If Judges Think Corporations Are People, They Probably Think Fetuses Are, Too
LatestLast week, the Supreme Court‘s overturned established law and ruled that, since corporations are people and money is speech, corporations can run commercials for their favorde candidates. Legal scholars worry that Roe v. Wade is next on conservatives’ agenda.
Pro-choice advocates are worried about two things when it comes to the Supreme Court’s ruling in this case: the court’s willingness to abandon decades of established legal precedent (stare decisis); and the court’s decision to pick a legal question not explicitly presented to them by the case to overturn a law they’d apparently already made up their minds about. These very things are, when it comes down to it, exactly what anti-abortion advocates are cheering.
Josh Gerstein gets them all on the record in Politico:
“Yesterday’s Roberts court decision, which exhibited a stunning disregard for settled law of decades’ standing, is terrifying to those of us who care deeply about the constitutional protections the court put in place for women’s access to abortion,” said Nancy Northup of the Center for Reproductive Rights. “We are deeply concerned. … Yesterday’s decision shows the court will reach out to take an opportunity to wholesale reverse a precedent the hard right has never liked.”
“It is worrisome beyond the direct impact of yesterday’s ruling on election law,” said, Jessica Arons, the director of the Women’s Health and Rights Program at the Center for American Progress. “It’s certainly cause for concern.”
Anti-abortion advocates used the opportunity — again — to compare abortion to slavery.