Month: July 2018

Briefings

Background Briefing: July 5, 2018

On By gram

 

A Woman Will Likely Overturn Roe V. Wade

We begin with the Republican crusade to appoint a Supreme Court Justice committed to the anti-abortion movement. Jessica Mason Pieklo, the vice president of law and the courts at Rewire.News and the 2018 recipient of the Excellence in Online Journalism Award joins us to discuss the list of potential Supreme Court appointees and the likely choice of a woman to overturn Roe v. Wade, former Notre Dame University law professor Amy Barrett, a right-wing Catholic ideologue who believes in fetal personhood. We assess Amy Barrett’s lack of experience in the courtroom and conservative excuses for her underwhelming credentials and Jessica’s view that the true battle in the fight for abortion rights will be played out in the states. And while Roe v. Wade may withstand direct attack, many states will outlaw women’s reproductive rights, creating a Handmaid’s Tale scenario in Red States in the future as “Christian” vigilantes check the papers of young women at Greyhound bus stations fleeing to Blue States for abortions.

 

The Stealth Infiltration of Christian Fundamentalists Into the Judiciary

Then we turn to the religious groundings of judges in the federal courts and speak with Sofia Resnick, an investigative reporter for Rewire.News who has exposed religious influence on academic research and public policy in the areas of reproductive health. She joins us to discuss the Blackstone Legal Fellowships, a nine-week program of indoctrination of young, Christian, mostly white law professionals in the fundamentalist ideals of the Christian right. This is a movement which believes that religious ideals supercede social structures as they drive for the restoration of the religious practices of the 3rd, 4th and 5th century.

 

How the Federalists Are Stacking Our Courts

Then finally we  look into the origins of the ongoing movement to stack our courts with conservative judges who strictly adhere to what they claim is the original intent of the U.S. Constitution. Carl Tobias, chair and professor of law at the University of Richmond who specializes in federal judicial selection, joins us to discuss the history of the Federalist Society, a network of “debating societies” which has established strong circles of conservative influence at law schools. The Federalists have already supplied the Supreme Court with Justices Roberts, Alito and Gorsuch, and the Trump White House has outsourced the selection of Kennedy’s replacement to them while they stack the rest of the federal bench with their members.