July 2, 2020

Unpredictable John Roberts

In providing the crucial fifth vote to strike down a Louisiana law requiring doctors who perform abortions to have admitting privileges at hospitals, Chief Justice John Roberts has re-enforced a longstanding theme: there is no guarantee a judge nominated by a Republican president will decide cases based on the text of the Constitution.

In providing the crucial fifth vote to strike down a Louisiana law requiring doctors who perform abortions to have admitting privileges at hospitals, Chief Justice John Roberts has re-enforced a longstanding theme: there is no guarantee a judge nominated by a Republican president will decide cases based on the text of the Constitution.

From the presidency of Dwight Eisenhower, who called his selections of Earl Warren and William Brennan his biggest mistakes, through George W. Bush, who gave us Roberts, inconsistency has been all too consistent a pattern when it comes to judges nominated by Republicans. Not since Justice Byron White, appointed by John F. Kennedy in 1962, has a nominee selected by a Democratic president gone against the constitutional philosophy of the left. White was one of the two dissenters in the Roe vs. Wade case in 1973. William Rehnquist, who would later become chief justice, was the other.

The Louisiana law was not about the “right” of a woman to abort her child, it was argued instead as a way to protect a woman’s health in the face of botched procedures that have sometimes led to severe medical complications and even their deaths. The justices should watch the documentary about Philadelphia physician and abortion provider Kermit Gosnell, who performed abortions on mostly minority women in a filthy environment and who was convicted of murdering three babies, born alive, and convicted of involuntary manslaughter in one woman’s death.

In the Louisiana case, dissenting Justice Samuel Alito, writes NPR, “wrote that the court’s decisions in both the Louisiana and Texas cases are ‘used like a bulldozer to flatten legal rules that stand in the way.’

Justice Roberts, who had only four years ago dissented in a nearly identical Texas law, justified his current position, citing "precedent.”

Precedent is not always decisive, as in previously overturned cases such as Dred Scott v. Sanford case of 1857 and Plessy vs. Ferguson case of 1896, the former which said African-American slaves could not be U.S. citizens (itself a reversal of precedent) and the latter upholding segregation laws.

Jor-El Godsey, president of Heartbeat International, a Christian association that supports a network of crisis pregnancy centers, reacted to the decision: “This lawsuit was, from the beginning, a demand of Big Abortion to preserve predatory profiteering over any genuine concern for a woman’s health. It is deeply disappointing for a divided Supreme Court to, once again, affirm abortion ideology over what is clearly the common good and rightful care that women should receive.”

According to statistics from the Louisiana Health Department, in 2019, 8,144 abortions were performed in the state, 5,124 African-American women aborted their babies, 2,148 white women aborted theirs. This is similarly true in other parts of the country. Why doesn’t the Black Lives Matter movement protest this racial genocide?

John Roberts could be said to be the new Anthony Kennedy, the retired justice, who on especially social issues, sided with his liberal colleagues in creating rights that are nowhere to be found in the Constitution, but which follow opinion polls and often succumb to political pressure and editorials in leftist newspapers.

Abortions have declined somewhat in recent years due to a number of factors, not the least of which is the influence of pregnancy help centers, which unlike most abortion providers, offer their services for free. Sonograms are helping women make life choices. Some states mandate they be used before a woman goes through with an abortion, which has led some women to choose life for their babies. More states should require sonograms to fully inform and empower women.

Those who oppose the Louisiana and similar decisions by the Supreme Court should increase their support of pregnancy help centers. By doing so they will have a greater effect than waiting for Justice Roberts to again change his mind.

© 2020 TRIBUNE CONTENT AGENCY, LLC.

Who We Are

The Patriot Post is a highly acclaimed weekday digest of news analysis, policy and opinion written from the heartland — as opposed to the MSM’s ubiquitous Beltway echo chambers — for grassroots leaders nationwide. More

What We Offer

On the Web

We provide solid conservative perspective on the most important issues, including analysis, opinion columns, headline summaries, memes, cartoons and much more.

Via Email

Choose our full-length Digest or our quick-reading Snapshot for a summary of important news. We also offer Cartoons & Memes on Monday and Alexander’s column on Wednesday.

Our Mission

The Patriot Post is steadfast in our mission to extend the endowment of Liberty to the next generation by advocating for individual rights and responsibilities, supporting the restoration of constitutional limits on government and the judiciary, and promoting free enterprise, national defense and traditional American values. We are a rock-solid conservative touchstone for the expanding ranks of grassroots Americans Patriots from all walks of life. Our mission and operation budgets are not financed by any political or special interest groups, and to protect our editorial integrity, we accept no advertising. We are sustained solely by you. Please support The Patriot Fund today!


The Patriot Post and Patriot Foundation Trust, in keeping with our Military Mission of Service to our uniformed service members and veterans, are proud to support and promote the National Medal of Honor Heritage Center, the Congressional Medal of Honor Society, both the Honoring the Sacrifice and Warrior Freedom Service Dogs aiding wounded veterans, the National Veterans Entrepreneurship Program, the Folds of Honor outreach, and Officer Christian Fellowship, the Air University Foundation, and Naval War College Foundation, and the Naval Aviation Museum Foundation. "Greater love has no one than this, to lay down one's life for his friends." (John 15:13)

★ PUBLIUS ★

“Our cause is noble; it is the cause of mankind!” —George Washington

Please join us in prayer for our nation — that righteous leaders would rise and prevail and we would be united as Americans. Pray also for the protection of our Military Patriots, Veterans, First Responders, and their families. Please lift up your Patriot team and our mission to support and defend our Republic's Founding Principle of Liberty, that the fires of freedom would be ignited in the hearts and minds of our countrymen.

The Patriot Post is protected speech, as enumerated in the First Amendment and enforced by the Second Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America, in accordance with the endowed and unalienable Rights of All Mankind.

Copyright © 2024 The Patriot Post. All Rights Reserved.

The Patriot Post does not support Internet Explorer. We recommend installing the latest version of Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox, or Google Chrome.