Politico recently reported that the Supreme Court will probably overturn Roe v. Wade. Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot tweeted that the leak was a “call to arms,” and for progressives, it meant protests, threats, and property destruction.

White advocates are divided on abortion. There are pro-lifers who may oppose it because some people think it is eugenic. A white advocate might defend abortion for the same reason. However, that doesn’t mean extreme leftists would think he was an ally. There will be no separate peace.

Antifa activists are not divided. “We support abortion rights and reproductive freedom,” reads one of the “Points of Unity” for the antifa “Torch Network.” A masked and menacing antifa “black bloc” joined a pro-choice rally in Seattle.

In Wisconsin, someone threw a Molotov cocktail through the window of a pro-life group, Wisconsin Family Action. An activist also spray-painted the antifa slogan “All Cops Are Bastards” and “If abortions aren’t safe, then you aren’t either.” A group called “Jane’s Revenge,” named for the pre-Roe group of abortionists called “Jane’s Collective,” claimed responsibility via a said the attack was a “warning” that there could be more extreme methods, and that “anti-choice establishments, fake clinics [meaning crisis pregnancy centers], and violent anti-choice groups” must be dismantled within 30 days. It says it is “not a declaration of war” because “war has been upon us for decades.”

Mr. Evans says he would be “very surprised if this was not a legitimate attack.” Police are still investigating. The group sounds so extreme it may be a hoax, but at least one verified Twitter user praised the attack before losing or deleting her account. Her publication’s Samuel Alito (the author of the Court’s draft opinion), Amy Coney Barrett, Brett Kavanaugh, and Chief Justice John Roberts. Television host Joy Behrar said the protests would teach Justice Samuel Alito about “freedom of choice.” Mother Jones dismissed the “tone police” who suggest such tactics are immoral or ineffective. Many verified Twitter users promoted or defended protests, even though demonstrations at the homes of Supreme Court justices is a federal crime.

Gregory Hood

Fox News: “Chief Justice Roberts issues scating statement, announces probe after draft abortion opinion [overturning Roe v. Wade] leaked”

We don’t need a lecture from this compromised scumbag about “betrayal.” HE has betrayed the Constitution he swore to uphold many times — most notably in his repeated refusals even to consider hard evidence of fraud in the 2020 presidential election, whereby the ridiculous yet dangerous Biden was installed as a U.S. president.

We already know we have been betrayed, Justice Roberts — by your kind, more than anyone. That’s the reason the U.S. is going down. Your own situation is probably just a good example of what goes around, comes around (some call it karma).

DemComs now want to use Supreme Court breach as an excuse to revive court-packing. OF COURSE THEY DO. Now the Supreme Court is a compromised joke, just like Congress and the presidency. No worries. This will make the break with them that much easier.

America needs a divorce, more than ever.

Michael J. Hurd, Daily Dose of Reason

President Joe Biden has failed to deliver on my promise to unify the country or restore our reputation abroad, but he did follow through on his commitment to nominate an African American woman to the United States Supreme Court. In the middle of an international crisis he exacerbated, Biden announced his selection of Ketanji Brown Jackson, a far-left judge with an atrocious record on the bench.

As Biden promised, Jackson was nominated due to her gender and race, not her judicial qualifications. This decision perverts the entire Supreme Court nomination process. Instead of choosing the best-qualified nominee for the most important court in the country, a selection was made due to a judicial affirmative action process and to satisfy a perceived need for a racial and gender quota system on the Supreme Court.

Jackson is a Democratic Party activist masquerading as a judge. EvenNBC Newsadmitted that Jackson “fits well (with) the progressive movement’s agenda.”

She is a former donor and volunteer for the Barack Obama presidential campaign. She also donated to the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign.

According to the Washington Free Beacon, prior to the start of her judicial career, Jackson served as a lawyer for several suspected terrorists, including a Taliban intelligence officer, imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay. Jackson’s support of her clients was described as “ideological cause lawyering, even in her capacity as a public defender. At times, she flirted with unsubstantiated left-wing theories that were debunked by government investigators. On other occasions, she accused Justice Department lawyers of egregious misconduct with little evidence.”

To bolster her left-wing credentials, Jackson filed an amicus brief on behalf of the National Association for the Repeal of Abortion Laws (NARAL) and other “pro-choice” groups in the McGuire v. Reilly case. In her brief, she described pro-life activists who protested outside of abortion clinics as “hostile” agitators who subjected women to a “gauntlet” that was like “labor picketing.”

