-Written by Linsay Rousseau, media affairs director for Continue To Serve
Part two of a two part article. Read part one here.
With Republicans packing the courts with right wing justices, the court system is no longer a bastion of impartiality. According to Bloomberg Law research, more of Trump’s judicial picks (six in total) were rated “Not Qualified” by the American Bar Association than did those nominated by his four most-recent predecessors in the first two years of their presidencies. Just last month, one of those judges, Kathryne Kimball Mizelle, from the District Court for the Middle District of Florida, struck down the travel mask mandate. In a letter to the leaders of the Senate Judiciary Committee, the head of the ABA Standing Committee on the Federal Judiciary said that a majority of his group had deemed that Mizelle did "not meet the requisite minimum standard of experience necessary to perform the responsibilities required by the high office of a federal trial judge. "Since her admission to the bar Ms. Mizelle has not tried a case, civil or criminal, as lead or co-counsel," the ABA said. Trump (with the assistance of Mitch McConnell) left the White House having appointed more than 200 judges to the federal bench, including nearly as many federal appeals court judges in four years as Barack Obama appointed in eight. Trump appointed 54 federal appellate judges in four years, one short of the 55 Obama appointed in twice as much time. In the process, Trump “flipped” the balance of several appeals courts from a majority of Democratic appointees to a majority of Republican appointees. And we all know that he was able to appoint three blatantly conservative justices to the Supreme Court.
Many fear that if Roe is struck down, other rights could be at risk. Laws broadly banning abortion may also prohibit certain forms of birth control that opponents incorrectly say are working as abortion-causing medications, could threaten LGBTQIA rights, same sex marriage and even inter-racial marriage. The right to access to contraception was decided by the Supreme Court in Griswold v Connecticut. In an article with The Guardian, Wendy Parmet, faculty co-director for the Center for Health Policy and Law at Northeastern University, stated that “If this [draft] opinion becomes the opinion of the court, Griswold is imperiled – no question.”
Anti-abortion advocates have gone so far as to argue that certain birth control methods, such as Plan B and certain intrauterine devices (IUDs), work as abortifacients because they may prevent the implantation of fertilized eggs. Even so, according to Priscilla Smith, lecturer on law and reproductive justice at Yale Law School, it’s “definitely possible” that some states may criminally prosecute people who provide contraception that they claim are abortifacients, “because there are definitely states that would like to ban abortion from the moment of conception, which means before fertilization, before pregnancy”. The Guardian goes on to illustrate that, while Alito expressly states that similar laws are safe because they are not about “moral” issues as he says abortion is, there’s no reason the same logic couldn’t be applied to other legal decisions. “If the draft becomes the real opinion, all of those issues – contraception, consensual sex and marriage rights – certainly are all at risk,” said Smith. “They have definitely left the door wide open.” He goes on to say, “There are a lot of decisions that follow from the idea of a constitutional right to privacy,” Parmet said. “Once you throw down the best-known decision in that category of cases, every single other case is now up for grabs.”
In fact, the US has increasingly faced scrutiny from the United Nations. In 2018, the UN Committee Against Torture issued a report castigating the United States’ record on a wide range of issues, including lack of accountability for torture, immigration detention, and abusive criminal justice practices such as solitary confinement and excessive use of force by law enforcement. In a May 3rd press briefing by the Office of the Spokesperson of the UN Secretary-General, Farhan Haq, Deputy Spokesman for the Secretary-General was explicitly asked about the ramifications of striking down Roe v. Wade. He issued the following statement. “The Secretary‑General has long believed that sexual and reproductive health and rights are the foundation for lives of choice, empowerment and equality for the world's women and girls. And without the full participation of 50% of its population, the world would be the biggest loser. And then, beyond that, he has repeatedly pointed to what he has said is a global push‑back that we're seeing on women's rights, including reproductive rights and essential health services, and he believes it's essential to keep pursuing women's rights.”
So where do we go from here? The first thing, is that the midterm elections will be crucial and everyone needs to vote. You can also help support organizations that are working on the front lines to defend people’s rights - Planned Parenthood, NARAL, the ACLU. You can support the work that Continue To Serve is doing with their menstrual kits and on the ground activism. And you can get out into the streets. Join Continue To Serve and our partner organizations on June 4th, the anniversary of the passage of the 19th Amendment (The Women’s Suffrage Bill) on the steps of the Supreme Court as we rally to have our voices heard. You can find more information here.