An amicus brief filed by Robert P. George (@McCormickProf) argues that fetuses have a constitutional right to be born, so federal courts must rewrite state laws to criminalize abortion and appoint attorneys to represent fetuses that may be terminated. supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/19/1…
The logical consequence of George's position is that, as a matter of constitutional law, women who terminate their own pregnancies must be prosecuted for homicide, and women who obtain illegal abortions must be prosecuted for aiding and abetting homicide. supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/19/1…
George later suggests that states may "immunize from prosecution certain participants in wrongful killings." But this claim conflicts with the entire rest of the brief, which argues that "any carve-outs" from homicide laws are unconstitutional if they treat fetuses differently.
This brief, and others filed in support of Mississippi's abortion restriction, abandon the Scalia/Thomas argument for judicial restraint and instead assert that federal courts must actively prevent states from permitting abortion under virtually all circumstances.
To state the obvious, George's position would upend federalism by requiring courts to rewrite state criminal codes while commandeering state officials to impose near-total bans on abortion from conception onward. His theory would obliterate the very concept of state sovereignty.

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More from @mjs_DC

29 Jul
A Republican senator asked Biden's Justice Department nominee: "Do you believe in God?"

Can you imagine the reaction on the right if a Democratic senator posed that question to literally any Republican nominee?
law.com/nationallawjou…
The GOP position appears to be: Democrats aren't allowed to ask Republican nominees any question that might tangentially relate to religion, even if the nominee has said their religion informs their views. But Republicans can impose a religious test on Democratic nominees.
Josh Hawley claimed that merely asking Amy Coney Barrett about Griswold v. Connecticut, the landmark decision establishing a constitution right to contraception, constituted "religious bigotry" against Catholics. lawandcrime.com/awkward/gop-se…
Read 5 tweets
21 Jul
It started thundering and raining so Lucy hid under an ice cream cart lol
She’s drier than all of us 😂
lol ok the thunder has nearly stopped but she refuses to leave
Read 4 tweets
14 Jul
Richardson reasons that (1) the age of majority at the Founding was 21, but (2) people as young as 16 were forced into militia service, so (3) people aged 18-20 today have a freestanding right to bear arms that is completely unattached to military service. Does that track?
If the age of militia service at the Founding dictates the age at which people can buy guns now, why don't 16-year-olds have a right to bear arms? Richardson says 21 is arbitrary, but isn't 18 just as arbitrary? Shouldn't 16-year-olds have a right to bear arms under his analysis?
Also, *why* does the age of militia service at the Founding dictate the age at which people can buy guns today? If the Second Amendment is now totally detached from military service, why does the age of 1791's militiamen bear on when modern people can guy guns for self-defense?
Read 5 tweets
12 Jul
On Friday, Biden fired Andrew Saul, a Trump holdover leading @SocialSecurity. Saul claimed he would attempt to come to work on Monday anyway. But today, a White House official told me: "The government has taken steps to offboard Andrew Saul as we would any other former employee."
Here is a White House official's full statement on Andrew Saul's refusal to accept his removal from @SocialSecurity.
The White House official also pointed me toward the Office of Legal Counsel's memo clearing the way for Saul's termination, which rests on the Supreme Court's recent decisions stripping removal protections from the heads of the CFPB and FHFA. justice.gov/olc/file/14107…
Read 6 tweets
10 Jul
This is long overdue. Andrew Saul and David Black were two especially noxious Trump holdovers who actively sought to sabotage the Social Security Administration.

Here's the OLC memo Biden relied on for legal authority to fire them. It's airtight: justice.gov/olc/file/14107…
The Supreme Court's decisions in Seila Law and Collins v. Yellen obviously allow Biden to fire Trump's terrible Social Security Commissioners. It would've been astoundingly naive and foolish for Biden to let them keep subverting Social Security—and undercutting his own agenda.
In June, Justice Kagan explicitly noted that the Supreme Court's recent "unitary executive" decisions give the president authority to terminate the head of the Social Security Administration, as Biden just did.
supremecourt.gov/opinions/20pdf…
Read 5 tweets
8 Jul
Shoutout to the Supreme Court's conservatives, whose 2010 decision in Free Enterprise Fund v. PCAOB allowed Joe Biden's SEC chair to replace every member of a Trump-stacked board that oversees audits of public companies. wsj.com/articles/audit…
Biden already fired William Duhnke, Trump's chair of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board. Now he'll replace the entire board with progressive regulators. All thanks to SCOTUS's conservatives, who struck down removal protections for the board. wsj.com/articles/sec-r…
As I've noted before, the conservative legal movement's assault on removal protections at independent agencies—a scheme that sought to blow up countless regulations—has completely backfired and instead allowed Biden to seize control over these agencies. slate.com/news-and-polit…
Read 5 tweets

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