Well, it happened. The Supreme Court effectively overturned Roe v. Wade tonight for folks in Texas under cover of darkness That’s right! The biggest abortion rights news in 50 years happened in the shadows
Instead of issuing a ruling blocking Texas’ 6-week abortion ban from taking effect, the Court did nothing. But in this case, doing nothing is actually doing EVERYTHING. Because by doing nothing, the justices said Roe is no longer good law.
Wait. How can the justices doing nothing be the same thing as the justices saying something? I’ll explain.
Texas’ #SB8 bans abortion at 6 weeks. That means it bans abortion well before a fetus is viable. Roe v. Wade says specifically states can’t do that. Doesn’t matter. Texas just did that.
Now normally when Texas lawmakers try to ban abortion—because they have before!—there’s a big long court fight. It can take YEARS for a case to go from legislation to the Supreme Court.
And that’s because it takes a long time to develop evidence and go through the arguments. Courts normally take their time deciding big weighty constitutional questions.
And normally when the Supreme Court is going to do something like overturn—or substantially change—the law it does so after a bunch of briefs and oral arguments. And it does so with a case that is “on the docket.”
“On the docket” is lawyer-speak for when a court formally accepts a case to resolve. It puts it “on the docket.” The docket is the public record of legal challenges—important for transparency and a healthy democracy!
It turns out the conservative justices aren’t the biggest fans of transparency, and so they have developed a side hustle—a shadow docket if you will-—and that’s the place where they can wreak havoc outside of public view.
The Supreme Court has done all sorts of terrible things via the shadow docket—like letting the Biden administration eviction moratorium lapse and now gutting abortion rights law!
If SCOTUS was interested in upholding abortion rights precedent, it would have issued an order that says basically “sorry Texas, Roe says you can’t ban abortion at 6 weeks. Nice try.” SCOTUS didn’t issue that order.
And by not issuing that order, SCOTUS signaled that the 6-3 conservative majority has no interest in upholding Roe as precedent. And it did so on the shadow docket.
You might remember that there actually is a formal challenge to Roe v. Wade “on the docket” for SCOTUS this term—Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. Well guess what? The last 24 hours just told us everything about how SCOTUS plans to rule in Dobbs.
A lot could still happen this week. The fight in Texas isn’t necessarily a done deal. We’re in the earliest phases of figuring out this new landscape for abortion rights and access, but nobody has you covered like we do over at @RewireNewsGroup.

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More from @Hegemommy

8 Sep
Sooooo…. did you hear the news? Texas Gov. Greg Abbott told reporters this week that there’s no reason to worry about the lack of a rape exception in Texas’ #SB8 because Texas was going to “eliminate rape.”

I have some thoughts here.
First of all, as others have pointed out, there’s no way to “eliminate rape.” Rapes go unreported. There are no pre-cogs available to enable Minority Report-style reporting for first-time rapists. It’s all bad faith nonsense.
And because it is bad-faith nonsense I totally get the impulse to dunk on Gov. Abbott here. HE. IS. SO. DUNKABLE. But because this is not my first rodeo I want to talk about a couple of red flags here for me.
Read 11 tweets
2 Sep
Okay what just happened at SCOTUS? Well for starters they let the most restrictive abortion ban in the country, a law that bans abortion at about 6 weeks pregnancy, take effect without a single court hearing arguments on its constitutionality.
THAT IS SO BAD. I CANNOT STRESS JUST HOW BAD THIS IS.
Let's just get this out of the way. We can stop debating about whether or not SCOTUS overturned Roe. They did. So what if it’s on a technicality. It’s not a technicality to the people forced to carry pregnancies to term against their will.
Read 12 tweets
1 Sep
Okay folks waiting on SCOTUS how are we doing?
Here's what I can say right now. We're in unchartered waters for abortion access no matter what unfolds in the next hour
Things feel really dark and difficult right now. And I'm not going to lie. They are. But I also know that the bravest, smartest people I know are out there doing everything they can to make sure people have care no matter what. So I'm holding onto that right now.
Read 4 tweets
30 Aug
Do you feel like there is SO MUCH ABORTION NEWS happening today? That’s because there is.

First is the fight over a 6 week abortion ban in Texas. That’s the one that creates “abortion enforcers” and offers a bounty on patients, providers, and others who help.
Today advocates filed an emergency petition asking the Supreme Court to step in. Later today Justice Alito told the defendants in that case they could respond to that request by 5 pm tomorrow.

That’s about 8 hours before the ban is set to take effect.
You’d think Texas lawmakers would take a breather trying to ban abortion but you’d be wrong! Even with that 6 week ban looming they are trying to pass Yet Another Abortion Ban. This time on medication abortion.
Read 6 tweets
20 Jan
There is going to be a lot of talk about the Biden-Harris Executive Orders dropping today and I am HERE FOR IT including the protections against sexual orientation and gender identity discrimination. THIS ONE IS A BIG DEAL HERE IS WHY
Remember in June when SCOTUS Justice Neil Gorsuch momentarily became a progressive folk hero for his role in authoring the Court's decision that said employers couldn't fire you for being gay or trans? Here's a refresher

rewirenewsgroup.com/article/2019/1…
That decision was really good news! OF COURSE your boss shouldn't be able to fire you because of who you are. Remember when the Court said no your boss isn't just trying to enforce a "dress code" at work they are actively being a discriminatory dillweed? THAT WAS GREAT
Read 10 tweets
7 Jan
One of the least surprising bits from yesterday's nazi parade and storm on the Capitol were the presence of so many well-known anti-choice protesters and activists
At @RewireNewsGroup we've covered the intersection of fascism and anti-choice politics for a long time now!

rewirenewsgroup.com/article/2018/1…
Last year we published this piece by @beyerstein on the connected universes of QAnon believers and the anti-choice movement

rewirenewsgroup.com/article/2020/0…
Read 6 tweets

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