Blind justice is a philosophical concept in law meaning that the legal system must be impartial, objective, and unbiased. It asserts that the law should be applied equally to all individuals without regard to wealth, power, race, gender, or status. Of course, we all know that's now it actually works.
Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett faced the wrath of conservatives on social media on Monday after she authored the majority opinion ruling in favor of a Mississippi law allowing mail-in ballots to be counted even if received after Election Day. The court was split 5-4 on the ruling with Barrett, appointed by President Donald Trump, writing the majority opinion, also being joined by Chief Justice John Roberts, as well as justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson, all Democratic appointees. Roberts is another justice for whom I feel some empathy, as his 2 children were adopted from an agency where I was serving as board chair. (He was not yet a Supreme Court justice at that time,)
Barrett's recent Mississippi opinion held that Election Day, in the context of federal law, set a deadline for when voters must make a choice regarding their preferred candidate, but said that relevant laws have no standard for when ballots must be received to be considered valid.
Barrett was quickly criticized by conservative commentators and politicians. Bravo for Barrett in this instance. I would also agree with her on Roe vs, Wade.
Amy Coney Barrett Calls Roe V Wade a 'Free-floating' Decision That Judges 'Read Into' Constitution.
Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett described the landmark Roe v. Wade ruling as a "free-floating" decision that improperly allowed judges to read rights into the Constitution that were never actually there. She argued that because the Constitution never mentions abortion, Roe bypassed the democratic process to impose a national mandate. She further elaborated on this judicial philosophy in her memoir, Listening to the Law, where she echoed the majority from the Dobbs decision, characterizing the Roe framework as an "exercise of raw judicial power,"
Two of Barrett's children are adopted from Haiti, a country I know very well, which makes me feel a definite kinship with her.
As both a birth and an adoptive mother myself, as I've said before, I have never supported the so-called right to an abortion, which certainly is not in the Constitution. Maybe a woman unexpectedly pregnant doesn't want to become a mother. Many women do feel that way when a pregnancy comes as a surprise, as it so often does. However, most of those who go on to deliver a live baby do end up cherishing that child beyond anyone else in their life. I have witnessed many such cases both in the US and abroad. I don't know how the so-called "right" to an abortion ever came about or how it can be justified. What about the right of the unborn to just go on living? We all necessarily went through an unborn stage. Anyway, now the so-called right to kill your unborn child is outdated, since humankind certainly needs all babies possible to actually be born alive, especially as birthrates are falling.
Malthus has become seriously out-of-date. The modern world needs more babies, not fewer. Some European countries now offer incentives for births but with only modest success. Many couples and even single women who have children often stop after 2 births. An "only child" seems unfortunate, but needs only one sibling, so 2 children, if any, has become the desired norm. Yet because some children won't make it to adulthood, it takes an average birthrate of 2.1 or even a little bit more to keep a national population from falling. In the US now, the average birthrate is 1.57 births per woman, below the 2.1 replacement level.
Immigration could help, but Donald Trump is stopping most immigrants before they even cross the border and is deporting as many people as he possibly can, sometimes even to countries where they have never been, like South Sudan, for example, a country that has agreed to take them. (I have spent some time in South Sudan, an underdeveloped country that may actually benefit from having more people.) Now Trump even wants to remove birthright citizenship, which has been recognized almost forever. He has already deported young children, who may not even know where they are going or why.
How did our country get such an unfeeling, erratic, and arrogant president? Well, people voted for him and some still approve of what he is doing.
Supreme Court blocks Trump from firing Federal Reserve Gov. Lisa Cook — for now. What the ruling means and what happens next.
The justices allowed the Federal Reserve governor to stay in her role while her lawsuit challenging President Trump's attempt to dismiss her plays out.
Supreme Court blocks Trump's firing of Federal Reserve governor, notes 'tradition of central banking protected from political interference'
(UPI) -- The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday [June 30] rejected President
Donald Trump's attempts to kill automatic birthright citizenship, prompting
the leader to call on Congress to end the practice through legislation.
The high court voted 6-3 against Trump's executive order banning birthright
citizenship, with Chief Justice John Roberts writing for the majority. He said
birthright citizenship is guaranteed by the Constitution and there was
"scant evidence" for Trump's interpretation of the law protecting birthright
citizenship.
The 14th Amendment was enacted after the Civil War to protect the rights of the formerly enslaved.
"Citizenship then and now, was the right to have rights -- to freely participate
in our political community," Roberts wrote. "We keep that promise today."
Here's another loss for Trump, who thinks a president's word is law (at least when he is the president).
USA Today, Supreme Court OKs late-arriving mailed ballots in loss for TrumpSupreme Court OKs late-arriving mailed ballots in loss for Trump
Court sides with GOP, loosens campaign spending rules
I just sent the following messsage to a friend staying in Tucson for the summer, helping deliver meals to people who can't leave.
Here in Berkeley Springs WVa. we haven't turned on the A/C yet this year. But today might be the day to do that as the high is now 86 F and the air is quite humid. At least in Arizona, you don't have summertime humidity. However, my son is at work right now and I don't know how to start the A/C, so I'll just have to wait. I'm known in Spanish as someone friolenta, sensitive to cold My son is the opposite, calorento. Can frioltena and calorento live together? We're actually doing it!
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