The Wisconsin’s Supreme Court, with its 4-3 liberal majority, has struck down the state’s 1849 abortion ban.
h/t Mousebumples for keeping us informed!
This never could have happened if we hadn’t fought like hell to get Janet Protasiewicz elected to the Wisconsin Supreme court, giving liberals a majority on the court.
I’m not exactly sure of the process in Wisconsin. But I have to wonder if this decision would have been delayed if the liberals hadn’t fought like hell to win the election in November and keep the liberal majority.
So the should be a reminder to all of us – good things bring more good things, and it’s worth fighting for the world we want to see.
Writing for the court’s liberal majority, Supreme Court Justice Rebecca Dallet said the Wisconsin state Legislature had effectively repealed the 1849 law when it enacted additional laws regulating access to abortion.
“… this case is about giving effect to 50 years’ worth of laws passed by the legislature about virtually every aspect of abortion including where, when, and how health-care providers may lawfully perform abortions,” Dallet wrote. “The legislature, as the people’s representatives, remains free to change the laws with respect to abortion in the future.”
And we’ll need to fight again in 2026 when this lovely conservative member of the Wisconsin Supreme Court will be on the ballot again.
Supreme Court Justice Rebecca Bradley, a member of the court’s conservative minority, wrote that majority opinion “erases a law it does not like, making four lawyers sitting on the state’s highest court more powerful than the People’s representatives in the legislature.””Any remaining doubt over whether the majority’s decisions are motivated by the policy predilections of its members has been extinguished by its feeble attempt to justify a raw exercise of political power,” Bradley wrote. “The majority not only does violence to a single statute; it defies the People’s sovereignty.”
Let’s help Wisconsin are FIRE her next year!
At Least Some Living Things Like the Heat, Though I Am Not One of Them
Old School
Hooray!
(P.S. Your last sentence needs editing.)
Baud
Elections have consequences.
Jeffro
not enough violins in the world
LOL
have a seat, Becky – if you think this is bad, you should read up a little about SCOTUS
la caterina
@Baud: <chuckling> I’ve heard that somewhere.
NaijaGal
@Baud: They most certainly do!
I’m feeling good about Wisconsin. First showing a billionaire there are limits to what his money can buy, now this ruling.
Mousebumples
Thanks and you’re welcome, WaterGirl!
The liberal wins (Janet Protasewicz in 2023 {flip} , I think, and now Susan Crawford {hold} in April of this year) were critical.
I forget who the MAGA was in April, but this decision may have gone the other way, without those elections.
I’d love to win a 5-2 majority in April 2026. 🤞
wizened_guy
Hey Justice Bradley — The Supreme Court does that all the time these days and I bet you don’t complain about that.
The Red Pen
Oh no! What horrors are next? Perhaps a court will overturn the Medicaid expansion provision of the ACA allowing states to opt out. Or what if courts decided that the 14th Amendment’s disqualification due to insurrectionist activities requires a conviction in court despite that not being even hinted at in the law. And what if a Justice could confirm the Roe v Wade was “settled law” and then later just flip and overturn it anyway?
What kind of fucked up country would we be then? Thankfully, the conservatives in the courts are very, very concerned about such things. [eye roll]
Old School
@Mousebumples:
Brad Schimel
bobbo1
Shorter Rebecca Bradley:
”What about MY policy predilections?”
stinger
@Mousebumples:
I love the photo in your earlier link, showing that 6 of the 7 justices are women. Even if some of the women are conservatives, I think we get better decisions — and better laws — when women are represented at the rate they exist in the world (more than half).
rikyrah
CLAP CLAP CLAP
So, women in the Midwest have another state, in case they need those services.
stinger
WaterGirl, if you happen to have the numbers handy, I’ve be interested in a reminder of how much Balloon Juice raised for the Protasiewicz and Crawford races.
stinger
@rikyrah:
I was thinking that, too.
terraformer
Bradley was *just fine* with what she decries here when one Scott Walker put our state back at least a decade by “Act 10” which, along with removing collective bargaining for state employees (which had been enshrined in state law since 1959), and also made us a “right to work” state. She was on the bench for a host of rulings that helped Walker escape the law. Heads they win, tails we lose with *all these people
They Call Me Noni
Women belong in all places decisions are being made.
The late, great RBG
Gretchen
It defies the People’s Sovereignty? So those people of 1849 aren’t represented any more? The pre-Civil War people who thought women shouldn’t be able to vote or own property, but could own other people, aren’t represented any more? Sad.
We needed this little spark of hope today.
EarthWindFire
Seems to me that Chief Justice Bradley is unclear on the concepts of superseding law or amendments. The good people of Wisconsin should replace her with a better lawyer.
