Why would you be concerned? Might the threat bring Scalia or Thomas to the papal view? They're already there. Roberts and Alito haven't made it clear where they stand (just one consolidated abortion case since they were appointed, in which they didn't write opinions). Still, assuming all four are Jerry Falwells in disguise, it is very unlikely that His Holiness is going to be a terribly great influence on Souter, Ginsburg, Stevens or Breyer. It all comes down to Kennedy. Kennedy has written reasonably large amounts about his views on this. He's also been very, very clear that he's not terribly interested in Catholic doctrine.
For what it's worth, the abortion cases aren't very heavy on law, for obvious reasons (although the broad rule that abortion is protected by privacy may be old, the details of the legal principle aren't clear, resulting in each case being relatively fact and hot air heavy, with legal expertise not being terribly necessary). If you're interested in this, Kennedy wrote an opinion in Hodgson v. Minnesota, 497 U.S. 417 (1990) which said that he was happy to require a 48 notice periods and both parents being notified, joined an opinion in Webster v. Reproductive Health Services, 492 U.S. 490 (1989), saying that states could deny funding to abortion clinics and demand testing for viability. He co-wrote the more complex and difficult opinion in Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v. Casey, 505 U.S. 833 (1992), which said that parental notification was still OK, as were notice periods, but spousal notification was not. It also transformed the basis of constitutional protection of the right to choose and gave the modern rule that regulation was OK if it did not place an "undue burden". Since then cases have argued over what burdens are "undue" because there's no real guidance on what that means. In Stenberg v. Carhart, 530 U.S. 914 (2000) and Gonzales v. Carhart, 550 U.S. ___ (2007) he claimed that bans on partial birth abortion are not undue.
It's not easy to know the details of where he stands, because the man is incapable of writing a legal opinion; of all the SCOTUS justices, he's the most likely to use emotive terms rather than legal ones. In the first Carhart case he suggested that the state's interest was in maintaining the dignity of the medical profession was the basis on which partial birth abortion should be banned. I'm not sure if you know what that means for other regulations, but I'm convinced that I wouldn't want to play an RPG that Kennedy wrote the mechanics for. He is also the justice most inclined to write in emotional detail about the procedures, despite the degree to which the "fetus.. ..dies just as a human adult or child would: It bleeds to death as it is torn from limb from limb" is completely irrelevent. He's not suggesting that there's a constitutional rule that says that they can be killed, but not in a way that is common for humans to die, he's just engaging in emotional masturbation. Likewise, on the other side, he's written in Casey that the reason Abortion should be protected is that "At the heart of liberty is the right to define one's own concept of existence, of meaning, of the universe, and of the mystery of human life". Again, if you can take that legal ruling and apply it to any situation with confidence, you're a better lawyer than I am. It doesn't, incidentally, mean that you can practice Native American spirituality, since Kennedy voted to strike down federal attempts to protect religious peyote use.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2007-05-16 08:11 am (UTC)For what it's worth, the abortion cases aren't very heavy on law, for obvious reasons (although the broad rule that abortion is protected by privacy may be old, the details of the legal principle aren't clear, resulting in each case being relatively fact and hot air heavy, with legal expertise not being terribly necessary). If you're interested in this, Kennedy wrote an opinion in Hodgson v. Minnesota, 497 U.S. 417 (1990) which said that he was happy to require a 48 notice periods and both parents being notified, joined an opinion in Webster v. Reproductive Health Services, 492 U.S. 490 (1989), saying that states could deny funding to abortion clinics and demand testing for viability. He co-wrote the more complex and difficult opinion in Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v. Casey, 505 U.S. 833 (1992), which said that parental notification was still OK, as were notice periods, but spousal notification was not. It also transformed the basis of constitutional protection of the right to choose and gave the modern rule that regulation was OK if it did not place an "undue burden". Since then cases have argued over what burdens are "undue" because there's no real guidance on what that means. In Stenberg v. Carhart, 530 U.S. 914 (2000) and Gonzales v. Carhart, 550 U.S. ___ (2007) he claimed that bans on partial birth abortion are not undue.
It's not easy to know the details of where he stands, because the man is incapable of writing a legal opinion; of all the SCOTUS justices, he's the most likely to use emotive terms rather than legal ones. In the first Carhart case he suggested that the state's interest was in maintaining the dignity of the medical profession was the basis on which partial birth abortion should be banned. I'm not sure if you know what that means for other regulations, but I'm convinced that I wouldn't want to play an RPG that Kennedy wrote the mechanics for. He is also the justice most inclined to write in emotional detail about the procedures, despite the degree to which the "fetus.. ..dies just as a human adult or child would: It bleeds to death as it is torn from limb from limb" is completely irrelevent. He's not suggesting that there's a constitutional rule that says that they can be killed, but not in a way that is common for humans to die, he's just engaging in emotional masturbation. Likewise, on the other side, he's written in Casey that the reason Abortion should be protected is that "At the heart of liberty is the right to define one's own concept of existence, of meaning, of the universe, and of the mystery of human life". Again, if you can take that legal ruling and apply it to any situation with confidence, you're a better lawyer than I am. It doesn't, incidentally, mean that you can practice Native American spirituality, since Kennedy voted to strike down federal attempts to protect religious peyote use.