Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/06/29/supreme-court-strike-down-abor.html
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Let the coniption fits begin. If for no other reason, this is why progressives need to vote and vote for Biden (while nose-holding if necessary) in November. The right figured out the importance of USSC nominations way ahead of us. Let’s get with the program.
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Roberts seems to be doing all he can to avoid being lumped in with the Republican Party.
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waiting in the wings…lil don trumps TAX RECORDS!!!
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Roberts is a moneyCon. He only has one concern in making any ruling: does this help or hurt his beloved corporate “persons” and their shareholders and executives? This is him telling the Xtianists to try something new and stop wasting his valuable time with re-runs.
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It blows my mind that we’re relying on John Roberts for so much good news these days.
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To continue beating this meme to death…
John Roberts gaining a conscious was not on my 2020 bingo card.
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Unfortunately, if a definitive abortion case came up, he’d vote to overturn Roe vs Wade.
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How many more similar cases from other states are inbound?
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I think you’re right to a large extent, but I also think a big driver for Roberts is his conception of the function of the Court. He values the appearance of aloofness and remaining supposedly non-political to the highest degree, hence being uncomfortable with overturning such a recent decision. I think that’s all well and good, but pretending that refraining from a decision is not a political act in itself is fundamentally dishonest. That’s why I don’t think anyone should place any stock in him forcing Trump to produce documents.
ETA: also the reason I don’t think the Court will be the one to rescue the Republic should Trump try to invalidate the election in some way–I can see Roberts et al telling the country that this was a “political question” that the other branches are better suited to handle
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I’m not sure it’s about him gaining a conscious - he dissented four years earlier on an almost identical case in Texas. It’s just that, for him, precedent is more important. If a law is upheld once then overturned four years later, it means that the constitution is pretty much meaningless. It works both ways though too - the same logic will be used to preserve the more conservative decisions the current court has made recently.
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Roberts has been on the right side of a significant number of decisions, even going so far as to write the opinion. His decision on the Voting Rights Act was appalling as well as his record on gun legislation and campaign finance and he’s still pretty regressive in some ways, but he’s really been there for some of the most critical decisions of the last decade.
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Remember how Kavanaugh repeatedly said that he’d apply stare decisis to abortion cases? Well, he lied about that too. Shocking.
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If the majority had offered him 45 brewskis
then he would have joined them.
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The principle of stare decisis has generally been pretty important to Roberts. And, I think it is a good one. Yes, the Court has made some bad decisions that have needed revisiting, but there should be a high bar for that, otherwise, it would consume a lot of the Court’s time and what counted as ‘Constitutional’ would flitter in the partisan wind constantly.
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After the last four years I don’t know if that is a typo anymore. I spend a lot of time wishing I could be in a coma until all this shit has passed.
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For sure, I suppose to some extent I’m hunting for optimism in whatever corners I can find it.
But I also think that something has changed with Roberts since “presiding“ over that clown show impeachment trial- I think he is deeply embarrassed over entering the history books with such a massive asterisk on his wikipedia page, and his recent rulings certainly read as a direct rebuke to Trump.
This doesn’t mean I approve of, or even want him on the court at all- he is still and always will be the Citizens United Chief Justice and gutted the VRA, amongst quite a few terrible decisions. That said, right now he is holding the line on a string of critical decisions. I’m wiling to give him credit for that.
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It still matters to those of us whose bodies are on the line. 
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Roberts appears to be a lawyer who cares about the law and the constitution. When the law is unclear he will pursue his own agenda. But he won’t bend it too far. I also think he’s tired of the GOP, evangelicals, and Trump trying to use and corrupt SCOTUS. It’s his court now, his legacy as chief justice. The sloppy lawyering from the DOJ is offensive to him, as is how DOJ keeps trying to skip the lower courts. His politics are still abhorent to me but I respect him sticking to the law and stare decisis
Also I am fucking delighted by this decision.
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