Tag: Supreme Court’

Mississippi Officially Asks Supreme Court To Overturn Roe V. Wade

B911 – July 22, 2021

Today, in the case of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch filed her brief with the Supreme Court of the United States to overturn Roe v. Wade.

Lawmakers in Mississippi has been trying to implement a law that would ban most abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy.

“There are those who would like to believe that Roe v. Wade settled the issue of abortion once and for all,” said Attorney General Fitch. “But all it did was establish a special-rules regime for abortion jurisprudence that has left these cases out of step with other Court decisions and neutral principles of law applied by the Court. As a result, state legislatures, and the people they represent, have lacked clarity in passing laws to protect legitimate public interests, and artificial guideposts have stunted important public debate on how we, as a society, care for the dignity of women and their children. It is time for the Court to set this right and return this political debate to the political branches of government.”

As noted in the brief, rather than settle the discord established by Roe, Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v. Casey made matters worse. “Caseyrecognized that Roe’s disregard for state interests had to be abandoned…. Caseytried to improve upon Roe by replacing strict scrutiny with the undue-burden standard. But that standard too defeats important state interests rather than accounts for them.

”The brief continues, “The only workable approach to accommodating the competing interests here is to return the matter to ‘legislators, not judges.’…The national fever on abortion can break only when this Court returns abortion policy to the states – where agreement is more common, compromise is more possible, and disagreement can be resolved at the ballot box.”

“With this brief, we’re simply asking the Court to affirm the right of the people to protect their legitimate interests and to provide clarity on how they may do so,” said Fitch.

https://breaking911.com

Girl has Bible confiscated by school officials

Bob Unruh – June 5, 2021

It’s been some 30 years or more since the U.S. Supreme Court established some of the most significant precedents for students in schools, including one that the First Amendment does indeed apply to students in schools.

But still sometimes educators don’t understand, as happened with a recent case in Illinois where officials confiscated a Bible from a second-grader simply because she was reading it during recess, and would talk about it with friends.

The documentation of the situation comes in a report from Francis J. Manion at the American Center for Law and Justice, whose founder, Jay Sekulow, argued some of those precedent-establishing cases at the Supreme Court.

“A little girl had her Bible confiscated by school officials. How could this still be happening in America?” the report wondered, then explaining it’s because “local school officials still don’t seem to have gotten the message.”

“We recently heard from the parents of Gabrielle, a second grader in Illinois. It seems Gabrielle likes to bring her Bible to school and read it during recess. Sometimes she reads it aloud, and sometimes other kids listen in and talk with her about what she’s reading,” the report said. “Constitutional crisis? It shouldn’t be; but little Gabrielle had her Bible taken away by a teacher and was told, ‘You just can’t be doing that.'”

The school then told the little girl’s parents she was not allowed to read the Bible during recess.

They objected, and the school changed its course slightly, determining she “could read it during outside recess but not during inside recess,” the report said.

That was after the school confirmed there were no complaints about the bible reading.

“It was a simple case of public school officials’ hypersensitivity to the specter of a threat from the ACLU or some similar spreader of long-debunked propaganda about ‘separation of Church and State,'” the organization reported.

https://www.wnd.com

Former Students Sue to Force LGBT Orthodoxy on Christian Colleges

Tyler O’Neil – March 31, 2021</s

When five unelected super-legislators on the Supreme Court unilaterally amended the Constitution to legalize same-sex marriage in 2015, Chief Justice John Roberts warned that the ruling would pose “hard questions” about the freedom of religious colleges to operate according to their convictions. Former Solicitor General Donald Verrilli said, “It will be an issue.” This week, Roberts’ warning has come to pass, and the time in which Verrilli’s “issue” comes to the fore is now.

On Monday, 33 current and former students at federally-funded Christian colleges and universities launched a historic attack on religious freedom by filing a class-action lawsuit against the Department of Education (DoE). The lawsuit, Hunter et al. v. Department of Education, claims that the DoE violated the First, Fifth, and Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution by granting religious exemptions to Christian institutions that allegedly “discriminate” against “sexual and gender minorities.”

