‘Outright Democracy Denial’: Nicola Sturgeon Reacts to Supreme Court Ruling

Nov 23, 2022 | Scotland’s first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, reacts to the UK supreme court’s ruling Scotland may not hold a second independence referendum without Westminster approval. She says the Scottish government respects the law, but the mandate for a referendum is ‘undeniable’. Sturgeon insisted Scotland is not ‘abandoning’ the referendum route: ‘Westminster are simply blocking it’ Supreme court rules against Scottish parliament holding new independence referendum Supreme court ‘no’ leaves Sturgeon looking for solutions

Read the accompanying Guardian article here.

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The Guardian view on Scotland and the constitution: a crisis is brewing: A supreme court ruling against Nicola Sturgeon’s referendum plans clarifies the challenge ahead for unionists »

Britische Richter verhindern ein zweites Unabhängigkeitsreferendum – und stürzen die schottischen Nationalisten ins Dilemma

NEUE ZÜRCHER ZEITUNG: Gemäss dem britischen Supreme Court darf Schottland ohne Zustimmung Londons kein Unabhängigkeitsreferendum abhalten – selbst wenn dieses nur konsultativ wäre. Nun will Regionalpräsidentin Nicola Sturgeon die nächste Unterhauswahl zu einem «faktischen Referendum» umdeuten.

Rückschlag für die schottischen Nationalisten: Nach dem Entscheid des Supreme Court wird es vorerst kein erneutes schottisches Unabhängigkeitsreferendum geben. | Jeff J Mitchell / Getty
Die schottischen Nationalisten liessen ihrer Enttäuschung am Mittwoch freien Lauf. Demonstranten mit Spruchbändern und Flaggen versammelten sich in mehreren schottischen Städten und zogen in Scharen vor das Regionalparlament in Edinburg. Im Unterhaus in London beklagten die Abgeordneten der Scottish National Party (SNP), Schottland befinde sich in englischer «Geiselhaft». Und Regionalpräsidentin Nicola Sturgeon erklärte, die Idee des Vereinigten Königreichs als einer freiwilligen Partnerschaft von Nationen entspreche definitiv nicht mehr der Realität.

Grund für die Aufregung war ein Urteil des britischen Supreme Court vom Mittwoch. Die höchsten Richter befanden einstimmig, dass das schottische Regionalparlament keine verfassungsmässige Befugnis habe, ohne Zustimmung des britischen Parlaments ein Gesetz zur Abhaltung eines neuen Unabhängigkeitsreferendums zu beschliessen. » | Niklaus Nuspliger, London | Mittwoch, 23. November 2022

Scottish Government Loses Indyref2 Court Case

Read the article here.

Related article here.

Thomas Announces Targeting of Gay Rights; Tacit New Direction to Anti-abortion Movement

Jun 25, 2022 • Rachel Maddow points out Clarence Thomas' singling out of court precedents involving contraception and gay rights and cautions same sex couples to prepare for the political energy of the anti-abortion movement to take Thomas' direction to attack.
sodomy law

Republican 40-year Political Project Achieves Goal with Supreme Court Ending Roe v Wade

Jun 25, 2022 • Rachel Maddow reviews how abortion was not a partisan issue until Republicans and religious groups saw a political advantage to exploit, making the overturning of Roe v. Wade by a Republicanized Supreme Court the product of a 40-year political project.

Officials React to Supreme Court Decision to Overturn Roe v. Wade

Jun 24, 2022 • The U.S. Supreme Court overturned a landmark ruling on abortion rights, removing the constitutional right in the U.S. to terminate a pregnancy.

According to the Guttmacher Institute, a pro-choice research group, 26 of America’s 50 states are expected to move immediately to crack down on clinics providing abortions.


I cannot write here what I really think of this Supreme Court ruling or the people that have made these judgments. Backward is too mild a word for this. This is truly ante-Diluvian. This will take America back decades – totally into darkness.

