Supreme Court ‘Explains’ Investigation, More News Bits

Despite their big win in the Supreme Court last year with the overturning of Roe v. Wade, anti-abortion activists returned to Washington, D.C. with their “March for Life.” Half of all states have banned or heavily restricted abortion access, but the marchers want legislation to restrict abortion in all the states. The event started in 1974 after Roe was decided the year before.

Roe v. Wade was overturned in the 2022 Supreme Court case Dobbs v. Jackson concerning a 2018 Mississippi state law banning most abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy. Lower courts had blocked Dobbs with the 1992 decision in Planned Parenthood v. Casey, preventing states from banning abortion before fetal viability, generally 24 weeks, because a woman’s choice during that time is protected by the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. A 6-3 vote from conservative justices reversed lower court rulings on the basis that abortion is not a constitutional right because it isn’t mentioned in the constitution and its right is not “deeply rooted” in U.S. history.

Ruth Marcus explains why the decision to overturn Roe was a “religious view,” as Justice Sonia Sotomayor asked the Mississippi lawyer during oral arguments. His only answer was that “the people should get to debate these hard issues.” The opinion, written by Samuel Alito, didn’t deal with religious freedom and its prohibition against state establishment of religion, but the issue has been raised many times since the opinion was announced. The ban on abortion conflicts with religions other than that of fundamentalist Christians. The decision by five Catholic justices and one who was raised Catholic opposes Jewish law which states abortion “is required if necessary to protect the health, mental or physical well-being of the woman,” as stated in a lawsuit against Dobbs.

A new lawsuit from 13 clergy members in Missouri uses its anti-abortion law to protest an establishment of a state religion. The 2019 Missouri law with an almost complete ban on abortion is based on religion “in recognition that Almighty God is the author of life.” Lead sponsor, Catholic Nick Schroer, said he based the law on his Catholic belief that “life begins at conception and that is built into our legislative findings.” Another state representative supported his religious beliefs. According to the Missouri lawsuit:

“Questions such as the point at which life begins and whether or when ensoulment occurs are quintessentially religious ones, about which different religions hold differing views. … The explicit invocations of conservative Christian notions of ‘conception’ and sanctity of life in the text and legislative debate on H.B. 126 to justify banning abortion impose these particular religious beliefs on all Missourians, coercing people and faith communities with different beliefs and commitments to adhere to religious requirements of a faith that is not their own.”

Even if the clergy wins their lawsuit, Missouri can pass another law without the religious language. Marcus writes, however, that “abortion is uniquely grounded on metaphysical and, ultimately, religious convictions about when life begins.”

Over six weeks before the final decision overturning Roe was released, a draft of the opinion was leaked to the press. It turned out to be highly similar to the final ruling, and the highly incensed Chief Justice John Roberts initiated an investigation. According to a report from the Supreme Court, an exhaustive investigation didn’t discover who leaked the draft opinion last spring that eliminated the right to abortion in Roe v. Wade.

Takeaways:

The report of formal interviews of 97 employees with a focus on 82 people with access to electronic or hard copies of the opinion left out whether the justices were interviewed—indicating they likely were not. The high court’s spokesperson did not answer a question about whether justices were interviewed, but Supreme Court Marshal Gail Curley said she “spoke with each of the justices.” She did not say she interviewed them, and they were not required to sign sworn affidavits as others were.   

The draft was “unlikely” to have been hacked; system logs showed no evidence of electronic intrusion of the court’s devices, networks or systems. The report didn’t indicate how this search was done.

Some employees said they told their spouses or partners about the divided court in private discussions about the Dobbs’ case, split 5-4 in overturning the constitutional right to abortion which determined Roe 50 years ago. Sharing the information is “in violation of the Court’s confidentiality rules,” but some staffers said they were not aware of this rule. The report did not state whether any employee shared the full text of the draft opinion.

