Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

The arc of the moral universe doesn’t bend itself. it’s up to us.

The Giant Orange Man Baby is having a bad day.

The next time the wall street journal editorial board speaks the truth will be the first.

Republicans: slavery is when you own me. freedom is when I own you.

Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.

Black Jesus loves a paper trail.

Speaking of republicans, is there a way for a political party to declare intellectual bankruptcy?

I might just take the rest of the day off and do even more nothing than usual.

Since we are repeating ourselves, let me just say fuck that.

Let’s show the world that autocracy can be defeated.

There is no right way to do the wrong thing.

Why is it so hard for them to condemn hate?

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

Optimism opens the door to great things.

Don’t expect peaches from an apple tree.

I see no possible difficulties whatsoever with this fool-proof plan.

They traffic in fear. it is their only currency. if we are fearful, they are winning.

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

I wonder if trump will be tried as an adult.

SCOTUS: It’s not “bribery” unless it comes from the Bribery region of France. Otherwise, it’s merely “sparkling malfeasance”.

American History and Black History can not be separated.

We’ve had enough carrots to last a lifetime. break out the sticks.

GOP baffled that ‘we don’t care if you die’ is not a winning slogan.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / SCOTUS Stays the Bullshit Texas Ruling on Mifepristone, Pending Full Appeal

SCOTUS Stays the Bullshit Texas Ruling on Mifepristone, Pending Full Appeal

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Alito and Thomas dissented.  I can’t imagine what can be in their dissents, besides total bullshit and pretzel logic.

In any case, hallelujah!

Looking forward to reading the dissent after Albatrossity called Alito “a whiny ass bitch.”

Reader Interactions

73Comments

  4. 4.

    Fake Irishman

    Interesting. This is the same line up from the California vs. Texas ACA case, with Gorsuch switched out for Thomas.

    And that was decided on standing. (Long way to go on this one though)

  5. 5.

    Baud

    Thomas didn’t bother explaining himself.

    Alito whined a lot. It was the judicial equivalent of him shaking his head at Onama during the state of the union.

  10. 10.

    Elizabelle

    My question:  how do we stop whack ass red state federal judges from pulling these stunts?  Is that a state by state issue, or can Congress legislate on the matter?

    This time abortion.  Next, vaccines. And all manner of culture war stuff.

  12. 12.

    C Stars

    @Baud: At which point it gets sent back to the 5th Circuit, after which it goes back to the SC….right? (IANAL)

  15. 15.

    Suzanne

    Boney Carrot, Squi’s Buddy, and The Boring One must be afraid for their reputations.

  16. 16.

    MattF

    I’ve assumed that the delay was to give Alito time to pressure other ‘conservative’ justices. Good to see that only the Terrible Two voted against.

  17. 17.

    Baud

    @C Stars:

    @Karen:

    The Fifth Circuit will probably issue it’s decision mid summer.  Assuming the 5th Circuit are hacks again, the Supreme Court will probably take it up and decide it in 2024.  That’s will we’ll know one way or another.

  19. 19.

    Odie Hugh Manatee

    @Elizabelle:

    From what I understand, this ruling from the Texas judge is suspected to have been in the bag prior to his appointment to that seat. He hid his authoring a piece that clearly spelled out his hatred of anything related to women’s choice and his presence on two radio shows that would have exposed him for the nutjob he is prior to his confirmation.

    I also read that the attorney who presented the case to ban the drug is married to someone who was involved with his placement on the bench. I need to find the article that was in but it was yesterday. The whole things stinks and his ass should be thrown off of the bench yesterday.

    In the real world, if you lie to get a job and are caught after being hired then you lose your job. In America’s judicial world, you can lie your ass off and keep the job when found out afterward.

    That’s fucked up…

  20. 20.

    MazeDancer

    Stay could be in place a lomg time as it lasts through the entire process of the case and its appealls.

    Alito whined about people using the Shadow Docket.

    Thomas just registered dissent. Didn’t write anything.

    Mrs. Betty Bowers on Twitter:

    The only thing the Supreme Court cares more about than controlling women is not controlling corporations.