“The religious exemption to Title IX impermissibly burdens the fundamental marriage rights of same-sex couples seeking to attend taxpayer funded religious educational institutions that prohibit their marriages,” the lawsuit, filed by the Religious Exemption Accountability Project, alleges. “When sincerely held religious beliefs become enacted as school policies that harm LGBTQ+ students at taxpayer-funded colleges and universities, the necessary consequence is that the U.S. Department of Education has put its imprimatur on an exclusion that demeans and stigmatizes sexual and gender minorities.”

“The federal government cannot claim a legitimate governmental interest in furthering discrimination that harms sexual and gender minority students,” the lawsuit adds.

https://pjmedia.com

Supreme Court Charts Next Move on Abortion Limits

Jeffrey Rodack – March 19, 2021

The Supreme Court will meet privately on Friday to consider if it should take up a Mississippi law banning abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy.

As various states continue to adopt abortion prohibitions, many of the new laws are headed to the high court. As a result, the justices could opt to wait to take any action on abortion, CNN reported.

Mississippi officials had appealed a ruling by an appellate court that had invalidated the 15-week ban. The ruling found that the Supreme Court precedent prevents prohibitions when the fetus would be unable to live outside the womb.

The case stems from a Mississippi abortion clinic suing the state in 2018, shortly after then-Gov. Phil Bryant signed the 15-week ban. U.S. District Judge Carlton Reeves ruled it was unconstitutional. A three-judge panel of the conservative 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said Reeves had ruled correctly.

But in late 2019, Mississippi asked the entire appeals court to reconsider the case, and the full panel later denied the request.

If the Supreme Court justices do agree to take up the 15-week abortion ban it, would likely spark intense national debate. And even if they deny the Mississippi petition, individual justices could issue statements regarding the denial and elaborate on their arguments for future rollbacks on abortions, CNN noted.

Mississippi’s Attorney General Lynn Fitch is urging justices to hear the case. Fitch has asked the court to clarify its standard and to disallow clinic lawsuits on behalf of women.

https://www.newsmax.com

Roe’s ‘Deadly Legacy’: 62,504,904 Abortions Since 1973, New Report Says

Michael Foust – January 22, 2021

More than 62 million abortions have been performed in the United States since the infamous Roe v. Wade decision in 1973, according to a new report from National Right to Life that mourns the lives lost while celebrating the decline in the abortion rate in recent years.

The “State of Abortion in the United States” report, released Jan. 21, estimates that 62,504,904 abortions have been performed in the U.S. since the Supreme Court legalized abortion on demand throughout the nation via a pair of rulings: Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton. They were handed down on Jan. 22, 1973.

The report reached the estimate using data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the pro-choice Guttmacher Institute.

Carol Tobias, president of National Right to Life, said pro-lifers have reason to be optimistic, despite the horrific number. That’s partially because the annual number of abortions has been steadily declining since 1990, when there were 1,608,600 abortions, according to Guttmacher. In 2013, the annual number of abortions fell below 1 million, to 958,700. In 2015, the annual number of abortions fell below 900,000 (to 899,500).

The pro-life community, Tobias said, is “moving our nation away from Roe and Doe’s deadly legacy.”

“This drop in numbers can be traced to a number of factors, but among them are the efforts by National Right to Life and its network of state affiliates to enact protective laws that provide legal protection to unborn children and offer hope and help to their mothers,” Tobias wrote in the report. “These legislative efforts are at the very heart of our work, and they are one of the keys to ending abortion in the United States.

https://www.christianheadlines.com

Ark. Lawmakers File Bill to Outlaw Abortion in State, Except to Save Life of Mother

– November 20, 2020

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Two lawmakers in Arkansas have filed a bill that would outlaw abortion in the state, with the exception of the life of the mother.

“A person shall not purposely perform or attempt to perform an abortion except to save the life of a pregnant woman in a medical emergency,” reads Senate Bill 6, filed on Wednesday by Senator Jason Rapert, R-Conway, and Rep. Mary Bentley, R–Perryville.

