Jay Willis Profile picture
I cover judges, laws, democracy, and the 3 raccoons who live in a tree behind my house. EIC @ballsstrikes, occasional writing elsewhere. signal: jaywillis.52

Sep 2, 2021, 7 tweets

The decision of 5 conservatives—Thomas, Alito, Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, and Barrett—to functionally overturn Roe draws 4 dissents, including from Roberts. This is why conservatives pushed for the 6-3 supermajority: They can afford to lose one and still win. supremecourt.gov/opinions/20pdf…

Here's the entire majority opinion, which is basically an extended legalese congratulations to Texas Republicans for passing a bill that runs an end-around existing abortion precedent. Just five justices pleading powerlessness while greenlighting the result they've always wanted.

The Roberts dissent TLDR: Hey uh guys this law is batshit crazy and maybe we should think about the consequences for the conservative legal movement of allowing it to stand? Also, though, I reserve the right to happily vote to uphold this law when the time comes.

The Breyer dissent TLDR: "I do declare, the conservatives are breaking the rules here! How dare they! This doesn't seem very principled at all!" On the night the Court hollowed out Roe, never forget that Stephen Breyer was there at the gunfight clutching a #2 pencil.

The Kagan dissent TLDR: This is total bullshit, the shadow docket is bullshit, are you guys fucking kidding me with this embarrassing coward gibberish? I respectfully dissent.

The Sotomayor dissent TLDR: This thing is about as close as a Supreme Court justice will ever get to openly calling her colleagues what they are, which is a gaggle of FedSoc acolytes intent on establishing a new legal doctrine of Christian supremacy.

The fucking gall of these people to decline to apply 50 years of well-established precedent in an unsigned opinion that more or less boils down to "Help, the law is complicated therefore we cannot do anything." Bottomless bad faith.

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