Dahlia Lithwick/Slate:
David Frum/Atlantic:
NBC News:
Greg Sargent/WaPo:
Richard L Hasen/Slate:
DW:
Lauren Weber/KHN:
The Conservative Justices’ Reasoning in the Texas Abortion Case Is Legal Mansplaining
The cynic in me stands by the claim that they never intended to do in the open what could be done through sloppy subterfuge; that blaming irascible Texas wackiness, throwing up their hands and sighing that a law that was designed to evade judicial scrutiny somehow should evade scrutiny, and then slinking off to bed in the hopes that nobody would care much was always the most appealing strategy. But a careful look at the shoddy, contemptuous jurisdictional reasoning of the five justices in the majority suggests something even darker. It’s not just that the majority of the Supreme Court functionally ended abortion rights for most women in Texas last night merely because they could. And it’s not just that they did so because—as is so often the case with impressionistic, frayed shadow docket reasoning—their personal feelings about the constitutional right to abortion are quite robust. It’s almost impossible to not go one further and declare that the court opted to end virtually all abortion rights in Texas, in the full knowledge that they were blessing an unconstitutional and brutal piece of lawless vigilantism, because it’s only about women.
Can't shake the sense that the GOP is about to become the dog that caught the car.
— Josh Chafetz (@joshchafetz) September 2, 2021
David Frum/Atlantic:
Texas Republicans Got What They Wanted. They Might Regret It.
Until now, Republicans have had a lucrative, no-risk way to rail against abortion. But accountability is coming.
This result has provoked dismay, and not only from the Texas women who will be surveilled and policed by the law. Yet the Supreme Court’s permission to Texas Republicans to proceed with their scheme should be welcomed—including by those who support abortion rights—as the crucial step toward a resolution of a half-century-long national culture war.
Pre-Texas, opposition to abortion offered Republican politicians a lucrative, no-risk political option. They could use pro-life rhetoric to win support from socially conservative voters who disliked Republican economic policy, and pay little price for it with less socially conservative voters who counted on the courts to protect abortion rights for them.
Pre-Texas, Republican politicians worried a lot about losing a primary to a more pro-life opponent, but little about a backlash if they won the primary by promising to criminalize millions of American women.
That one-way option has just come to an end. Most American voters have quietly understood for a long time that most politicians who claim to be “pro-life” are hypocrites. These politicians do not really mean what they say, or anyway, they do not really intend to do what they say. You might imagine that this assumption of hypocrisy would hurt. Sometimes it has. More often, though, it has protected politicians from accountability for the policies they advocate.
Lot of pictures about flooded roadways. Lets not forget the levees in New Orleans held. Props to the engineers. A reminder that Americans can built things right if given the proper time and money.
— Joe St. George (@JoeStGeorge) September 2, 2021
NBC News:
Texas law could flip script on abortion politics, with Democrats eyeing gains
From Virginia to California, Democrats are seizing on an issue that once divided their party, while the new politics is "more dangerous for Republicans."
Terry McAuliffe, a Democrat and the former governor of Virginia who is running for a second term, was already airing TV ads about abortion before the court allowed Texas’ strict new law, which bans abortion after six weeks, to go into effect Wednesday. (Virginia bars governors from serving consecutive terms.)
And now, he says the imminent threat to Roe v. Wade will help motivate Democrats to show up in November and return him to office to ensure that abortions remain legal.
“People have been talking about the end of abortion for years and years. Now it's actually happening,” McAuliffe said. “That will get people to come out in droves. It will really motivate folks.”
Democrats in Washington, who face stiff headwinds in defending their majorities in Congress in next year’s elections, see a new opportunity to motivate voters who may have taken abortion rights for granted.
And Republicans are dealing with an unsettling new political landscape after having promised to outlaw abortions for decades to motivate their base.
August couldn’t have been better for Newsom — a poll that freaked out (and mobilized) Dems, a vaccine mandate that put Rs on the wrong side of a popular issue, and Elder finally putting a face on the “Republican recall” strategy. https://t.co/RrKddqBNOz
— Dave Weigel (@daveweigel) September 2, 2021
Greg Sargent/WaPo:
The new GOP rage-fest at Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger contains a big tell
Fresh off their removal of Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) from the House GOP leadership, some Republicans are gearing up for a new round of punishment against Cheney and Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.), the only members of the GOP serving on the Jan. 6 select committee.
Yet the new campaign against Cheney and Kinzinger contains a key tell. It’s this: The contrast between the accommodation of advocates of political violence and insurrection on one side — and the censure of those who want a full repudiation of both on the other — is largely a project of GOP elites.
…
Indeed, the real tell here is that Republicans who actively resist and prominently work against the covering up of the insurrection’s true intent — an intent that Biggs denies — are working against the interests of the GOP.