It will not stop abortions, it will merely push women, especially poor women, to go to backstreet operators, or even revert to the age-old ‘cure’ of hot baths, lots of gin, and knitting needles.

This ruling won’t save lives; rather, it will cause misery, depression, hardship, grief and, dare I say it, many deaths and/or suicides. Stupid is as stupid does. – © Mark Alexander

Contraception, Gay Marriage: Clarence Thomas Signals New Targets for Supreme Court

THE GUARDIAN: Rightwing justice appears to offer preview of the court’s potential future rulings after decision to remove US abortion rights

Donald Trump with Clarence Thomas as Amy Coney Barrett is confirmed to the supreme court in October 2020. Photograph: Alex Brandon/AP
Many Americans reacted to the supreme court’s decision to reverse Roe v Wade and remove federal abortion rights in the US with shock, but many also asked a terrified question: what might be next?

The conservative justice Clarence Thomas appeared to offer a preview of the court’s potential future rulings, suggesting the rightwing-controlled court may return to the issues of contraception access and marriage equality, threatening LGBTQ rights.

“In future cases, we should reconsider all of this court’s substantive due process precedents, including Griswold, Lawrence, and Obergefell,” Thomas wrote in his concurring opinion to the ruling on Roe.

Griswold v Connecticut established a married couple’s right to use contraception without government interference in 1965. The court ruled in the 2003 case of Lawrence v Texas that states could not criminalize sodomy, and Obergefell v Hodges established the right for same-sex couples to marry in 2015.

Thomas’s words confirmed what many progressive lawmakers and reproductive rights advocates have feared for years. The end of Roe marks the beginning, not the end, of judicial overreach by the court’s conservative majority, they say.

“It is important that Americans understand that this supreme court and Republicans in Congress will not stop here,” said Pramila Jayapal, the chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus. “It is clear [Thomas] and the court’s majority have no respect for other precedents that have been won in recent decades.” » | Joan E Greve in Washington | Friday, June 24, 2022

Clarence Thomas Ready to Strike Down Marriage Equality Following Dobbs: The reasoning in today's decision overruling Roe v. Wade shows that rulings on marriage equality, consensual sex, and contraception were erroneous, he says. »

Related video

They Aren't Stopping with Roe v. Wade | Robert Reich

Jun 24, 2022 • What rights will be stripped away next? Contraception? Same-sex marriage? Consensual same-sex sexual activity?

Clarence Thomas said it himself: the Supreme Court is coming for your right to privacy.

Live Updates: Supreme Court Overturns Roe v. Wade

THE NEW YORK TIMES: The decision, eliminating the constitutional right to an abortion after almost 50 years, will lead to all but total bans on the procedure in about half of the states.

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Friday overruled Roe v. Wade, eliminating the constitutional right to abortion after almost 50 years in a decision that will transform American life, reshape the nation’s politics and lead to all but total bans on the procedure in about half of the states.

The ruling will test the legitimacy of the court and vindicate a decades-long Republican project of installing conservative justices prepared to reject the precedent, which had been repeatedly reaffirmed by earlier courts. It will also be one of the signal legacies of President Donald J. Trump, who vowed to name justices who would overrule Roe. All three of his appointees were in the majority in the 6-to-3 ruling.

The decision, which echoed a leaked draft opinion published by Politico in early May, will result in a starkly divided country in which abortion is severely restricted or forbidden in many red states but remains freely available in most blue ones.

Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. voted with the majority but said he would have taken “a more measured course,” stopping short of overruling Roe outright. The court’s three liberal members dissented. After a leak, the Supreme Court details its final decision on abortion. » | Alan Liptak | Friday, June 24, 2022

America's apparent inexorable fall into darkness and backwardness. A mother may not 'kill' a foetus, but a child may be killed in school by a dangerous gunslinger! It's guns that need to be banned, not abortions! – © Mark Alexander

‘Absolutely Shocking’: New York Governor Reacts to Supreme Court Ruling on Guns

Jun 23, 2022 • New York Gov. Kathy Hochul reacted to the Supreme Court’s ruling that says the Constitution provides the right to carry a gun outside the home. Hochul called the decision “absolutely shocking” and said the state would “fight back.”

