There something further curios about the Supreme Court decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization (“Dobbs”), which stripped away a woman’s fundamental constitutional right to obtain an abortion, that for some reason does not get any discussion. Briefly:
The Supreme Court decision in Planned Parenthood v. Casey, 505 U.S. 833 (1992) (“Casey”), reversed in part the lower decision by the 3rd Circuit in the same case, and did so by upholding Roe v. Wade and reaffirming that the Constitution protects a woman’s right to seek an abortion. But back then, now Justice Samuel Alito was one of the three 3rd Cir. judges that authored that prior 3d Cir. decision which was partially reversed in Casey . Today, Alito’s majority decision in Dobbs reversed Casey. So, the Alito authored Dobbs opinion — with his vote also providing the necessary 5th vote — overturned the landmark Supreme Court case (Casey) that reversed Alito’s prior 3rd Circuit decision. Does no one find that at all relevant to the discussion?
imagine for one second what the Republicans would do with this fact scenario if the situation were reversed. Imagine: there was no constitutional right to abortion, as re-affirmed most recently (but 30 years ago) in a landmark Supreme Court decision that reversed Ruth Bader Ginsberg’s lower court decision recognizing some abortion rights. Then, RBG joins the Supreme Court and establishes a sweeping constitutional right to abortion in a blockbuster decision - by her 1 vote margin and in an opinion authored by her - which overturned the landmark precedent that reversed her own prior decision. Wow! And that is the flip-side of what happened here.
Republicans would lose their minds and would do it with their characteristic message discipline. It would be expressed in with more bumper sticker brevity (“Corruption!”, “Stolen,” “Revenge,”), but it would be the prominent fact conveyed to the public about this last decision. And, if the Republicans had the same level of government control as Democrats have now, it almost certainly would have led to impeachment proceedings against RBG.
I am not arguing that Dems should use this fact to drown out (or be equal with) the numerous substantive flaws in Dobbs, or its trampling of judicial norms and ethics. But it is at least a relevant fact illustrating the corruption behind Dobbs, the decades long political and career commitment behind this movement, and the associated gross abdication of judicial duties. For the reasons above, and many other reasons, Alito is the poster-child for today’s deeply troubled and dangerous majority, and Democrats should make that clear at every opportunity.