Quote:
Originally Posted by strandinthewind
I sort of agree with you regarding Alito, but Roberts has repeatedly said that Roe was incorrectly deceided and it should be overturned 
In Gonzales, Kennedy assumed for the purposes of that opinion that the principles of Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Caseywere applicable and then he applied them. Moveover, the Court in Gonzales found Congress had the power to ban the partial birth abortion procedure.
So, while Alito and Roberts did not join in the concurrence of Scalia and, of course Thomas (does Thomas ever have an original thought  ) -- they did not really have to. Personally, I see their vote as a political move.
On edit - I actually agree for the most part with the Cort's holding in Gonzales because most partial birth abortions are performed after the first trimester, which makes them outside of the scope of Roe and, if I am not mistaken, there was an exception in the law allowing the procedure to be performed to save the life of the mother. |
I can agree that Alito is less likely to overturn it than Roberts.
I do think the more moderate conservatives on the Court can recognize what overturning Roe and obliterating the right to privacy would do to our judicial system, so I still am less apt to think that they would blindly follow Scalia on that point (of course Thomas rides piggy-back on Scalia
).
I do think Gonzales was correct in that it did not hamper any rights during the first trimester, and put restrictions in place starting with the second trimester. The one thing it did do was blur the line between the pre-viability and post-viability language of Casey.
To read the Gonzales opinion, with all the details on how these partial birth abortions are performed, makes me sick to my stomach. I cannot imagine how it can be justified that it is legal to deliver an intact child (everything but the head), and then insert a knife into the base of the skull to make an opening so the brains can be sucked out, all the while the child (yes, CHILD) is kicking and flailing arms and legs.
Repulsive to me.