  22. 22.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Suzanne:

    Wait, Boney Carrot is obvious, but who is who for the other two? Mr. Balls and Strikes obviously cares about his “reputation”, which isn’t worth much

  25. 25.

    Elizabelle

    @Odie Hugh Manatee:  Yes.  I’d heard about his law review article.  From which he removed his name, when he was in contention for the federal judge ship. I think somebody mentioned this morning that there are radio broadcasts as well.

    I love that we haven’t bothered to learn how to spell this rogue judge’s name.  Not going to give him that level of respect.  (Unlike newly elected Justice Janet in the Badger state.)

  27. 27.

    delphinium

    @Odie Hugh Manatee: In the real world, if you lie to get a job and are caught after being hired then you lose your job.

    Also, if you accept bribes/gifts over a certain amount, or fail to properly fill out disclosure forms.

  28. 28.

    Jay C

    @Odie Hugh Manatee:

    I read that the attorney presenting the mifepristone case was one Erin Hawley, married to Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO). Who (naturally) voted to confirm Kacsmaryk’s appointment. Just coincidental, I’m sure….

    //

  29. 29.

    Dan B

    @Odie Hugh Manatee:  And the Amarillo judge wrote awful anti-LGBTQ tracts on a Texas Law Review article (or two) and then replaced his name with another person’s name as the author.  And he had many millions invested in a company that is nit named but problematic.

    He’s corrupt and a monster.

  31. 31.

    TEL

    Whew! Fits with my pet theory that they held off on the decision until today because that asshole Alito was trying to get more of them to rule with him.

  33. 33.

    TriassicSands

     I can’t imagine what can be in their dissents, besides total bullshit…  — WaterGirl

    You can stop right there, WaterGirl. Bullshit. Thomas is crazy and thoroughly corrupt, so explanations aren’t necessary.

    Alito said that the public (euphemism for “women”) would not be harmed by the roll back. So says a man perfectly happy to let women die for want of appropriate medical care.

  34. 34.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Suzanne:

    Ah. Boring One definitely fits Gorsuck. He gives off that vibe imo. What’s Squi a reference to, tho? I Googled it and couldn’t really find anything

  35. 35.

    cmorenc

    Usually, a stay or injunction in a civil case is given when the party seeking the stay/injunction would both: a) suffer harm if not granted in the interim; b) likely (though not necessarily certainly) to prevail on the merits.   Enough of the conservative block (excepting Thomas & Alito) likely sees the more sound course is to leave it to the next time the GOP has a trifecta (House, Senate, Presidency) to legislatively restrict the abortion pill.  Roberts in particular plays the long game.

  36. 36.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Dan B:

    And he had many millions invested in a company that is nit named but problematic.

    I saw that. Apparently this single stock is worth around $5 million USD. The Administrative Office of the Courts signed off on it being redacted from records for reasons

  38. 38.

    TriassicSands

    @Fake Irishman:

    There are few things I love more than a whining Alito dissent.

    I’d love to read his obit, resignation, or sentence to prison far more.

    Not that I would ever want someone to die. No, that is Alito’s MO.

  42. 42.

    Suzanne

    @TriassicSands:

    Alito said that the public (euphemism for “women”) would not be harmed by the roll back. So says a man perfectly happy to let women die for want of appropriate medical care. 

    Alito might be the one I hate the most.

  43. 43.

    UncleEbeneezer

    Mark Pitcavage (ADL, Historian, expert on right-wing extremism) is a very good follow on social media:

    Rep. Zephyr is a Montana state legislator and transgender person who has been silenced by the GOP-controlled state house for speaking out against anti-transgender legislation.

    I can’t help but be reminded of the 19th century Gag Rule implemented in Congress to stop anti-slavery members of Congress such as John Quincy Adams from reading or discussing anti-slavery petitions from their constituents.

    Having lost the moral high ground, they chose instead to prohibit discussion and debate over the petitions so those uncomfortable words would not ring in their ears.

  49. 49.

    TriassicSands

    @Suzanne:

    As well you should. Thomas is insane. Even Scalia recognized that Clarence is crazy. And corrupt. And dishonest. And hypocritical. Etc.