McCarthy may or may not ultimately punish Cheney and Kinzinger. But there can be no question that he, too, sees anyone and anything who will not participate in that coverup as working against the GOP’s interests.
This is true in the two big elections of *this* year. In VA, Youngkin (R) clearly does not want to talk about abortion while McAuliffe is running TV ads on it. In the CA, Larry Elder finally met a hot button he does not want to push. https://t.co/uwh98BGO3Q https://t.co/srQoJrI94f
— Alex Seitz-Wald (@aseitzwald) September 2, 2021
Richard L Hasen/Slate:
The Legal Minds Who Tried to Overturn the Election for Trump Are Being Welcomed Back Into Polite Society
Though it hasn’t received the attention it deserves, courage from Republican election officials and leaders helped save this country from a total election meltdown in 2020 based on lies about voter fraud from the incumbent president, Donald Trump. Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger refused to “find” more than 11,000 presidential votes in Georgia, as Trump personally requested, declining to give Georgia’s legislature an excuse to falsely declare Trump won the state. Former acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen rejected entreaties to have the Department of Justice claim fraud in states Biden won. He did so despite pressure from Trump and Jeffrey Clark, a DOJ official who vied for Rosen’s job and was ready to do Trump’s bidding, potentially in violation of federal law. And Federalist Society judges such as Stephanos Bibas excoriated bogus Trump attempts to overturn the election in court without evidence or solid legal theories.
Though it hasn’t received the attention it deserves, courage from Republican election officials and leaders helped save this country from a total election meltdown in 2020 based on lies about voter fraud from the incumbent president, Donald Trump. Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger refused to “find” more than 11,000 presidential votes in Georgia, as Trump personally requested, declining to give Georgia’s legislature an excuse to falsely declare Trump won the state. Former acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen rejected entreaties to have the Department of Justice claim fraud in states Biden won. He did so despite pressure from Trump and Jeffrey Clark, a DOJ official who vied for Rosen’s job and was ready to do Trump’s bidding, potentially in violation of federal law. And Federalist Society judges such as Stephanos Bibas excoriated bogus Trump attempts to overturn the election in court without evidence or solid legal theories.
But memories fade fast. On the right, within the Federalist Society, and even among others who apparently value civility over preserving democracy, some are quietly welcoming back into the fold those who would have stolen the election for Trump or who fomented the violent Jan. 6 insurrection. Most appear to be doing so not because they supported the insurrection or Trump’s ridiculous claims, but out of willful ignorance of the facts, or in the name of civility or free speech. It’s a mistake, and it’s taking us down a dangerous path.
??? Three weeks before crucial German elections, SPD (+7 to 25) surges passed CDU/CSU (-7 to 20) in new DeutschlandTrend survey, confirming other polls. This is the lowest support ever recorded for CDU in DeutschlandTrend. SPD last polled ahead of CDU in 2017 — by 1 pp. pic.twitter.com/hpalbx1Erd
— Michael Knigge (@kniggem) September 2, 2021
DW:
Germany's political parties — what you need to know
Here's a look at Germany's political parties — CDU, CSU, SPD, AfD, FDP, Left party, Greens — who they are and what they want
Social Democratic Party (SPD)
Color: Red
Chairpeople: Saskia Esken, Norbert Walter-Borjans
Parliamentary leader: Rolf Mützenich
2019 European election result: 15.8%
2017 Bundestag election result: 20.5% (153/709 seats)
Membership: 419,340
Voters: The SPD has traditionally been the party of the working classes and the trade unions. The SPD's most fertile ground in Germany remains in the densely populated industrial regions of western Germany, particularly the Ruhr region in North Rhine-Westphalia, as well as the states of Hesse and Lower Saxony.
With the decision last night on the Texas abortion law, the current SCOTUS showed it has to be understood as the Trump SCOTUS, dominated by nominees who share his core philosophy: The law is what you can get away with.
— Garance Franke-Ruta (@thegarance) September 2, 2021
Lauren Weber/KHN:
Lack of a Vaccine Mandate Becomes Competitive Advantage in Hospital Staffing Wars
A little over 60% of his staff is fully vaccinated. Even as covid cases rise, though, a vaccine mandate is out of the question.
“If that becomes our differential advantage, we probably won’t have one until we’re forced to have one,” [ CEO Dr. Randy] Tobler said. “Maybe that’s the thing that will keep nurses here.”
As of Thursday, about 39% of U.S. hospitals had announced vaccine mandates, said Colin Milligan, a spokesperson for the American Hospital Association. Across Missouri and the nation, hospitals are weighing more than patient and caregiver health in deciding whether to mandate covid vaccines for staffers.
FEMA has reversed a policy that stopped Black families who have lived for generations in the Deep South from getting help after disasters. https://t.co/8ZSvfdgceg
— Hannah Dreier (@hannahdreier) September 2, 2021