its declarations. it lacks any such power. the court s authority derives from the fact that americans respect its decisions. those decisions must reflect something greater than mere whim or raw political power in the senate. the justices should have no illusions, a partial or total reversal of roe would devastate not only the americans who rely on the abortion rights that have been theirs for nearly 50 years but it would also be devastating for the court itself, undermining itself legitimacy. that s how the washington post puts it tonight. here is how the more liberal justices put it today in court. justice breyer started with stare decisis, an important principle in any case, and here, for the reasons that casey mentioned, especially so, to prevent people from thinking that this court is a political institution that will go back
released indefinitely from the shelter. what i understand the aclu is asking is she be permitted to go receive a medical procedure. this is not unusual. residents of the shelter receive medical treatment all the time and the shelter allows them to receive medical treatment. so there s no affirmative act that you have to take other than to allow her to go as she would for any medical treatment. trump administration lawyer: i don t agree, your honor. to release somebody from federal custody is not a small thing. the judge: mr. stewart, aren t residents of the shelter released for routine medical procedures? trump administration lawyer: i m sure that s the case, your honor, but it s not like the door is sort of left open and they wander out, there are documents, there are approvals, there are steps that need to be taken. the judge: right. in every case when a resident of the shelter leaves there are steps that have to be taken. there are documents that have to be signed. there are logs. i
i say that was kind of a blip in the case. it ended up being a short-lived speed bump in the case because that appeals court judge, as much as he tried to get in there and save the trump administration lawyer, his ruling was quickly overturned by the full dc circuit court of appeals. and so again, ultimately, the bottom line here is that the aclu won, that girl was able to get her abortion. but that whole episode, from the government official with the regularly updated spreadsheet tracking the girls menstrual periods, and that official forcing girls into christian antiabortion counseling against their will, and trying to physically hold a girl hostage until it was too late, until it would be illegal for her to get an abortion in texas, i mean, that whole episode, and the legal debacle and humiliation it came to in the end, it really was one of the weirdest thing i ve ever covered. but that story is now where we all live. because that trump
if the only reason to throw out that settled precedent is because, hey, brett s here now, then won t that make americans think that the court actually isn t about looking at the law and it isn t just about looking at the constitution, it s just a little mini congress with robes on and it s about republicans putting together enough votes for their chosen policy preferences or democrats putting enough votes together for theirs. here is how the washington post editorial board made that case today in an editorial that was published after the arguments concluded. you see the headline there, getting roe would devastate millions of americans and the court itself. quote, very little has changed since the court handed down roe aside from the fact that americans now rely on their right to choose whether to terminate a pregnancy. the shift since roe has been the makeup of the court, reshaped after the addition of several conservative justices due to a mixture of underhanded politics and pure
administration lawyer who got his hat handed to him in court, who defended the trump administration s behavior in that case, who insisted to that judge s face that sure, a woman technically has a right to choose an abortion but a woman doesn t have a right to actually get one, that lawyer, who was the top immigration lawyer in the trump administration, through family separation and forced pregnancies and all the rest of it, he is now his new job is he is the solicitor general of mississippi. and in that capacity he was the lawyer who today in the united states supreme court argued the case that is expected to end roe v. wade, to criminalize abortion in this country. and i mention there was an appeals court judge who sort gamely jumped in to try to save that lawyer and save that case after it had lost in the lower court while it was on its way to losing again in the full dc court of appeals, that appeals court judge who tried to save that guy in that horrifying case, that was then-jud