Chief Justice Roberts threatens to become the social right’s boogeyman as he continues to quash conservative hopes this morning, being the swing vote to the pro-choice wing of SCOTUS in June Medical Service LLC v. Russo, aka the Louisiana abortion case. Why? From his concurring opinion:
The legal doctrine of stare decisis requires us, absent special circumstances, to treat like cases [such as Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt] alike. The Louisiana law imposes a burden on access to abortion just as severe as that imposed by the Texas law, for the same reasons. Therefore Louisiana’s law cannot stand under our precedents.
He is at pains to remind readers that, in his opinion, Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt was improperly decided, but by embracing stare decisis, the principle that previous decisions should not be overturned willy nilly, he is defending the Federal Judiciary from charges of politicization. He also manages to make the balance of the conservative wing of the Court look, well, frivolous.
It’s an exaggeration, perhaps, but it seems that Roberts is becoming the Biden of the judiciary: a reminder and an invitation of a more sane time, when tradition mattered and the United States was the admired leader of the free world, and not the pitied, failing example of democratic foolishness. This isn’t to say I agree with Roberts on everything: I am pro-choice while Roberts is not, and Roberts led the way, prior to his joining the Court, on the execrable matter of private justice. But there is something to be said for someone who believes prior decisions really do matter – and that politicizing the Court, as apparently newcomers Kavanaugh and Gorsuch, as well as the more elderly Alito and Thomas, are indulging, is simply not acceptable.