With her progressive credentials established, Jackson was nominated in 2012 by President 0bama for a position on the U.S. District Court in D.C. The following year, she was confirmed by a unanimous voice vote of the U.S. Senate. Obviously, the Republican Senators who supported Jackson either did not research her record or did not care about her liberal activism.

In her eight years as a Judge for the U.S. District Court in D.C., Jackson’s decisions were often supportive of Democratic Party politicians or liberal causes. For example, in 2015, she ruled that a Hillary Clinton aide, Philipe Reines, was justified in using a personal email account for work-related activities.

Often, her partisan decisions were overruled by the liberal U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. In 2019, Jackson ruled that the Trump administration infringed upon the rights of federal employees to collective bargaining. The appellate court unanimously ruled against Jackson, noting that she did not have jurisdiction in the case.

In another instance in 2019, the D.C. Circuit overruled Jackson in a case involving a decision by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to expand the definition of non-citizens. The higher court ruled that Jackson could not rescind this order because the Administrative Procedure Act gave the DHS the required authority to make the decision.

The D.C. Circuit also overruled Jackson’s decision that compelled former White House Counsel Don McGhan to testify before the House Judiciary Committee, which was investigating “meddling” in the 2016 presidential election. In her decision in the case, Jackson used “political” language to denounce President Donald Trump. She wrote that “presidents are not kings.”

Weak-kneed Senate Republicans should take Jackson’s comments to heart. Democrat Presidents are “not kings.” Unfortunately, Senate Republicans have a long history of giving easy treatment to Supreme Court Judges nominated by Democratic Party Presidents. For example, neither of President Barack Obama’s Supreme Court nominations, Justices Elena Kagan, nor Sonia Sotomayor, were subjected to tough questioning or a grueling Senate confirmation process.

In contrast, Republican Supreme Court nominations are often forced to undergo an intense and unfair nomination process. One of the most respected judges in American history, Robert Bork, was rejected by the U.S. Senate after his outstanding record was intentionally misconstrued by Democrats, including Joe Biden, who served as Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Biden and his Democratic Party colleagues also delivered a “high-tech lynching” to Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas. Fortunately, this outstanding nominee was eventually confirmed by a very narrow margin.

Senate Democrats gave the worst treatment to Trump Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. In his confirmation process, Democrats participated in a disgusting attempt to destroy his reputation by highlighting disputed allegations of inappropriate behavior during his college years. The Senate eventually approved Kavanaugh by an extremely close vote, but only after he was brought to tears and his reputation was shattered.

Republicans should not participate in the same underhanded tactics as the Democrats in the Jackson nomination process. However, they should seriously examine her pathetic record and her liberal activism.

Biden’s selection and the process he used should be vigorously challenged by every Republican in the U.S. Senate. Unfortunately, if history is any guide, many moderate Senate Republicans may refrain from criticizing Jackson due to her gender and race. However, if that is the case, such easy treatment is the epitome of racism. She should be held to the same exacting standards and the same questioning as every other Supreme Court nominee.

Based on her record and not the “politics of personal destruction,” every Senate Republican should easily reject Jackson. Along with her history of progressive activism and her record of being overturned by higher courts, Jackson has only served on the D.C. Court of Appeals for a mere eight months, which indicates that she does not have adequate judicial experience for the Supreme Court.

The Republican National Committee (RNC) will “fight this politicized appointment every step of the way” according to Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel. Let us hope Senate Republicans display the same fighting spirit during the confirmation process.

President Biden has announced that his nominee for the Supreme Court will be a black woman. Rather than asking, “Who is the best qualified?” he will be asking “Who has the right sex and skin color?” According to a 2019 report, only 3.4 percent of sitting judges are black women. The president is therefore limiting his search — for someone to endow with a lifetime position of great power — to just 3.4 percent of the people who are generally considered qualified. And there is good reason to doubt whether even that 3.4 percent are fully qualified.

Despite decades of recruitment and affirmative action, blacks are underrepresented in law schools: 8 percent of students vs 13.5 percent of the population. They are more likely to be in bottom-ranked law schools (16 percent of students) than in top-ranked schools (6 percent). Black first-year students are twice as likely as white first-years to drop out: 11 percent vs. 5.1 percent.

