Laura Bassett writes:

Last night, the Supreme Court quietly green-lit the most extreme abortion ban the United States has seen in half a century: a Texas law that prohibits abortions at six weeks from a woman’s last period, even in cases of rape or incest, and that deputizes citizens to spy on women and sue anyone who helps someone obtain a prohibited abortion.

The rest of the states now have a road map to ban abortion almost entirely and put bounties on women and doctors without court intervention. The constitutional right to abortion until viability is no longer being enforced. Republicans have been looking forward to this moment for decades. But some have mysteriously gone quiet. Even the loudest of the anti-abortion senators, Ted Cruz, who happens to hail from Texas, had managed, as of this writing, to refrain from gloating about the victory on Twitter.

Perhaps they don’t want the big headlines, because overturning Roe v. Wade is consistently unpopular with American voters. But another motivation could explain the silence: For half a decade, Republicans—especially self-described moderate members of the party—have been gaslighting America on the issue of abortion rights, pretending they didn’t know that Donald Trump’s Supreme Court picks were always planning to overturn Roe. A central goal of the conservative judicial movement that these justices came out of is overturning Roe. The Federalist Society handpicked them for that reason. It’s a transparently phony act, one that’s now been exposed as such.

Senator Susan Collins of Maine, for example, tried to convince everyone that she genuinely believed Brett Kavanaugh would let Roe stand, despite all evidence to the contrary. “Protecting [the right to an abortion] is important to me,” Collins told The New York Times after a two-hour, face-to-face session with Kavanaugh during which, she said, he convinced her that he would not overturn Roe. “His views on honoring precedent would preclude attempts to do by stealth that which one has committed not to do overtly.” Collins said that Kavanaugh assured her Roe was “settled law,” and that his answer on Roe was “very strong,” though he had openly criticized the decision in a speech, used the anti-abortion lingo “abortion on demand,” and voted more than once as a federal judge against reproductive rights.

Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, an outspoken abortion opponent, also said on Fox News before Kavanaugh’s confirmation that the justice “will give great deference to Roe v. Wade.” Women, in particular, protested loudly about Kavanaugh’s nomination—less than a third of them supported it—not only because he clearly threatened Roe, but also because he had been credibly accused of attempted rape. Senator Ben Sasse of Nebraska, a Republican, in turn called women hysterical for sounding the alarm about Roe. [Continue reading…]

HuffPost reports:

Senate Democrats will soon hold a hearing examining this week’s emergency Supreme Court ruling that declined to block an extreme anti-abortion law in Texas.

The hearing, to be conducted by the Senate Judiciary Committee in the coming weeks, will probe the so-called “shadow docket” of emergency appeals the Supreme Court has relied on with increasing frequency to issue rulings, often of massive consequence, with little public deliberation or notice. An analysis conducted by Reuters found that the court’s emergency appeals rulings over the past year often favored religious groups and Donald Trump’s administration.

The unsigned 5-4 ruling permitting Texas’ new abortion restrictions to go into effect was handed down shortly after midnight on Wednesday. It offered no extended reasoning for the decision; its length was only a few paragraphs. The court also held no public arguments on the matter, as it typically does for most cases.

Although the law could still be blocked at some other stage, it remains on the books right now, effectively gutting Roe v. Wade for women in Texas and likely in other Republican-controlled states that are looking to pass similar restrictions.

“This anti-choice law is a devastating blow to Americans’ constitutional rights — and the Court allowed it to see the light of day without public deliberation or transparency,” Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin (Ill.) said in a statement. “At a time when public confidence in government institutions has greatly eroded, we must examine not just the constitutional impact of allowing the Texas law to take effect, but also the conservative Court’s abuse of the shadow docket.” [Continue reading…]