Tag: constitutional right
Reversal of Roe May Be Just the Beginning
Should the Supreme Court’s final ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization resemble Justice Samuel Alito’s leaked draft opinion, it will be an unprecedented moment in the annals of the Court. Never before has the Court reversed its own decisions in order to completely eliminate a recognized constitutional right protecting personal conduct—and here one that thousands of people turn to every year. Probably on that account, the overwhelming majority of the American people oppose the action that the Court
How a Roe Overturn Would Deepen America’s Divides
The draft Supreme Court opinion overturning the constitutional right to abortion presents a major setback for reproductive freedom in America and offers a potential jolt to the upcoming midterm elections. But it also illuminates another, deeper phenomenon in American politics: the urgency and ambition of the Republican drive to lock into law the cultural priorities of its preponderantly white, Christian, and older electoral coalition at a moment of rapid demographic change.
The fundamental divide in our politics today is between
The Fight for Democracy Will Be a Long, Long Haul
The fault lines of today’s political chasm go back to the decades that preceded the Civil War. One can see them in our geography—most of the states that will recriminalize abortion, for example, are in the old Confederacy and the rural or deindustrialized regions it influenced—and in our racial division, which continues to render the country into, more or less, two camps.
A democratic society might resolve its conflicts by counting heads. But the rigid Constitution, written to protect the
Finding Nuance in the Abortion Debate
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Conversations of Note
Abortion has been discussed intensely this past week due to oral arguments in a Supreme Court case that could significantly alter the constitutional right to the procedure in the United States. At issue is a Mississippi law that bans abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy, contra current precedent. If upheld, the law will likely inspire new abortion restrictions in many red states.
The Legal Fight
We begin with the law’s sponsor,