These judges have taken leave of their senses! They must be crackers! Wacko! – @ Mark Alexander

Supreme Court ruling expands US gun rights: The US Supreme Court has struck down a New York law restricting gun-carrying rights, in its most important judgement on guns in over a decade. »

Verwandt.

Abortion and the Supreme Court: What’s at Stake? | The Economist

May 6, 2022 • A leaked draft opinion suggests the Supreme Court is poised to overturn the right to abortion in America. If this ruling goes ahead, women's rights are in danger.

The Supreme Court Will “Reorder” American Society Says Election Law Expert | Amanpour & Company

May 11, 2022 • There are a number of cases before the Supreme Court that will “reorder law and American society,” according to Richard Hasen. He is a professor of law and political science at the University of California Irvine and an expert in election law. He is also the author of "Cheap Speech." Hasen speaks with Hari Sreenivasan about how to stop the spread of disinformation that is poisoning politics. Originally aired on May 11, 2022

Lawrence: Samuel Alito's Lies Did Not Stop in His Confirmation Hearing

May 6, 2022 • MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell details the years of lying and hypocrisy from Republicans and Republican-appointed Supreme Court Justices on abortion rights.

As the US Supreme Court Moves to End Abortion, Is America Still a Free Country?

THE GUARDIAN – OPINION: There is no condition more essential to democratic citizenship than a person’s control over her own body. We can’t call ourselves a free country without it

‘This will make women prisoners to their own bodies, and to men’s ideas of what those bodies must mean. It will make our country weaker, crueler, stupider and less vibrant.’ Photograph: Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images
It’s the worst possible outcome: according to a draft majority opinion published by Politico, the US supreme court has voted to overturn Roe v Wade, along with its sister decision Planned Parenthood v Casey. This momentous ruling will result in abortion becoming immediately illegal in an estimated 26 states when it is officially issued, likely sometime next month.

The draft opinion, authored by Samuel Alito, the most rabidly hateful member of the court’s archconservative wing, will upend 50 years of precedent and undo a landmark ruling that has profoundly shaped legal doctrine, popular conceptions of the law, and millions of American lives. It will make women prisoners to their own bodies, and to men’s ideas of what those bodies must mean. It will make our country weaker, crueler, stupider and less vibrant. » | Moira Donegan | Tuesday, May 3, 2022

Etats-Unis : un projet de décision de la Cour suprême qui supprimerait le droit à l’avortement a fuité : Le site « Politico » révèle que ce projet, encore en discussion, écraserait la décision dite Roe v. Wade (1973), qui avait accordé le droit à l’avortement en 1973, et renverrait à chaque Etat la possibilité d’adopter sa loi. »

La Cour Suprême américaine tentée de revenir sur le droit à l'avortement : Selon le journal Politico, qui s'appuie sur une fuite inédite de documents, la plus haute institution judiciaire des États-Unis s'apprêterait à annuler l'arrêt historique de 1973 qui garantit ce droit. »




What it’s like to live in a country with a near total ban on abortion: As the US teeters on the brink of outlawing abortion, an expert from Poland explains the practical and emotional consequences of such a ban »

Former VP Mike Pence Asks US Supreme Court to Overturn Abortion Rights - BBC News

Former Vice-President Mike Pence has called on the Supreme Court to overturn the landmark 1973 Roe v Wade case that legalised abortion in the US. Mr Pence said the ruling was "a misguided decision" that harmed millions of unborn babies.

If Roe v Wade is quashed, millions of women would lose access to abortions. On Wednesday, the Supreme Court will hear arguments over a Mississippi law banning abortion after 15 weeks. The ban includes abortions on pregnancies caused by rape or incest.


