Wednesday, May 04, 2022

Trippin' on Tweets

This only matters if Democrats take the House and Senate in 2022 and pass a law codifying Roe on the federal level. Texas is the second most populuous state in the union, with one of the most restrictive abortion laws on the books (and a "trigger law" ready to go if Roe is overruled). I'm not sensing any real groundswell for repealing SB8. It's not even on anybody's radar. National numbers only apply to national issues. If we leave it to the states, we get a patchwork of laws that take us back to criminalizing contraception possession and interracial marriage (gay marriage was just a non-starter, so it was never a criminal issue). Oh, and the days when sex was criminalized because any sex that didn't involve penis meets vagina was "sodomy." Under Texas law, anyway. I don't mean all those cases suddenly fall (although I think there's a real interest in seeing that happen), I mean we return to the patchwork where one state says a fundamental human right is legal, the next state says we'll bury you under the jail if you try those preversions here!

Divided country?  Buddy, you ain't seen divided!
These are strictly federal issues. They could be labeled "reactionary," I guess; because they may well be a reaction to Dobbs, which is expected in June or July. Just in time to REALLY influence the midterms. We live in hope. Keepin' it classy! (Matt must like 'em barefoot and pregnant) Or: the rat bastards will always be with you. Conduct yourselves accordingly. It's a badly-reasoned decision and an appalling exercise of judicial power, so let's talk about how we already know what the reasoning behind it is! Let's certainly not talk about how you supported Roe because it had been the law for 20 years (but 50 years is not long enough?): But, the leak! CJ Roberts has no authority over the other 8 justices. He cannot censure them, remove them from the bench, force them to recuse themselves, or punish them in anyway. The CJ is first among equals in title only. If Thomas wants to sleep through oral arguments and and throw food during the discussions among the justices afterwards, there is literally nothing Roberts can do about it. And the Supreme Court Marshal? Has no investigative authority, and Roberts knows it. The Justices can protect their clerks by telling the Marshal to take a long walk off a short pier. Or simply by saying their clerks are busy and don't have time to answer stupid questions. Will we find out who leaked this document? I doubt it, because I'm pretty damned sure only a Justice would have the balls to do it. A Supreme Court clerkship is the sine qua non of pre-law firm work. It's a golden ticket to a better career than most lawyers ever even dream of. Nobody is going to risk that to leak a full draft opinion of the Court. Nobody. Period. EOD.

Roberts doesn't want this investigated, because he's afraid of what he might find.  If a Justice did it, what then?  Impeachment?  No Justice has been removed in the history of the Constitution.  This is not going to do it.  All the revelation would do is poison the Court even further, turning it completely into a bottle of scorpions.  It would also probably promote legislation to increase the size of the bench.  My guess is the Justices are pretty sure who is guilty.  Making it public won't "cleanse" anything.  And they don't want to hang it on some innocent clerk or employee, for the same reasons.  Without smoking gun evidence, the person who leaked it will be the victim of a witch hunt (sorry!) and a kangaroo court.  What due process will they get?  What equal protection?  GUILTY!, and you're out!  Yeah, that's a good outcome for the highest court in the land.

Better to pretend it leaked itself, and move on.  Which is what will happen.  The better solutions are in the second tweet, above.  The leak itself is actually completely immaterial.
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