    But Alito is pure religious evil. He has no business being on any court of law at any level.

     

    @WaterGirl: Thank you. The “device” I usually use gets very inconsistent results in this commenting section. I never know quite what it will do. Even plain text can be an issue. I’m not sure what the difference is here, but I don’t have the same problem elsewhere.

  51. 51.

    TriassicSands

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):

    Whining? Alito? Never!

    People think Thomas has a chip on his shoulder (and he does), but Alito’s is virtually infinite. He really doesn’t like it when he doesn’t get what he wants.

  55. 55.

    Freemark

    @delphinium: ​
      Working as a basic retail associate the ethics requirements are orders of magnitude more stringent than the Supreme Court’s. Since I still work there part-time I had to take the yearly ethics training course two days ago. Thomas would have failed absolutely every ethical standard expected of Target’s most basic and least experienced employees.

  57. 57.

    Odie Hugh Manatee

    @Jay C:

    Dat’s it! Thanks! Yup, Sen. Haulin’ Ass Hawley’s assistant in crime, I mean wife.

    @Dan B:

    Change “He’s” to “They’re” so it covers the whole Republican party!

  60. 60.

    gwangung

    Alito said that the public (euphemism for “women”) would not be harmed by the roll back.

    Totally divorced from the real world. GIGO.

  61. 61.

    UncleEbeneezer

    I finally started Ken Burns’ America & The Holocaust series last night and it is very good.  While obviously Anti-Semitism is front and center in the focus of the series, it also does a really good job of showing just how central White Supremacy has always been to America’s Immigration Policies and public sentiments of xenophobia.  Whether it’s Catholics, Chinese, Asians, Mexicans, Jewish Refugees etc., America has been consistently awful about welcoming  anyone who didn’t fit the current definition of Whiteness, at any given time, throughout most of our history.

  62. 62.

    MomSense

    My extended family political text chain was on fire today.  We are all so temporarily relieved.  We shouldn’t have to live this way – hoping and praying and wondering if we can have agency over our own bodies and worrying about women who will suffer and die if the 6 assholes deem it so.

  63. 63.

    Kent

    Predictable.

    For the actual conservative movement (the money people not the goobers) abortion was always a means to an end.  Get 5 or 6 conservatives on the court so they could deregulate and dismantle the regulatory state.  they never gave a shit about abortion.

    The correct conservative political strategy would be for the court to tell the rubes that they need 60 GOP Senators to go to the next step.  Put a new car out there for the dogs to chase and try to catch.

  64. 64.

    WaterGirl

    @MomSense: I know, it’s all so wrong.

    Really glad for you that you don’t have to be worrying about what the crazy Republican governor is going to do next, because you no longer have a crazy Republican governor.

  65. 65.

    piratedan

    @Jay C: and as a topper, Judge K was only greenlit by Hawley after Hawley’s campaign received a campaign donation from him…..

    yeah, this stinks and it’s a shame that the press doesn’t expose this shit beforehand, they certainly could apply some of the punditing staff to do some fucking investigative research.

  66. 66.

    TriassicSands

    @UncleEbeneezer:

    It’s an enlightening series, but those who need to see it most will never do so. American exceptionalism is a product of myth, delusion, and wishful thinking. Throughout our history, we’ve had waves of intolerance toward the latest arriving groups of immigrants (Germans, Irish, Italians, Chinese, etc.) and in time those waves smoothed out as the groups assimilated and became more or less accepted.

    But there are exceptions. Jews are one of the exceptions. Anti-semitism waxes and wanes, but never disappears. African Americans are another. Today, we’re seeing it continue with Hispanics/Latinos/Latinx (however individuals want to be identified).

    And now, lest anyone simply relax and get on with life, the Republicans have chosen the LGBTQ+ community for their latest hate campaign. And their voters will either enthusiastically join in or simply pretend the issue isn’t important enough to cause one to vote differently.

  67. 67.

    Burnspbesq

    @Karen:

    Stay basically lasts until Supreme Court action (either a merits determination or the denial of a petition for cert) is final.

  68. 68.