If Mike Pence gets his way, desperate women in the USA will soon have to resort to the Victorian solution to abort unwanted babies: gin and knitting needles! – © Mark

GOP Takeover of the Supreme Court: What You Need to Know

Former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich explains what's at stake in the SCOTUS nomination fight to replace Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

Led by Mitch McConnell, Republicans are gearing up to reverse the precedent they themselves set in 2016, when they blocked President Obama’s Supreme Court nominee for 293 days because, they said, “this vacancy should not be filled until we have a new president.” They know if they let the people decide who should appoint the next Supreme Court justice, their last chance to implement minority rule could be lost.

Remember: Trump lost the popular vote by 3 million people. And he was impeached. If confirmed, his nominee would be approved by Senate Republicans representing 11 million fewer Americans than their Senate Democratic counterparts. That justice would join a Supreme Court alongside four conservative justices who were nominated by Republican presidents who also lost the popular vote. And these 5 would have the power to negate laws supported by a majority of Americans.

In other words, a president elected by a minority will appoint a justice who will be confirmed by senators representing a minority. That justice will have the power to subvert the will of the majority and possibly hand the election to a president who’s already been impeached.

The majority of Americans will not go down without a fight. First, we must defeat Trump and his Republican enablers in the upcoming election. Next, when Democrats have control of the Senate, the House, and the presidency, the top priority must be to restructure the Supreme Court so it better reflects the will of the people.

We must see the GOP’s exercise of raw power for what it is and meet it with even greater force.

Lady Hale, President of the UK Supreme Court – BBC HARDtalk

In July 2019, HARDtalk’s Stephen Sackur spoke to Lady Hale, President of the UK Supreme Court. Her role was brought into the spotlight this week when she delivered the verdict of 11 Supreme Court judges which ruled British Prime Minister Boris Johnson's suspension of Parliament was unlawful.

The Guardian View on Boris Johnson: Guilty but He Won’t Go

THE GUARDIAN: For adherents of a no-deal Brexit the prize of remaking Britain in a reactionary mould was worth dispensing with legislative scrutiny altogether. It took the judges to stop them – for now

he cabinet manual’s rule that the Queen “should not be drawn into party politics” has been broken by Boris Johnson. It was his decision, as prime minister, to advise the monarch to issue an order in council to prorogue parliament for five weeks. That order was declared “unlawful, void and of no effect” by all 11 justices of the highest court in the land in the most significant constitutional judgment in modern times. The government’s decision to disregard convention was taken to evade scrutiny by MPs at a moment of constitutional and political crisis. The Commons will now reconvene. A prime minister found to have acted unlawfully in this manner should not stay in office.

A prime minister with honour would tender their resignation. But Mr Johnson has no honour and no shame. The precedent such an act of defiance sets ought to be unthinkable. The sooner that Britain is rid of him the better. … » | Editorial | Tuesday, September 24, 2019

Boris Johnson: Rücktritt, jetzt!

ZEIT ONLINE: Das Urteil des Supreme Courts zeigt: Boris Johnson ist in dieser Krise der Falsche, um Großbritannien zu führen. Er hat Parlament und Queen belogen und muss gehen.

Der britische Supreme Court hat entschieden, einstimmig – und für Boris Johnson vernichtend. Die von ihm verordnete Zwangspause des britischen Unterhauses ist nicht verfassungskonform. Härter hätten die elf Richter des obersten Gerichtshofes nicht urteilen können. Boris Johnson muss die schwerste Niederlage einstecken, die ein britischer Premierminister seit dem Krieg erlebt hat. Eigentlich bleibt ihm jetzt nur eins: Er muss zurücktreten. » | Ein Kommentar von Bettina Schulz, London | Dienstag, 24. September 2019

Supreme Court Announces Prorogation Is 'Unlawful, Void and of No Effect'

The supreme court has ruled that Boris Johnson’s advice to the Queen that parliament should be prorogued for five weeks at the height of the Brexit crisis was unlawful. The judgment from 11 justices on the UK’s highest court follows an emergency three-day hearing last week that exposed fundamental legal differences over interpreting the country’s unwritten constitution. Lady Hale said 11 justices heard the appeal and the judgment is unanimous.