Schwab: Think 'why bother voting'? You may soon be right
By Sid Schwab / Herald columnist
So Justice Samuel Alito’s opinion potentially overturning Roe v. Wade has been leaked. Inevitable since Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. embarked on court-packing during President Obama’s terms and, therefore, no surprise, leaking it was unhelpful. Like the dog who caught the car, anxious to change the subject, Republicans are calling the leak the “real insurrection” (Twitter: tinyurl.com/2leak4U).
But it won’t impact the decision, assuming Alito’s philippic is the final product. And everyone except Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, saw it coming when McConnell blocked Merrick Garland for the flimsiest of reasons, then did an extraordinarily hypocritical (even for him) 180 for Amy Coney Barrett.
I happen to agree that, ideally, the right to abortion should be legislated rather than adjudicated. Which is what Mr. Justice implied, knowing his court had previously made sure it would never happen, butter not melting in his mouth. Nevertheless, butter dripped from his lips like MAGmA when he insisted the decision is no threat to other SCOTUS rulings; and when he specifically eschewed caring about its impact. What happens to babies force-born into poverty, when Republicans, as always, refuse to pay for help? And women who’ll die? Irrelevant. Abortion is a “profound moral issue,” Alito wrote; but those, evidently, aren’t.
His rationale — that abortion isn’t mentioned in the Constitution — can be applied to virtually every non-enumerated right the court has previously sanctified: access to birth control, same-sex marriage, interracial marriage, integrated schools, fair housing, even the very right to privacy.
https://www.heraldnet.com/opinion/schwab-think-why-bother-voting-you-may-soon-be-right/