Fala Magazine

This story may drive the Virginia Tech massacre off of the lead spot in news broadcasts for the next few hours. For the first time, the Supreme Court has upheld a ban on a specific abortion procedure, voting 5-4 to disallow an appeal to the federal ban on partial-birth late-term abortions:

The Supreme Court upheld the nationwide ban on a controversial abortion procedure Wednesday, handing abortion opponents the long-awaited victory they expected from a more conservative bench.

The 5-4 ruling said the Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act that Congress passed and President Bush signed into law in 2003 does not violate a woman’s constitutional right to an abortion.

The opponents of the act “have not demonstrated that the Act would be unconstitutional in a large fraction of relevant cases,” Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote in the majority opinion.

The decision pitted the court’s conservatives against its liberals, with President Bush’s two appointees, Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito, siding with the majority.

This affects less than 10% of all abortions in the United States, so it will not have a large practical effect on the abortion industry. However, this represents the first victory of pro-life groups to limit abortions at the federal level, and it doesn’t take a genius to deduce that the difference came in the new roster on the bench. Samuel Alito replaced Sandra Day O’Connor, who had provided the safety vote for abortion-rights activists on previous decisions. It also shows that stare decisis will not provide as much protection for previous court rulings as abortion-rights advocates hoped, a fact noted by Ruth Bader Ginsburg in her dissent.

Politically, this will energize both sides of the issue. George Bush will get a boost from conservatives now that his appointees have delivered on a basic issue for them. Pro-life forces will begin fighting on a new front, hoping to overturn Roe v Wade with another, more central challenge to the court’s finding of abortion rights in the Constitution. Abortion-rights advocates have evidence for their fund-raising efforts on behalf of Democrats that candidate selection for the presidency and for the Senate make a great deal of difference. This will be Exhibit A in every fundraising letter from NARAL, NOW, and the DNC for the next eighteen months regardless of who wins the nomination in either party.

It seems very unlikely that the present court will move much beyond this. Anthony Kennedy wrote the majority decision, and he carefully rested his conclusion on the rarity of the procedure and the minimal effect it will have on abortions in the US. Even if the other four justices vote to overturn Roe — and there’s no indication that Alito or Roberts would do so — Kennedy very obviously will not, and neither will the other four on the court’s liberal wing. Only if one of those four retire (or Kennedy) before the end of the Bush term will there possibly be enough votes to overturn Roe. And after this decision, you can bet that both Ginsburg and John Paul Stevens will hang onto their seats until their last breath.

Today’s ruling is a victory for moderation and common sense. It will not presage any movement for this court.

Welcome to Hitmyn.net. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start blogging!