Tag: Politics

Where I grew up we were taught to respect the United States Supreme Court because that was the word of truth. Over the years I’ve watched the court hand down decisions that widened our scope of freedom. Stari decisis was something etched into marble.

Mississippi’s only abortion clinic has been buzzing with activity in the chaotic days since the U.S. Supreme Court upended abortion rights nationwide — a case that originated in this conservative Deep South state, with this bright-pink medical facility that is closing its doors Wednesday.

The Supreme Court of the United States overturned Roe v. Wade, which protected the right to abortion nationally since 1973. The 6-3 decision in the case Thomas E. Dobbs, State Health Officer of the Mississippi Department of Health, et al., Petitioners v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, et al also strikes down Planned Parenthood v. Casey, a 1992 case that upheld the right to abortion established in Roe.

The Supreme Court ruling to overturn its 1973 Roe v. Wade decision is unpopular with a majority of Americans — but did that matter? The relationship between the public and the judiciary has been studied and debated by legal and political scholars. The short answer: it’s complicated. There’s evidence that the public has an indirect role in the judiciary, but that might be changing.

Yogi Berra would be dancing at the ballot boxes if he were around today because, up and down the ballot, it will be déjà vu all over again in November around Southern California.