Thread by @DeFede

A few observations about today’s FL Supreme Court abortion decisions.
Justices voted 4-3 to allowed the amendment on the ballot in November. The three voting against were the three women DeSantis appointed: Justices Jamie Grosshans, Meredith Sasso and Renatha Francis.
@CBSMiami

Those three women are the newest and the youngest members of the court and reveals in stark terms the extreme rightward trajectory of the court by DeSantis for years to come.
BTW, they also voted to uphold the 15-week abortion ban and the 6-week abortion ban in 30 days.

What is striking about this trio of female justices, is they simultaneously voted to uphold a near total ban on abortion in Florida by ruling that when voters enshrined a right of privacy in the state’s constitution in 1980 voters didn’t know it included abortion. BUT THE TRIO…

…so no conflict in simultaneously denying the public’s right to settle the question by putting it on the ballot. It’s as if they were saying: We don’t think voters knew what they were doing in 1980 and we don’t care what they think today.

It takes a special kind of contempt for the public at large, and voters in particular, for these three justices - Grosshans, Sasso, and Francis - to negate the will of voters from 1980 and then actively try to prevent the public from having a voice today.

Another note: The court upheld the 15/6-week abortion ban on a 6-1 vote. The only justice who said the privacy provision of the state’s constitution protected a woman’s right to an abortion was Justice Jorge Labarga, who was appointed by Gov Charlie Crist in 2009.

Coincidentally, Justice Renatha Francis and Justice Meredith Sasso - who voted to deny voters the right to decide the abortion question - will both be on the November ballot this year to determine if they remain on the Supreme Court.