Thursday News & Notes
DECEMBER 2, 2021 -- SENATE VOTES 65-22 TO CONDEMN SEN. JOSEPH MCCARTHY (R-WI), 1954
•We welcome your comments on Wednesday’s Supreme Court oral arguments on Mississippi’s abortion law. Please email your comments to editors@thehustings.news, and let us know whether you consider yourself left or right, regardless of your stance on the case.
•A woman traveling from South Africa to the San Francisco area November 22 has the first known case of the omicron COVID-19 variant in the U.S. (NPR). She had been vaccinated, although not boosted, and is showing mild symptoms so far. Beginning next week, people traveling into the U.S., including Americans, will have to get tested one day before flying. Officials also have extended mask requirements for travel on public transportation to March 18.
•Stacey Abrams has announced she will run for the 2022 Democratic gubernatorial nomination in Georgia (WaPo). Abrams narrowly lost the 2018 race to Republican Gov. Brian Kemp and with helping Joe Biden win state’s 2020 Electoral College votes, as well as two Democrats in the Senate race runoffs.
Beginning of the End of Roe v. Wade – Whereas the throngs of protestors on the steps of the U.S. Supreme Court Wednesday comprised an undeterminable number of pro-choice and pro-life activists, the six conservative justices on the court indicated in their questions during oral arguments over Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization that the right to an abortion will not be a federal right for long. The question is whether the court will rule narrowly to uphold Mississippi’s restriction on abortions after 15 weeks – prior to fetal viability according to medical experts – or whether the potential ruling will be a complete overturning of the court’s 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling.
Chief Justice John Roberts appeared to be interested in a compromise ruling, asking Julie Rikelman, who argued for Jackson Women’s Health, “why would 15 weeks be an inappropriate line?”
Justice Brett Kavanaugh argued against stare decisis, the doctrine that precedent should determine legal decisions by citing SCOTUS cases in which the court overturned previous rulings, or set forth new Constitutional law, per SCOTUSblog, including Brown v. Board of Education (outlawing racial segregation in public schools), Baker v. Carr (one person, one vote), and Obergefell v. Hodges (same-sex marriage).
But Justice Sonia Sotomayor said overturning Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey, which in 1992 reaffirmed the earlier ruling’s right to abortions would require “strong justification” as “not much has changed” on the issue over 50 years.
“Will this institution survive the stench this creates in the public perception, that the Constitution and its reading are just political acts? I don’t see how it’s possible.”
Note: A decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization is anticipated by next summer.
The decision could come at a fortuitous time for candidates supported by former President Trump -- whose three SCOTUS appointees are expected to favor the Mississippi law -- as they campaign toward next November’s midterms.
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Meadows’ Book: Trump Tested Positive for COVID Before Debate – Donald J. Trump tested positive for COVID-19 prior to his first debate against Democratic candidate Joe Biden in Cleveland, September 29, according to Mark Meadow’s upcoming book on his time as the ex-president’s chief of staff. As first reported in The Guardian each candidate was required to return a negative test 72 hours prior to the debate, but Trump, then 74, learned of his positive test just prior to leaving for the debate in Cleveland. (Biden was 77.)
“Nothing was going to stop (Trump) from going out there,” Meadows reportedly writes. After the debate, Trump returned a negative result from a different test, according to the report, but shortly after, on October 2, announced he had the coronavirus and entered the hospital.
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One of These Quotes is Satire – “Schools are a very appetizing opportunity. I just saw a nice piece in The Lancet arguing the opening of schools may only cost us 2-3% in terms of mortality. And you know, any life is a life lost. But to get every child in a school when they’re safely being educated and making the most out of their lives with a theoretical risk on the backside might be a tradeoff some folks would consider.” – Dr. Mehmet Oz, candidate for the GOP nomination for next year’s U.S. Senate race in Pennsylvania, in an interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity.
“Mr. President, I’m not saying we wouldn’t get our hair mussed. I do say no more than 10 million-20 million killed. Tops.” – Gen. “Buck” Turgidson (George C. Scott), Dr. Strangelove, or How I Stopped Worrying and Learned to Love the Bomb (1964).
--Edited by Todd Lassa and Nic Woods