Supreme Court's conservative majority tackles hot-button culture war issues

Supreme Court's conservative majority tackles hot-button culture war issues 

I would not expect Justice Barrett to drag her large number of children to Red Mass. My family had five kids and we went to Mass in shifts with the toddles and infants not going at all. With Kavanaugh sick, the others were likely exercising caution in not spreading a virus they may have been exposed to.

Supreme Court cases don't decide details as much deciding who has authority to act. A clear line is now drawn on public and private sector labor law. Expect a case one day that balances Hosanna-Tabor and the Title VII definition of sex including gays and lesbians. 

Gun rights and abortion cases are just not the same since Nino died. Heller is not at risk, but sanity is more likely. This is a state power question as much as anything else.

The Court will have no appetite to bring back the state power regime that Mississippi (and Alabama and Texas) want in civil rights cases. They may draw lines in the second trimester, but that is not overturning Roe. It would be easier if the Center for Reproductive Rights stated that Congress could alter the terms of the 14th Amendment, but the States cannot. 

It is risky, but not so risky given the implications of recognizing legal personhood rather than regulating a medical procedure. Pregnancies would have to be registered as births, police would be empowered to investigate pregnancy loss and mothers would have to be punished as ordering a murder. None of that will be allowed by the Court.

The media likes a dramatic narrative. If the rights of state governments are briefed and discussed, the tea leaves will be easier to read. The reason the case is being heard at all is because the 5th Circuit got it wrong. Thanks Senate Dems for playing with the filibuster so that McConnell got his judges. That the case is being heard means that at least four justices think the circuit went too far.

The Maine case may be decided Per Curiam because the law is in direct violation of Espinoza v. Montana. The question that must come up is whether Catholic Schools can make a claim on school district budgets. They can already be set up as Charters in some places.

The future of affirmative action in education is murky because no good solution has yet been passed. The best option for dealing with bias is to end legacy admissions and select all but those certain to finish a degree based on their scores by lottery. Let the application process dictate who is in the sample. Affirmative recruiting will affect the outcome, but unprepared students tend to weed themselves out in the first year.

On many issues, Gorsuch has been siding with Roberts and those other justices who are not afraid of change v. those who use process to keep the status quo in place. Also, three justices are long enough in tooth for the current balance to stay in place for long.