Omnes Omnibus
Remember a few years ago when a lot of people were writing Wisconsin off as a lost cause? It’s still a work in progress, but it goes to show that writing places off is a bad idea.
hueyplong
You’ve got to love those rare times when “elections have consequences” gets uttered in a pleasing context.
As for Bradley, I’ll toss her some tots and prayers about erasing the will of those poor voters who desired strict enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Act.
japa21
@Omnes Omnibus: As long as you are there, we will never write Wisconsin off.
Citizen_X
She’d be surprised by how many other laws from 1849 and thereabouts got obliterated BY FORCE—with cold steel and hot lead, not to mention a whole lot of Union blood, sweat, and tears. Support the troops!
HopefullyNotcassandra
@Jeffro: my thoughts almost exactly.
Ruckus
@terraformer:
They want a world where they have power over others. They want to limit your life to whatever the hell it is they want. I believe the word is tyrants. They actually can’t stand it when “normal” human beings have rights. They have to justify their shitty concepts of living by restricting everyone to their same shitty level, which then justifies their shitty life.
HopefullyNotcassandra
@NaijaGal: Wisconsin is such a lovely place with its lakes ( and freezing cold, too) and kind, welcoming people. The Wisconsin news really since the Walker era of destruction has just shocked me. It is a relief to find the state headed back in a rational direction.
WaterGirl
@stinger:
In 2023 we did a huge postcard campaign for the WI SC race, and we had very targeted addresses from Voces. We didn’t do a lot of fundraising for them that year
WaterGirl
@HopefullyNotcassandra: Mine, too, except he left out “fuck you”.
Captain C
@WaterGirl: Kind of like this scene from Terminator.
FlyingToaster
Off-Topic Heads-Up: the Balloon Juice Feed at Bluesky is down (my feed provider is on it), so feel free to use the list instead:
Balloon Juice Jackals Bluesky List
kindness
Yeay for Wisconsin. Wisconsin is another one of those states I feel bad about. The reason being there are a lot of solid good folk in the state. For what ever reason, not all those good folk vote all the time and so the right wingers who do vote all the time, win and put abominations in charge. Happens in too many states. I don’t relate to the not voting part (we’ll ignore the obvious misogyny and racism of recent elections for now).
jonas
Please address your serious concerns about problems of judicial activism and overreach to:
Chief Justice John Roberts
Supreme Court of the United States
Washington, D.C., USA
stinger
@Omnes Omnibus: Hear, hear.
stinger
@WaterGirl:
Thank you!
JML
@Old School: Brad Schimel would have 100% upheld the 1849 law. Remember, he’s the guy who said he would uphold a ban on interracial marriage when he was running for AG. He would have acted all regretful and written about the legislature, but since he’s a dyed in the wool forced birther, he somehow would have found the fortitude to screw over the women of WI. He’s a truly evil bastard, and I was never so happy as when WI sent his ass packing.
Huge win. Flipping the WI Supreme Court took a long time, a ton of work, and there was a lot of pain in the meantime…but it got done. Now let’s send Whiny Bradley (who as everyone here has noted is only Big Mad because she don’t like the result; it’s not like she’s ever stood on principle before) packing and keep the majority secure.
Stand proud, WI!
Chetan Murthy
This is excellent news. I am especially happy to learn this, b/c it sure has seemed like abortion has disappeared off the radar screen. Immigration and even transgender rights, are still subjects of angry confrontation. Yes, we’re losing ground, but at least we’re still fighting. But abortion? It has felt like that’s a lost cause, and even on our side, that people have just moved on.
Which, insane, infuriating, rage-inducing. A scream within a scream within a scream.
So it’s good that there’s at least a tiny bit of progress, a tiny bit of “take back some of that territory”.
Captain C
@jonas:
cc: RV, Inquisitor, Gorsuck, Boof, and Covid/Coathanger
Belafon
@jonas: He’ll tell her how wrong it is because only Republicans are allowed to do that, not Democrats.
WaterGirl
@jonas:
Best suggestion yet!
WaterGirl
I know i should change the protest sign in the sidebar, but that’s my go to when I am BIG MAD, which is why it got changed in the middle of the day yesterday after the Republican Senate voted to betray the constitution and all of their constituents.
rikyrah
@Ruckus:
no lie told
p.a.
On Wisconsin!
More good news? IDK, but I will grab some popcorn. Via Atrios via Media-ite
An Iran-linked hacker group is claiming to be in possession of a trove of stolen emails from President Donald Trump’s inner circle and is now threatening to publish the material in what U.S. officials describe as a politically motivated “smear campaign.”
HopefullyNotcassandra
@WaterGirl: bless his twisted heart, Justice Roberts is simply an umpire, who just happens to change the rules while the game is in play and only ever in favor of inanimate corporate “people”, never for us ordinary water sacks.
HopefullyNotcassandra
@rikyrah: they want to cause some serious suffering because …..
they got mad during the pandemic that they couldn’t find anybody to wait on them? That’s the best explanation I’ve got.