Many of the most able and ambitious law graduates go to work for law firms. In 2020, only 3.04 percent of law firm associates were black women, and only 0.8 percent of the partners were black women. Partnership in a law firm is usually a sign of ability. Why is the black-women representation on the federal bench — 3.4 percent — four times greater than their 0.8 percent share of partners? Probably because judicial appointments are political whereas partners have to be sharp lawyers who can bring in clients. Pressure to be “diverse” is already so great that a good many of the current 0.8 percent probably aren’t qualified.

A black woman justice will mean that her group is overrepresented on the court: 11 percent of justices, vs 6.7 percent of the population. This is affirmative action heaped upon affirmative action.

Public confidence in the Supreme Court has dipped below 50 percent, and has rarely been lower. Will this appointment raise confidence? The current Hispanic justice, Sonia Sotomayor, flatly rejects the idea that judges should set aside their race and sex when deciding cases: “I . . . accept that our experiences as women and people of color affect our decisions.” She then famously added, “I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn’t lived that life.”

Our president apparently thinks a black woman will decide cases better than a white man. Mr. Biden already showed his hand when he promised he would appoint a woman as vice president. Sex before competence.

Presidents have a relatively free hand in choosing running mates and make blatantly political choices. Naming a supreme court justice is — or should be — different. A bad choice can’t be fired or voted out of office. Moreover, as law professor Jonathan Turley points out, in one of its first affirmative-action decisions — the 1977 Bakke case — the Supreme Court set clear limits on affirmative action: Preferring “members of any one group for no reason other than race or ethnic origin is discrimination for its own sake,” adding that “this is what the Constitution forbids.” The President is therefore shaping the court according to criteria the court itself has forbidden. If Mr. Biden believes that non-whites and women serve the United States better than white men, let him act on that belief: Resign today and let Kamala Harris run the country.

And what are we to think of the person who will “make history” by accepting this appointment? At her Senate hearings, someone should ask her:

How will anyone be able to respect you as a justice when you were chosen after 95 percent of all the other possible candidates weren’t even considered? Wouldn’t you want to be able to say, ‘I was the best,’ rather than ‘I was the best of just 5 percent’? Shouldn’t anyone with any self-respect refuse such an insulting nomination ?

Jared Taylor

A good result, finally, from our Supreme Court. The leftists will go absolutely insane and foam at the mouth. Roberts and Kavanaugh wobbled and went with the leftists on mandating health care workers, which is obscene because health care workers have individual rights too. But it could have been worse, I guess. Now watch for the Democratic meltdown. I predict the Biden regime and blue state governors will simply ignore it, and triple down on their tyranny.

Using OSHA to force medical treatment on individuals? Biden should not merely be impeached. He should be arrested, tried and convicted. Along with his entire regime. They are lawless, violent and utterly at war with the U.S. Constitution and its Bill of Rights — as much as the Soviet Communists and Hitler’s National Socialists were. As I keep saying: We are an occupied country.

I will take the Supreme Court decision. But in the bigger picture, it’s not going to matter a whole lot with a bunch of corrupt, bought-and-sold tyrants (Biden, and the people he works for) who are ruthlessly at war with man’s rights. Until we literally overthrow them, we are in serious trouble.

Michael J. Hurd, Daily Dose of Reason

Economic and civil liberties should not be seen as two ideals to be weighed separately but as one set of inalienable rights that are inherent to our humanity. What is economic prosperity worth if you can’t speak your mind? What value is there to having civil protections if everything else in your life is regulated into despair? Oftentimes civil and economic freedom are intertwined in such intimate ways that there really is no difference. Sadly, today economic rights have taken a second class status under the current judicial status quo, which is why policies that infringe on things like free speech receive plenty of scrutiny yet arbitrary regulations on business pass with almost no oversight.

This is why a recent Supreme Court decision, Cedar Point Nursery v Hassid, is such an important win for those concerned with economic freedom, specifically property rights. The case was decided on June 23, 2021, and was split 6-3 on “expected ideological lines.” Although there was likely much nuance in the thinking of the various justices, the win is a much-welcomed departure from the Progressive status quo of deference to the will of the state. The case itself concerned an “access regulation” in California that allowed labor unions to enter a private property in this case, Cedar Point Nursery, provided that they dispense notice to the Agricultural Relations Board. After doing so, the owner of the property is mandated to allow access without contestation. Such a policy seems to have been clearly put in place at the behest of politically influential labor unions and to the expense of private citizens.

