Just a reminder that the majority opinion in Roe v. Wade was written by a lifelong Republican

[Quixote1818]

The Republican Party has become so utterly radicalized that yesterday's conservatism looks like "leftism" to them.


Annie Reneau 09.21

Few topics are as politically polarizing as the issue of abortion. Those of us who are middle aged and younger have always known the abortion debate divided between the political right and left, conservatives and liberals, Republicans and Democrats.

But that has not always been the case.

In fact, it was mostly Republican-nominated Supreme Court Justices who made the case for choice in 1973.

Roe vs. Wade was decided with a 7-2 vote, and not along partisan lines. Those who ruled in favor were as follows, with the president who nominated them and the party of that president indicated in parentheses:


Harry Blackmun (Nixon, R)
Lewis Powell (Nixon, R)
Warren Burger (Nixon, R)
William Brennan (Eisenhower, R)
Potter Stewart (Eisenhower, R)
Thurgood Marshall (LBJ, D)
William Douglas (FDR, D)


Those who dissented on Roe vs. Wade:

Byron White (Kennedy, D)
William Rehnquist (Nixon, R)

So five Republican-nominated justices and two Democrat-nominated justices ruled for choice, while one Republican and one Democrat-nominated justice ruled against.

More: https://www.upworthy.com/roe-vs-wade-majority-opinion-written-by-lifelong-republican?new=design&fbclid=IwAR08s2fTwxShjGhZ8BPxXoe86XTkaseVDnITTugHtOTcqK5iXTXC3ZQagtE

[Haggard Celine]

1. Glad you brought that up.

Blackmun was not any kind of radical, which is why he was asked to write the majority opinion. Burger thought that people would be less likely to call the decision radical if a moderate wrote the opinion, and if you haven't read the opinion, go take a look. It's very measured and very logical.

He's the one who added the language about trimesters in there, giving women seeking abortions more latitude to end their pregnancies in the first and second trimesters, much less in the third. His reasoning was that the closer a fetus came to living outside the mother's body, the less likelihood that an abortion should be performed. Of course that language would go on to be used against Roe in different state laws, but it was a logical opinion.

Conservatives hate the right to privacy mentioned in the decision more than anything else. They say it's sloppy reasoning since there isn't any right to privacy written into.the Constitution. But I think they hate the right to privacy for other reasons. Medical and cyber behemoths have been operating at the edge of privacy laws for a long time. Some of them have crossed those boundaries already.

This Supreme Court is bought and paid for by the wealthy, and they're going to be making decisions for the benefit of their donors. I think that it's very important that we have more privacy statutes. We should pass them at the same time we make abortion legal.

[rampartc]

2. roe vs wade is not so much a liberal opinion, but a libertarian one

and yes, the unenumerated right (retained by the people in amendment 9) to privacy was never numerated in the constitution because the founders did not think it was necessary. they were, as in so many things, wrong.

[Emile]

3. Amazing how lopsided our Supreme Court is today and

how they rule.

[Dale in Laurel MD]

4. But it hadn't occurred to me

that that SCOTUS, 50 years ago, was also 6R/3D.

[crickets]

6. Wow. I had no idea either. nt

[DFW]

7. There is a HUGE difference between the Court today and fifty years ago

Fifty years ago, the court was made up of learned jurists, not radical activist ideologues willing to abandon jurisprudence in favor of a political ideology. The difference is so vast as to make the concept of "rule of law" a mere slogan.

[FakeNoose]

5. K&R Great post - Spotlight on Roe v. Wade ruling

Thanks!

[Polybius]

8. Byron White was the last time a Democratic President made a mistake

Republican Presidents make far more, with their total mistakes being Souter and John Paul Stevens, and partial mistakes like O'Conner and Kennedy.