Walking from the U.S. Supreme Court to the upcoming U.S. Capitol, holding up a sign that said “My Body, My Choice,” and “Women’s Right to Choose,” Taylor Treacy was struggling to understand as he had fewer constitutional rights now than when he awoke. morning.
“It’s heartbreaking,” said the 28-year-old, who works in sports marketing. “The people who have legally aborted in the United States are mostly black and brown women, but the five judges who were able to have the last word were four powerful men and a white woman. We are allowing more access to guns, but we are withdrawing the women’s rights. It looks like we’re going backwards. “
Millions of women had just lost access to abortion on Friday after the U.S. highest court overturned a nearly 50-year sentence and other precedents that enshrined that right. Conservative Judge Samuel Alito wrote in the majority opinion of the court that Roe v. Wade was “enormously wrong and deeply harmful,” and that states should decide whether to limit or criminalize the procedure.
Fury of protesters in the United States after Roe v Wade was overturned: video
The court’s liberal minority responded, “With pity, for this Court, but more so, for the many millions of American women who today have lost fundamental constitutional protection, we disagree.” The ruling is expected to lead to a ban on abortion in about half of the states, although the timing of these laws coming into force varies.
The decision, while a widely leaked draft opinion was widely expected last month, was nonetheless a startling replica of Donald Trump’s presidency and certainly set fire to U.S. divisions. It also consolidated the emergence of the Supreme Court of an alternative center of power that threatens to upset the delicate balance of government of the executive, the legislature and the judiciary.
Just 24 hours earlier, judges had ruled out New York State boundaries for carrying concealed guns in public, potentially paving the way for new legal challenges to other statewide gun laws despite recent mass shootings in California. New York and Texas. It was a triumph for the gun lobby and a blow to Joe Biden’s efforts to curb violence.
Simon Schama, a leading historian, tweeted on Friday: “American democracy is in deep trouble. It cannot survive in its current form if the constitution is manipulated to impose a minority government.”
Consecutive decisions were the result of a long campaign by conservatives to shift the judiciary to the right, driven by influential groups such as the Federalist Society and the Heritage Foundation. Republican Presidents George HW Bush and George W Bush appointed Clarence Thomas, John Roberts (now first judge) and Alito to the Supreme Court.
Donald Trump’s three Supreme Court options: Amy Coney Barrett, Neil Gorsuch, and Brett Kavanaugh, who voted in favor of raising the limits on carrying weapons and eliminating the right to abortion. Photography: Jonathan Ernst / AFP / Getty Images
A Democratic deficit opened up when Senate Republicans blocked Barack Obama’s last candidate in court, Merrick Garland, with the spurious argument that it was an election year. At the time, Trump, a one-term president who had lost the national popular vote by $ 3 million, appointed three judges: Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett. He has demonstrated his most significant legacy.
The court overturned Roe v. Wade against the wishes of a Democratic president, the Democratic-controlled Congress, and the citizenry. The majority of Americans (61%) believed that Roe should remain the law of the land, and only 36% supported repealing it, according to the research group of the Research Institute. Public Religion. Even most religious Americans wanted Roe to stay.
Edward Fallone, an associate professor at Marquette University School of Law in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, said: “I fear it is extremely undemocratic. You now have the less democratic branch of the federal government on an ideological agenda to reverse the freedoms that are very popular with the general public in the United States.
“It’s a recipe for possible riots, certainly demonstrations and political unrest, as they seem determined on a line of action that goes against the will of the public.”
The rise in judicial activism has pushed back both the White House and Congress. In Washington, abortion rights protesters gathered in front of the Supreme Court closed on Friday, in front of the bright dome of the U.S. Capitol, where its elected representatives expressed frustration over Roe’s disappearance, but no they were able to intervene.
This decision is the culmination of a decades-long deliberate effort to upset the balance of our Joe Biden law.