The court will increase its security in handling physical and electronic copies of opinions and internal communications. Allowing many staff members to work from home during the pandemic made the weaknesses worse.

No one justice signed the report from the Supreme Court; it was anonymous.

Deposed Donald Trump’s (DDT) solution to find the leaker is to jail journalists who published the draft if they don’t reveal the source. Although Clarence Thomas has been blamed for the leak, rumors addressed the possibility that the author of the opinion, Samuel Alito, is responsible.

The report uses the term “protest,” indicating Chief Justice John Roberts blame liberals objecting to overturning Roe. Another theory is that the leak came from conservatives to keep the five justices considering the overturn of Roe to not change their minds and side with a narrower opinion by Roberts. Last spring, Nina Totenberg, long time Supreme Court reporter, said this theory is the only one that makes sense.

Last November, a former antiabortion activist said a conservative donor who had dined with Justice Alito and his wife gave him advance information about the impending 2014 decision of Burwell v. Hobby Lobby, another conservative victory for antiabortionists. Rev. Rob Schenck used that information for a public relations push and later tipped off the craft store’s president who won the case. Alito also wrote the opinion for that case.

Some online pharmacies selling abortion pills report to Google and other third-party groups to allow prosecution of those using medication to end their pregnancies. U.S. privacy laws, including HIPPA, don’t constrain data collected from people. At least 13 states ban medication abortion although the FDA permits retail pharmacies to dispense abortion medication to people with prescriptions. Alabama’s AG said anyone taking these drugs while pregnant can be prosecuted although he changed the statement later to say the law can only be used to prosecute providers. Nineteen states ban the prescriptions without people seeing clinicians in person or finding abortion medication online on their own. Prosecutors in Georgia, Idaho, and Indiana have charged people with illegal abortions with evidence of online abortion medication orders.

The Supreme Court refused six New York firearms dealers’ request to block a new law regulating commercial gun sales. The law requires dealers secure guns in safe or unlocked area and have security systems on their premises; prevent people under 18 from entering gun retail stores without a parent or guardian; and provide records of gun sales to government law enforcement agencies and manufacturers upon request. The dealers also protested a licensing requirement for semiautomatic rifles; requiring background checks for ammunition sales and directing New York State Police to establish a database for such sales; and requiring gun dealers to maintain records of ammunition sales. In the request to the high court, dealers said they have been “fighting in courts for nearly two straight months to try to find a judge” to grant their request for injunctive relief and have been out of compliance with the new laws since December 5.

To help mass shooters, the 5^th Circuit Court voted 13-3 to permit “bump stocks” which create semi-automatic rifles into weapons even more rapidly spraying bullets as Stephen Paddock used to kill 60 people and wound another 500 in a 2017 Las Vegas massacre. Three other appeals court—the 6^th, the 10^th, and the Washington, D.C.—have agreed.

Children will have an easier chance of killing people with an “JR-15” rifle designed for them, “just like Mom and Dad’s gun” according to its manufacturer called WEE1 Tactical. Last year, when the weapon was first advertised, the company’s marketing used an image with two different gendered children’s skulls. 

Federal prosecutors seized almost $700 million in cash and assets related to Sam Bankman-Fried, the former FTX chief executive who allegedly embezzled the cryptocurrency and fled to the Bahamas. In December, he was arrested on criminal fraud charges and is released on a $250 million bond.

Dominion Voting Systems is questioning Fox Corp Chair Rupert Murdoch, 91, under oath for his network’s coverage of unfounded vote-rigging claims during the 2020 U.S. presidential election. Fox claims it can report on DDT’s election-fraud allegations under the First Amendment. A judge refused to dismiss the case in December 2021, and Dominion accused Fox of “knowingly” spreading lies about the company in an attempt to prove “actual malice” necessary for defamation cases. A defamation lawyer said that Fox hosts pushed the vote-rigging allegations “well after it was quite clear that these claims were demonstrably false.”