Those who violate the law would be subject to a $100K fine, 10 years in prison, or both. The abortive mother would not face any penalty.

The legislation states that the Supreme Court is ripe for an overturn of Roe v. Wade and declares that the court committed a crime against humanity in 1973, much like when it ruled in the 1857 case of Dred Scott v. Sanford that African Americans were property rather than U.S. citizens.

“It is time for the United States Supreme Court to redress and correct the grave injustice and the crime against humanity which is being perpetuated by their decisions in Roe v. Wade, Doe v. Bolton, and Planned Parenthood v. Casey,” the measure reads. “The State of Arkansas urgently pleads with the United States Supreme Court to do the right thing, as they did in one of their greatest cases, Brown v. Board of Education, which overturned a fifty-eight-year-old precedent of the United States …”

Arkansas Family Council has backed the measure, stating that it is time to outlaw abortion rather than just talk about it.

“Many people have been saying for almost fifty years that abortion should be illegal. The time has come for us to make it so,” remarked President Jerry Cox in a statement. “S.B. 6 will give the U.S. Supreme Court the opportunity to overturn Roe v. Wade. Family Council fully supports the passage of this good law. This is an opportunity for Arkansas to be a real leader in the effort to end abortion in America.”

He said that the organization has a network of approximately 10K individuals and churches throughout Arkansas, and Cox believes many of those will “want to do their part to secure [the bill’s] passage.”

https://christiannews.net

Alito Warns: Religious Liberty ‘Is in Danger of Becoming a Second-Class Right’

Michael Foust – November 13, 2020

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito on Thursday delivered an unusually blunt warning about the future of religious liberty and free speech in the United States, saying both were in danger if the justices don’t step in and protect them.

Alito’s comments came during a speech in a virtual gathering of the Federalist Society, a group of conservatives and libertarians dedicated to reforming the legal system.

Alito, who was nominated by President George W. Bush, has been known as a staunch supporter of religious liberty and free speech, although his comments left little doubt how he will lean in future cases involving those two issues.

“It pains me to say this, but in certain quarters, religious liberty is fast becoming a disfavored right,” said Alito, who is Catholic. The pandemic, he bemoaned, “has resulted in previously unimaginable restrictions on individual liberty,” even though Alito said he was not “diminishing the severity of the virus’ threat to public health.”

Alito used frank language discussing several high-profile cases, including one involving the Little Sisters of the Poor, a Catholic order of nuns who run homes for the elderly poor. The Obama administration tried forcing the Little Sisters to carry health insurance covering contraceptives and abortifacients.

“The Little Sisters are women who have dedicated their lives to caring for the elderly, regardless of religion. They run homes that have won high praise,” Alito said. “… Despite this inspiring work, the Little Sisters have been under unrelenting attack for the better part of a decade. … If they did not knuckle under and violate a tenet of their faith, they faced crippling fines – fines that would likely have forced them to shut down their homes.

“The current administration tried to prevent that by adopting a new rule, but the states of Pennsylvania and New Jersey – supported by 17 other states – challenged that new rule. Last spring, the Little Sisters won their most recent battle in the Supreme Court – I should add by a vote of 7 to 2. But the case was sent back to the court of appeals, and the Little Sisters legal fight goes on and on.”

Alito mentioned other cases, too, including the high-profile one involving Jack Phillips, a cake artist and Christian who was told by the state of Colorado he must design a cake for a same-sex wedding or risk violating the law.

https://www.christianheadlines.com

SCOTUS Blocks Restrictions on Federal Abortion Pill Delivery

Tauren Dyson – October 8, 2020

A Supreme Court ruling will temporarily prevent the enforcement of FDA restrictions that require women to pick up an abortion pill from the doctor during the coronavirus pandemic and will instead allow the medication to be mailed, according to NPR.

The decision lets women continue to get an abortion pill by mail after the high court pushed the case back down to a Maryland federal court for further review.