    TriassicSands

    @gwangung:

    To Alito, if a woman missed a state-imposed deadline for a legal abortion while the Appeals Court spent 26 days trying to decide whether religion and partisan politics should govern medical care, no harm could possibly result.

    But, what if that woman were then forced to carry the pregnancy to term resulting, along the way, possibly in life-threatening health problems or death or eventually being forced to give birth, Well, folks, there would be no harm. Not in Alitoland.  If the woman survives, and can’t afford to raise a child, she can always leave the newborn on Amy Coney Barrett’s doorstep.

    Never forget — carrying a baby to term and giving birth is more dangerous to the woman’s health than is abortion. That should be a voluntary choice, not a dictate from a theocratic SCOTUS.

  70. 70.

    MomSense

    @WaterGirl:

    It’s night and day. One would have to be incapable of reason to think that the previous governor was better.  I remember watching the faces of the GOP legislators during the state of the state address.  In every measurable way – budget surplus, rainy day fund, etc we accomplished all the things the GOP say they are for and yet they looked more sour and angry with every accomplishment.

  71. 71.

    RaflW

    One interesting tidbit from the intertrons: The votes on these are not published. Thomas and Alito went public as dissenting (and Alito as a WATB) but up to two more Justices may have voted against the stay. We just don’t know.

  72. 72.

    TriassicSands

    @schrodingers_cat:

     

    The short answer would be “If the shoe fits….’

    Fascism is a particular approach to politics. It is not Nazism, although the Nazis were fascists. The goal is one party rule, regardless of elections or constitutional guarantees. The use of threats and violence are also part of the fascist approach. Donald Trump embodies this, but DeSantis is more than willing to use the coercive power of the state to accomplish ends that are both illegitimate and unlikely to be chosen freely.

    Rhetoric is important, as well. A part of the threat or use of violence is intimidation. Republican rhetoric is designed to inflame emotions and a logical result of that will be the use of violence, if not by the politicians themselves, then by their proxies.

    I think the word is appearing more because of the resemblance of what the Republicans in the US and other authoritarian leaders across the globe are saying and doing to what fascist leaders and regimes of the past have said and done.

    Dishonesty and propaganda are also important elements. Hitler coined the term the “Big Lie” to describe an untruth so ridiculous that people will believe it because they can’t believe anyone would make a claim so outrageous if it weren’t true. Trump’s “Big Lie” about the 2020 presidential election has zero basis in fact, and has been shown to be utterly false, but today a majority of Republicans believe that Trump won (or alternatively that Biden fixed the outcome).

    People are criticized for comparing Trump and the Republicans to Hitler and Nazi Germany, but the mistake the critics make is to assume that the comparison is to the Germany of 1945 — world war, death camps, etc. The comparison is valid when one looks at the tactics that Hitler and the Nazis employed in the early thirties that led to their assumption of power. Using elections to gain power and then ensuring the outcomes thereafter is quintessential fascism. In the U.S. we have traditions, norms, and some mechanisms that make the job more difficult than it was in the thirties, but the goal is always the same — one party rule (minority, if necessary).

    The American media have never figured out a way to report responsibly on Trump and his toadies (the Republican Party). One great advantage the fascists have is the exceedingly poor quality of the American electorate. I could write a book on that subject. Ignorance, stupidity, disengagement, and racism are widespread and invaluable to fascists, since poorly informed and not very bright people can be more easily misled…and frightened.

     

    ETA: It’s also important for there to be “OTHERS” to hate. For Hitler is was Jews. For the 2023 GOP it is the LGBTQ+ community. Plus “socialists,” “the Woke,” etc. One important issue is the relative vulnerability of the LGBTQ+ community. They are outnumbered and often misunderstood. Narrow minds reject the idea behind gender dysphoria and narrow minds in America are everywhere.

  73. 73.

    Kay

    “Women still permitted to purchase medication for some period of time” is a “win” of sorts but only in the context of the new, much lower standard for womens rights and autonomy in the US. I just fear if we accept the new lower standard we’ll be ordered to be grateful for anything above it, and many women will do just that, because that’s how we’re trained.

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