HopefullyNotcassandra
@p.a.: I saw that. This same group released emails during the campaign. Apparently the press found that release boring compared to John Podesta’s risotto recipes.
Ruckus
@They Call Me Noni:
According to my google search there are more women in the US than men, approximately 4 million more, 168 million to 164 million. Not every nation has the same ratio. The world ratio appears to favor men over women, to approximately 1% difference. I can see over my lifetime events that may have helped shape our difference at this point. And my opinion is that it likely has less to do with the birth rate, and more because of wars over the last 80 years, WWII, Korea, Vietnam all had an effect. And two of those wars took place during the lives of a lot of us alive today, including myself. Not insignificant numbers died and a lot more were wounded in those 3 wars which may have significantly affected our population ratio.
WaterGirl
@HopefullyNotcassandra: Pretty much!
Ruckus
Some of the other effects may be the male/female life paths of this country.
When was our first woman president? Oh yeah – never is the correct answer.
How many woman state governors do we have? 12. That’s 38 men.
The US birth rate is 2% more female than male.
Just a bit of a look at the US population.
Captain C
@HopefullyNotcassandra:
Roberts is the Angel Hernandez of Supreme Court justices.
WTFGhost
@HopefullyNotcassandra: And, like an umpire, he expects his opinions to be logged forever in baseball history as “the only reasonable, and correct, decision.” If an umpire called infield fly on an in-the-stands home run, and all umpires agreed, bam, batter out, no one advances, there was no home run, just a pop up fly with runners correctly positioned.
The smug hubris of his declarations that “losers” are “whining” because they don’t like the “correct” decision… I mean, if he were a movie villain, “Chekov’s Gun” indicates he should suffer a horrible fate, or, be completely untouchable, with no middle ground. (One does not need to *fire* Chekov’s gun, it’s not that kind of rule. The rule just means “if you don’t fire the gun eventually, you’ve wasted audience face time.” Don’t include stuff that isn’t required to inform or tease the audience.
ETA: what if lightning struck a lot of holier-than-thou dullards, as a way to say “stop being asses in my name! Dear ME the BRAYING!” wouldn’t they call that the rapture, and say you should mourn that you weren’t struck?
ETA(more): just thinking of the appropriate end, for a villain showing such hubris in a traditional Greek play – the God he swears favors him blasts him with lightning. Lightning is even (I’d assume) a *fine* Greek god punishment, right?
Miss Bianca
@Ruckus: Tom Levenson makes the point in his latest, “So Very Small”, that up until basically the beginning of the 20th century, women would have been dying at younger ages than men if only because of the hazards of childbirth, mainly puerperal fever. What a time to have been alive! NOT.
WTFGhost
Since this is a good news thread, I managed to text to my stepson that I respect him highly, because he was responsible, the way a good man should be.
Hopefully, it’s normal to feel anxious during these tentative steps at connecting to a grown man with severe abandonment issues. (Also, yes, I’d say I loved him, but, this wasn’t a “love” moment, it was an “earnest thanks” moment.)
WaterGirl
@WTFGhost: It’s totally normal to feel anxious when you are putting yourself out there in a relationship that really matters.
WTFGhost
@WaterGirl: Well, the funny (ironic) part of the “it’s normal to feel anxious” is, I often can’t tell what I feel. Today, I felt something, and I knew it was anxiety, and I started logging it into my (mental) book of problems. (Write this stuff down? There aren’t words for some of it! It’s “that particular feeling in the chest – yeah! That one!”)
So, I did know “one will normally feel anxious,” and I knew that “my anxiety is a property of this situation,” but, I was amazed that “OMG, I did something that could cause anxiety and it did! Boy, I hope this is… you know, normal anxiety!”
My life is complicated, but, I must admit, it has its fascinating moments. I still get to be a geek, closing in on guru, on my own operating system.
(NB to anyone interested: High THC consumption has me unusually talky. Anxiety makes me talky. Sorry if I dump a lot – I don’t have anyone to “talk” to with my wife in the hospital (extremely dodgy phone service), so if I’m dumping too much personal stuff, that’s what’s going on.)
rikyrah
@WTFGhost:
You are good people 👏🏾
WaterGirl
@WTFGhost: Not to worry about that.
Anyone who doesn’t want to read what you have to say can skip over it.
Ruckus
@Miss Bianca:
I studied US history in college (OK it was part of the basics one had to take…. but it’s also nice to know stuff about the country one was born and raised in and has lived in other than when in the USN) and have also been interested in it because of my family of which I’m the only one left standing, and am now the oldest of the extended family as well. We have a family history of some not living so long and others doing quite well. But then modern medicine knows just a tad more than they did in the lifetime of old farts still breathing. (That word tad is doing some heavy lifting)