Two miles away, in the White House, even the president seemed politically powerless. A solemn group of female staff, including domestic policy adviser Susan Rice and press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, gathered under a staircase in the cross aisle to see Biden give an answer. Portraits of Bill Clinton and George W Bush, presidents at a time when Roe seemed sacrosanct, were viewed from opposite walls.
Describing it as “a sad day for the court and the country,” Biden said, “It was three judges appointed by a president, Donald Trump, who were at the core of today’s decision to turn the tide. balance of justice and eliminate a fundamental right of women in this country.
“Make no mistake: this decision is the culmination of a deliberate effort for decades to upset the balance of our law. It is a statement of extreme ideology and a tragic error by the Supreme Court, in my view. “
He added: “With this decision, the conservative majority of the Supreme Court shows how extreme it is, how far they are from the majority of this country. They have made the United States an atypical point among the developed nations of the world. “
The president admitted that he cannot take executive action to guarantee women’s right to choose. The only hope is that Congress will regain Roe’s protections against Wade as federal law, which in turn depends on Democrats winning the midterm elections. “This fall, Roe is on the ballot,” he said. “Personal freedoms are on the ballot.”
Joe Biden is powerless to restore women’s right to vote, but urged voters to vote on the issue in the midterm elections. Photography: Oliver Contreras / EPA
Others argue that there is another solution to offset the minority regime: expand the supreme court beyond its current total of nine judges. Justice Demand pressure group has cited this week’s rulings on weapons and abortion as proof that reform is needed.
Christopher Kang, its co-founder and chief adviser, said: “This is part of the Republican agenda of decades to achieve through the Supreme Court what they cannot through the democratically elected branches of Congress. We have seen in the In recent days, decisions have made it difficult for lawmakers to combat armed violence in the wake of some of the worst mass shootings in our country’s history, and we have now seen the right to abortion annulled.
“These are things that get the support of 70 to 80% of the American population and I think we’ll see that again next week in an important case about whether or not the Environmental Protection Agency has the authority to take action to fight climate change.another thing supported by 70 to 80% of the American people.This is one more example of what Republicans are doing through our incomprehensible courts that they could not do through Congress or of the White House. “
Americans ’faith in the Supreme Court has fallen to an all-time low, with only 25% saying they have“ a lot ”or“ a lot ”of confidence in it, down from 36% a year ago, according to a poll by Gallup. . Kang believes that rebuilding trust is crucial to the health of America’s increasingly fragile democracy.
“Today’s ruling shows that the Supreme Court is the problem and therefore any solution should be addressed to the Supreme Court,” he added. “There are other things the president can do or Congress, with larger majorities, could do, but we basically have to fix the court if we have any hope of addressing these issues.”
This is not the end, this is the initial salvo, and they made it clear in their decision Cristina Tzintzún Ramírez
Calls take on even more urgency for what might come. Thomas wrote Friday in a concurring opinion that the Supreme Court should reconsider other legal precedents that protect same-sex relationships, marital equality, and access to contraception. Biden warned, “This is an extreme and dangerous path that this court is taking us on.”
Cristina Tzintzún Ramirez, president of NextGen America, an organization that works to engage young voters, said: “It’s the takeover of a far-right minority that seeks to push back profits for the LGBTQ community, for women and for people of color.
“This is not the end, this is the initial salvo, and they made it clear in their decision. You told Clarence Thomas that they will look at how they can change the fundamental rights that the LGBTQ community has recently won in this country.”
Ramírez added: “We did not defeat fascism in 2020; we got it back. But killing fascism in this country will require much more than one election cycle. “
State map for state restrictions on abortion in the US
Friday’s decision is intended to create a mosaic of state-to-state laws. Twenty-six is sure or likely to ban abortion immediately, according to the Guttmacher Institute think tank. In Alabama, the state’s three abortion clinics stopped performing the procedure for fear providers to be prosecuted under a 1951 law; the women in the waiting room on Friday morning were suddenly turned away. Democratic state governors, however, vowed to bolster protections.
Back at the Supreme Court, the sun was shining, but the mood was grim challenging as hundreds of people waved banners, …