of its well-earned misery. And maybe Kennedy would join the majority as well, if he's reading the prevailing winds. I guess we'll find out just how much of the social Left's hysteria was justified.
Just imagine if Roe was overturned right smack in the middle of the 2008 presidential campaign. On the Left it would be like the movie Scanners come to life.
We should be so fortunate....
[HT: CQ]
posted by JASmius at 3:48 PM
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