Three months ago, a federal judge in Maryland decided healthcare providers can have mifepristone mailed to patients. The drug was approved by the FDA in combination with misoprostol to terminate an early pregnancy.

American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists challenged the FDA regulation since the agency has eased similar restrictions for medications such as opioids.

“It is a relief that for the next few weeks the Trump administration cannot force abortion patients to needlessly risk contracting a life-threatening disease as a condition of obtaining care,” said Julia Kaye, lead counsel for ACOG. “When President Trump is trying to rush through a third Supreme Court justice with the express goal of overturning Roe v. Wade, the court’s delayed ruling in this case gives little comfort that the right to abortion is secure.”

The Supreme Court asked for the Maryland federal judge to reevaluate the rule within 40 days, keeping the high court from acting any more on the issue until after the election.

https://www.newsmax.com

Pro-Choicers Yell “Hail Satan” And Obscenities At Peacefully Praying Pro-Lifers

Student for Life – March 9, 2020

Fire Department, Police Department Called to Bellingham Planned Parenthood after Mysterious Liquid Thrown at Pro-Lifers defamed by Multiple Obscenities, Threats and Lewdness 

“Whatcom Students for Life bravely stood up against the threats of intimidation and the obscenities hurled at them by violent pro-choicers. Such violence is always tragic, but more and more commonplace, especially in a time in which the Senate Minority Leader threatened two Supreme Court Justices for possibly being pro-life. Abortion advocates are becoming more violent against those who advocate for the innocent, but we will not be silenced,” said Kristan Hawkins, president of Students for Life of America. 

BELLINGHAM, WA and FREDERICKSBURG, VA (3-09-2020) — Reacting to news of a vial of liquid being thrown at Whatcom Students for Life who were praying peacefully outside of an abortion facility as part of a 40 Days for Life campaign on Saturday, March 7th, Kristan Hawkins, the president of Students for Life of America said that the violence and ugliness on behalf of pro-abortion advocates cannot be tolerated. She observed, “The threats and vitriol must be stopped. Every day it seems like we hear of a new account of vandalism, threat of violence, or acts of intimidation towards peaceful pro-lifers. What happened Saturday shows us the worst of the worst of the pro-choice movement; obscenity, Satan worship, and lewdness towards students. We firmly reject all acts of violence and intimidation towards our students.” 

According to Autumn Lindsey, a student spokesperson for Students for Life and a leader in Whatcom Community College Students for Life, numerous incidents of violence and intimidation occurred on Saturday. These included:

· People driving by the group, yelling obscenities and displaying crude gestures.  

· A man who masturbated in a car towards the group, many of whom were students, as his friend drove near the peaceful protestors. 

· A woman, caught on video, yelling “Hail, Satan.” 

· A woman flashed the group while yelling, “My body; My choice.”

https://studentsforlife.org

Massachusetts Bill Would Give Doctors ‘Birth or Death’ Decision, Allowing Abortion up Till Moment of Birth

Steve Warren – January 3, 2020

A new measure introduced to the Massachusetts state legislature would permit a woman to get an abortion after 24 weeks if a doctor determines that “the abortion is necessary to protect the patient’s life or physical or mental health.”

The National Review reports that abortion is legal in The Bay State for any reason before fetal viability, which is generally somewhere between 22 and 24 weeks of pregnancy.

The bill known as the “Roe Act” defines “mental health” in the exact language that the Supreme Court used in the Roe v. Wade companion case Doe v. Bolton: “all factors—physical, emotional, psychological, familial, and the person’s age-relevant to the well-being of the patient.”

This essentially allows for abortion on demand up until the moment of birth, according to the National Review.

The Roe Act would also allow abortion if a doctor surmises the unborn child would be “incompatible with sustained life outside the uterus.” While the right to abortion is already in the Massachusetts state constitution, the measure would effectively guarantee the doctor’s right as well.

State law currently requires minors to get permission from parents before trying to get an abortion, but the new bill would change the requirement. It would allow any woman or “pregnant person” to obtain an abortion as long as she has given informed consent.

https://www1.cbn.com