Alabama’s new governor, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, was forced to defend her elimination of the word “Latinx” in all state communications to Fox host Shannon Bream. Sanders also focused on banning CRT in schools, where it doesn’t exist, instead of dealing with state problems: sixth-highest per-capita Covid death rate, 15^th-highest per-capita Covid case rate, 49^th healthcare ranking, and 41^st education ranking. Sanders said, “Our job is to protect the students.”

Ben Carson Stories, Election Fraud in Kentucky?

[Follow-up to Saturday’s blog on election fraud: Until last week’s election in Kentucky, the polls showed Kentucky democrat Jack Conway leading Tea Party extremist Matt Bevin by a margin of 3 to 5 points, but Bevin gained almost 15 points on Election Day, supposedly winning by a nine-point margin. The same state voted for Democrats Secretary of State Alison Lundergan and Attorney General Andy Bashir. This “significant anomaly” indicates a strong indication of rigging the vote. Richard Charnin published results that found “cumulative vote shares indicate likely fraud.” His methodology and results are here.

Kentucky has a history of vote rigging: in 2011, “eight former Clay County, Kentucky officials were convicted on conspiracy charges, after it was discovered that they had rigged elections in 2002, 2004 and 2006,” according to Brad Friedman. Among the eight are “a circuit court judge, a county magistrate, an election commissioner, a county clerk, a polling place officer, an election officer, a school superintendent. The conspiracy also included business owners who were receiving county and city contracts.”

In the GOP presidential race, Ben Carson may have surpassed Donald Trump in the number of hits on the Internet. That accomplishment, however, may not be a positive force for Carson’s presidential campaign. As Carson ascended in the polls, searches in his background showed his increasingly outrageous comments. Four years ago, Mitt Romney was the “post-truth” candidate”; Carson has joined Romney in adding “post-knowledge” to the post-truth piece.

Carson believes that God helped Joseph to build the Egyptian pyramids to be grain silos and not tombs. Sold into slavery by his jealous brothers, Joseph was taken to Egypt and interpreted  the Pharaoh’s dream, causing Egypt to save grain before a time of famine. The Bible contained nothing about the pyramids. Carson lives in a bubble of biblical literalism and magical homeopathic cancer-curing drugs. His speech about the grain storage in the pyramids was made 15 years ago, he still supports this belief.

Texts going back to 2400 B.C. shows that the pyramids were to help pharaohs get to their afterlife. In the tombs were directions on the walls to guide the spirits to the gods and treasures useful to the pharaoh after death. The tombs also didn’t have enough space for grain storage.

Trying to justify why an inexperienced person like himself should be president, Carson said, “It is important to remember that amateurs built the Ark and it was the professionals that built the Titanic.” The question is whether people would select an amateur to perform brain surgery on them rather than a highly trained professional. Those who maintain than an “outsider” with no experience is more qualified to be president have no evidence. Carson also tried to excuse his inexperience by saying that not one signer of the U.S. Constitution had ever been elected to office. In fact, 28 of the 58 signers of the Declaration of Independence were prior office holders.

While signing books in Florida, Carson said that the birthright citizenship in the constitution’s 14th Amendment doesn’t apply to U.S.-born children of undocumented immigrants. Unlike others who think that another constitutional amendment is required, he said, “The interpretation [of the 14th Amendment] is left up to the Congress. They don’t have to amend it. They just have to reinterpret it.” According to the U.S. Constitution, he’s wrong.

Carson will now receive Secret Service protection that he requested because of great danger from “the secular progressive movement.” The veracity of such a statement is highly doubtful as more and more indication of his falsehoods has inundated the Internet.

Carson was also caught in an open lie about his background with a nutritional-supplement company under fire for fraudulently practices. He said he had nothing to do with it although videos show him advertising the product.