A Rare But Important Victory

Ilya Shapiro and Sam Spiegleman from the Cato Institute weigh in on the matter by explaining:

Cedar Point will go down as a big and clean win for property rights. California’s law is no mere labor regulation: it grants a right to be on the owners’ land three hours per day for 120 days per year. Ending it respects the constitutional rights of both the property owners and union officials, who lose only the ability to trespass for a third of the year.

The Fifth Amendment’s Takings Clause provides, “nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.” Here, even though the state didn’t seize any property outright, the Supreme Court has long recognized that if a regulation “goes too far,” it’s functionally equivalent to the use of eminent domain.

The Court’s recognition here that state-sanctioned trespasses, even if not permanent and continuous, are compensable takings is a major victory for property‐​rights advocates who have toiled for decades to expand the universe of per se takings beyond the narrow scope of permanent physical invasions or total‐​value‐​loss regulations.

In particular, Cato’s Amicus Brief on the matter explains three basic points on why California’s labor regulation was unconstitutional and curtailed property rights, thus requiring at minimum, just compensation.

The first being that allowing labor unions to simply enter private property with a permission slip from the government violated the right to exclude. If you cannot exclude people from your property, it has ceased to be private property. The fact that the government has given itself the power to grant that decision makes the use of such powers a per se taking of private property.

The second argument is that the state of California has clearly not implemented the access regulation to make businesses safer, nor does the regulation confer reciprocal advantages, which would also make it a per se taking. Allowing labor unions to forcefully enter a private business and stir up commotion is by no means a necessity for safety nor is that benefiting the community as a whole.

The third point is that the state does not have the justification to use its police power because not allowing union trespassing on private land does not in any sense of the imagination pose a safety risk.

For decades, the state and a deferential court system have allowed the gradual unraveling of property rights to the will of the regulatory state. This has justified the aforementioned relegation of economic freedoms and autonomy to second-class status, with the government being able to intervene in economic life provided that it can merely find a rational basis. In the case of Cedar Point Nursery, California’s law essentially allowed property rights to be confiscated by the state for union access, three hours a day, 120 days a year, without just compensation. This was justified as being a “labor regulation” and “necessary for public safety”.

The Supreme Court finally handed a rare, but hopefully, consequential victory to those who respect the institution of property rights. In this case, the Court ended what was an incoherent charade to skirt around the 5th Amendment’s Takings Clause. A charade that attempted to call a blatant appropriation of private property to bolster the power of unions at the expense of property owners an exercise in public safety.

The Importance of Strong Property Rights

Our entire civilization is built on the foundation of private property. Such an institution not only creates strong economic incentive structures that lead to good practical outcomes but also has an important moral foundation. National Affairs recounts the rhetoric surrounding the Civil Rights Act of 1866 by writing:

Illinois Senator Lyman Trumbull, the leading champion of the legislation in the Senate, explained that the “first section of the bill defines what I understand to be civil rights: the right to make and enforce contracts, to sue and be sued, and to give evidence, to inherit, purchase, sell, lease, hold, and convey real and personal property.”… As a member of the House from Ohio argued, “It is idle to say that a citizen shall have the right to life, yet to deny him the right to labor, whereby alone he can live. It is a mockery to say that a citizen may have a right to live, and yet deny him the right to make a contract to secure the privilege and reward of labor.

The right to private property is the right to the products of your own labor. The right to your own labor and its products is the right to your body. Professor Emeritus at Vanderbilt University, James W. Ely, writes:

(T)here are few examples of free societies that do not respect the rights of property owners. One could persuasively maintain that without guarantee of property rights the enjoyment of other individual liberties, such as freedom of speech, would be meaningless. Put simply, the absence of a system of private property renders self-government unlikely. As Justice Joseph Story explained in 1829: “That government can scarcely be called free, where the rights of property are left solely dependent upon the will of a legislative body.

For much of American history, this admiration and recognition of property rights remained a cornerstone of political as well as legal thought. However, much with everything concerning the size and scale of American government, this drastically changed during the 20th century, most notably during the Progressive Era. Ely writes:

Like the Progressives, the New Dealers were impatient with constitutional restraints on governmental power. They quite openly set out to revise constitutional law and reduce private economic rights. Despite some initial judicial resistance, the New Dealers were remarkably successful in achieving their goals and fundamentally altering the legal landscape. Modern constitutional law bears only a faint resemblance to the original constitutional design.

