Abortion
[Samuel] Alito actually included in his proposed opinion a helpful list of rights arguably undercut by overturning Roe, even as the conservative George W. Bush appointee forcefully insisted that setting aside Roe wouldn’t impact any right other than abortion. The protections discussed in Alito’s opinion range from the right to same-sex marriage the high court declared in 2015 to the right to contraception established in 1965 to the right to engage in interracial marriage adopted by the court in 1967.
After citing 14 such cases, Alito declares them irrelevant to abortion and confidently asserts that yanking Roe from the fabric of American jurisprudence would pose no threat whatsoever to any of those rights. . . .
“It’s both the reasoning and the very existence of this opinion that leave me completely unpersuaded that this majority would be willing to stop at Roe,” said University of Texas Law Professor Stephen Vladeck.[1]
As I read this, I think of traditionalist conservatism, the largely Roman Catholic tendency; it would even prohibit divorce.[2] It turns out that Samuel Alito is indeed Roman Catholic.[3] The impetus for a decision overturning Roe v. Wade is largely social conservative, that is, largely evangelical Protestant, but the two tendencies are aligned on most issues; indeed I failed to find a difference between them in their approach to unauthorized migration. It is a traditionalist Catholic perspective, however, that is more likely to oppose contraception, indeed any non-procreative sex,[4] and the implicit obsession with sex as procreation which comes to the fore in Josh Gerstein’s report[5] can only be terrifying. Margaret Atwood’s dystopia[6] draws nearer.
Josh Gerstein and Alexander Ward, “Supreme Court has voted to overturn abortion rights, draft opinion shows,” Politico, May 2, 2022, https://www.politico.com/news/2022/05/02/supreme-court-abortion-draft-opinion-00029473
Caroline Kitchener, “The next frontier for the antiabortion movement: A nationwide ban,” Washington Post, May 2, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/05/02/abortion-ban-roe-supreme-court-mississippi/
Robert Barnes and Ann E. Marimow, “Roberts directs investigation into leaked draft of abortion opinion,” Washington Post, May 3, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/05/03/supreme-court-leak-investigation-abortion-roe-wade/
Mike DeBonis and Seung Min Kim, “Collins and Murkowski on the defensive after leaked Roe draft opinion,” Washington Post, May 3, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/05/03/murkowski-collins-roe-abortion-opinion/
Josh Gerstein, “What falls after Roe? Liberals warn of a privacy rights nightmare,” Politico, May 3, 2022, https://www.politico.com/news/2022/05/03/supreme-court-abortion-privacy-rights-00029871
Oriana Gonzalez, “Collins says Kavanaugh and Gorsuch possibly broke promise on Roe v. Wade,” Axios, May 3, 2022, https://www.axios.com/susan-collins-kavanaugh-gorsuch-abortion-court-leak-d6d1dad3-15d4-4269-b2ee-b5b5b2a4ea94.html
Molly Jong-Fast, “My Mother Was Wrong,” Atlantic, May 3, 2022, https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/05/supreme-court-overturn-abortion-peaceful-protest/629746/
Ukraine
There is a new blog post entitled, “What is the end game in Ukraine?”
British Broadcasting Corporation, “Ukraine war: Poland says it will manage without Russian gas,” April 27, 2022, https://www.bbc.com/news/business-61237519
Julia Ioffe, “Biden’s New Ukrainian Calculus,” Puck News, April 27, 2022, https://puck.news/bidens-new-ukrainian-calculus/
Julian O’Shaughnessy, “War in Ukraine: West’s Bucha massacre claims killed hopes of peace, says Putin,” Times, April 27, 2022, https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/war-in-ukraine-wests-bucha-massacre-claims-killed-hopes-of-peace-says-putin-6fk7g8t0d
Johan Ahlander, “Swedish PM rejects referendum on possible NATO membership,” Reuters, April 28, 2022, https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/swedish-pm-rejects-referendum-possible-nato-membership-2022-04-28/
Catherine Belton and Greg Miller, “Cracks emerge in Russian elite as tycoons start to bemoan invasion,” Washington Post, April 29, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/04/29/russia-oligarchs-ukraine-invasion-dissent/
Bloomberg, “Russia Will Quit International Space Station Over Sanctions,” April 30, 2022, https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-04-30/russia-will-quit-international-space-station-over-sanctions
Paula Erizanu, “‘I don’t feel safe here’: Transnistria fears could spark Moldova exodus,” Guardian, May 1, 2022, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/may/01/i-dont-feel-safe-here-transnistria-fears-could-spark-moldova-exodus
Joseph Menn, “Hacking Russia was off-limits. The Ukraine war made it a free-for-all,” Washington Post, May 1, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/05/01/russia-cyber-attacks-hacking/
Nataliya Vasilyeva, “‘I want to see Putin hanged’, says Gazprom executive who fled Russia,” Telegraph, May 1, 2022, https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2022/05/01/want-see-putin-hanged-says-gazprom-executive-fled-russia/
Cnaan Liphshiz, “Speaking about Zelensky, Russian foreign minister says Hitler also had Jewish ancestry,” Jewish Telegraphic Agency, May 2, 2022, https://www.jta.org/2022/05/02/global/speaking-about-zelensky-russian-foreign-minister-says-hitler-also-had-jewish-ancestry
Missy Ryan et al., “Russia planning to annex new areas of Ukraine, U.S. intelligence finds,” Washington Post, May 2, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/05/02/russian-annex-territory-invasion/
Will Dunn, “‘He has embarked on a war he can’t stop’: Mikhail Khodorkovsky on Putin’s next move,” New Statesman, May 3, 2022, https://www.newstatesman.com/world/europe/ukraine/2022/05/he-has-embarked-on-a-war-he-cant-stop-mikhail-khodorkovsky-on-putins-next-move
Mary Ilyushina, Miriam Berger, and Timothy Bella, “Russian TV shows simulation of Britain and Ireland wiped out by a nuke,” Washington Post, May 3, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/05/03/russia-ireland-nuclear-weapons-video-ukraine/
Julia Ioffe, “Putin vs. His Oligarchs,” Puck News, May 3, 2022, https://puck.news/putin-vs-his-oligarchs/
- [1]Josh Gerstein, “What falls after Roe? Liberals warn of a privacy rights nightmare,” Politico, May 3, 2022, https://www.politico.com/news/2022/05/03/supreme-court-abortion-privacy-rights-00029871↩
- [2]David Benfell, “Conservative Views on Undocumented Migration” (doctoral dissertation, Saybrook, 2016). ProQuest (1765416126).↩
- [3]Aaron M. Houck, “Samuel A. Alito, Jr.,” Britannica, May 3, 2022, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Samuel-A-Alito-Jr↩
- [4]David Benfell, “Conservative Views on Undocumented Migration” (doctoral dissertation, Saybrook, 2016). ProQuest (1765416126).↩
- [5]Josh Gerstein, “What falls after Roe? Liberals warn of a privacy rights nightmare,” Politico, May 3, 2022, https://www.politico.com/news/2022/05/03/supreme-court-abortion-privacy-rights-00029871↩
- [6]Margaret Atwood, Handmaid’s Tale (New York: Anchor, 1998).↩