In his autobiography, Carson claims that he was offered a “full scholarship” to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. Yet West Point has no scholarships because no one is charged for attending the school. Carson finally admitted that he had not applied to West Point but claimed that someone suggested he should go there. Carson’s campaign did admit that he made up the story in Gifted Hands that he was “the Junior ROTC at a dinner for Congressional Medal of Honor winners [and] marched at the front of Detroit’s Memorial Day parade as head of an ROTC contingent.”

Known in the past for being level-headed, Carson descended to a rant against a reporter who asked about the West Point story, accusing the media of not running “this level of scrutiny for President Barack Obama.” Carson’s memory does not include the heat on all many issues against the president, including the consistent accusation that President Obama was not born in the United States. Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton received heat equal to, and perhaps more, than President Obama while not raving about the unfair media. The president may have said it best, early in his first term:

“I think it’s fair to say that I don’t always get my most favorable coverage on Fox, but I think that’s how democracy works. We’re not supposed to all be in lock step here.”

No one has been able to verify Carson’s story that he protected white students from attacks by angry black students on the day after Martin Luther King Jr. was killed in 1968.

According to Carson in his book Gifted Hands, a Yale psychology professor told the class, Perceptions 301, that they had to retake the examination because their final exams had burned up. Carson wrote that every student in the class except him walked out. The story of the burned exams was a hoax, and Carson was declared “the most honest student in the class” with his photo taken for the Yale Daily News. Yet there is no record of the event of the photo that was supposedly taken in the early 1970s. There’s not even a class called Perceptions 301 although Carson posted a link for a similar class, Psychology 323b, that was offered in Spring 2002.

Reporters have been unable to find anyone to verify Carson’s stories that he punched a seventh-grade classmate in the head while holding a lock and tried to stab a classmate named “Bob” in ninth grade. One classmate Gerald Ware said that if it had happened, “it would have been all over the school.” Sometimes when Carson tells the story, “Bob” is a classmate; at other times, he is a family member. Asked if “Bob” was his brother, he refused to answer. If Carson lied about the story, he broke a commandment; if he told the truth, people should remember the Bible’s story of Abel and Cain.

Carson believes he is a famous neurosurgeon because God gave him the answers to a chemistry final in a dream. His home is a shrine to himself, including a painting of himself with Jesus Christ. A painted portrait with Jesus hangs in his house’s hallway. [Photo by Mark Makela]

While candidates Jeb Bush and Chris Christie use family members and friends to campaign against harsh punishment for drug users, Carson said they had a lack of values and principles. The whole drug abuse problem is traced back to an over-emphasis on “political correctness,” according to Carson.

In a post on Science Blogs, a physician with the pseudonym Orac gave two reasons for the dichotomy between Carson being a brilliant surgeon and suffering from anti-science views. People with low expertise in a subject overestimate their confidence in that area contrasted to experts who underestimate their expertise, acknowledge less certainty, and recognize the limits of their knowledge. Entering medical school, students are told they are the “best of the best,” destined to be top dogs with great power and privilege. That makes doctors sometimes believe that they are experts in other subjects.

Frequently the most intelligent people are the most avid believers in pseudoscience, and they have the skill to protect their pre-existing beliefs. That may be why Ben Carson thinks that gay rights is a Communist plot with President Obama as part of the Communist conspiracy to bring down the United States and that the theory of evolution comes from Satan.

Carson tries to play both sides of the field. He either dismisses expert opinions by doubling down when questioned about them or panders in a reversal of positions, for example his switch regarding school vaccine mandates during the first GOP debate. Neither one is an attribute for a good president.

Lacking a professional background in politics, Carson uses his personal experiences as his campaign, saying that “honesty is more important than political experience.” He appears to have neither.

Tomorrow night is the fourth GOP presidential debate and the first one since all these questions about Carson have been widely publicized. Topics are jobs, taxes, the “general health of the economy,” and international issues. If the moderators don’t bring up Carson’s controversies, Donald Trump most likely will.