Ely concludes by noting that although many of the judicial precedents have been unwound, the Progressive Era’s legacy on property rights is still salient. The new battle over the soul of constitutional interpretation has only begun and the end result is yet to be seen.

Key Takeaways

Cedar Point was a rare, well deserved, and sorely needed victory for private property rights, a once sacred institution that has all been desecrated over the years. In this case, the Supreme Court affirmed the right of individuals and dealt a blow to cronyist labor unions and their enablers in the government. The Court’s decision marks a step in the right direction towards a judicial regime that enforces the Constitution and does not view it as simply a welcome mat for the ambitions of state actors. Although it is only one decision, it should send a clear signal that in this country, under this constitution, the inalienable rights of individuals shall be protected from the mob as well as the Leviathan.

Made available by the American Institute for Economic Research.

All that work for, and faith in, Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett! As with John Roberts before, we are once again the victims of unrequited affection and lost labor. Like other Republicans, I expended lots of hours and effort to do my part in getting all three confirmed. I wrote articles, did radio and TV interviews, gave speeches, called Senators and asked my friends to do so, and spoke to countless people.

I even attended the Senate Hearings for two of them; and in the case of Kavanaugh went face-to-face against a wild group of “feminists” blocking my way to the Senate hearing room, was bad-mouthed by them while in waiting-lines, and harassed in the office taken over by these “non-insurrection” protestors while trying to get my pre-arranged ticket which they had dumped. (Interestingly, when complaining to police how the “progressive” protestors had taken over Senator Grassley’s office, the Capitol Police replied: “This is a public space, open to the people, and we cannot stop them from exercising their right of speech and assembly”).

I have traveled over 800 miles, paid for motels, and over the years took off work so as to help these nominees become confirmed justices. Like so many others on our side, we believed in them. Finally, strong justices, conservative like us. The Court was finally ours… a dream come true.

Well, the dream has died and our hopes for the Great Cause have not been respected by those in whose behalf we so tirelessly worked.

First, the Roberts/Kavanaugh/ ACB trio did not agree to take the Texas case brought by the AGs of Texas and many other states, supported by 100 Congressional representatives, that logically asserted that the voters of their respective states had been disenfranchised by the illegalities of those states that had twisted their election laws to guarantee a national Democrat electoral victory, effectively nullifying a fair election result for those voting in other states. Yes, the reasoning may have been correct, but the trio, together with the pre-disposed liberals, said Texas had “No Standing.”

The Pennsylvania’s case, brought separately and earlier, was the most egregious of all. Pennsylvania’s civil servants and courts brazenly nullified the wishes of the state legislature. State legislatures have been given full and final say-so by the U.S. Constitution over election matters. The Republican legislature was stripped of its constitutional authority by local Democrats, culminating in allowing ballots where addresses and signatures were not verified or postmarked and allowed entry even three days after the election. Yet, the trio and other liberals on the Court said: “Until the actual infraction happens, the case is not actionable.” Yet another excuse allowing the Democrats to cheat as they brazenly did.

To our disbelief, now that the election has happened and the reprehensible consequences have been revealed and implemented in actuality, with grave portent for upcoming elections, Roberts, Kavanaugh and Barrett agreed the case “was moot.” It already happened, they said, and thus it’s too late. In other words, we will never accept these cases, not before the election or after the election and we won’t acknowledge “standing,” either. This is blatantly contradictory, dishonest, a shirking of responsibility and, worse, an indifference to justice and regular voters.

By now, we have seen how Roberts will decide some of the small cases for conservatives, but does whatever legal juggling is necessary to provide the Deep State, Obama, and the Democrats what they want on the big and important cases. Roberts is their clutch hitter. His effusion for Obama and public distaste for Trump is obvious, and his decisions reflect this unprofessional side of him. Old news. Lost cause. While Liberals don’t betray their patrons, has-been conservatives frequently do.

It seems to me that while Kavanaugh and Barrett are “Originalists” in their legal approach to the Constitution, which is but an academic and theoretical discipline, they are not movement conservatives. They are not authentic replacements of Scalia. They are probably not America First types or paleo-conservatives. It is Ivory Tower stuff, not grass roots, rarified thinking, not earthy, gritty conservatism. They are not motivated by an inward, primal urge to do that which allows the people to control their destiny, to undo this injustice to America’s regular voters. They are not, it seems to me, put off by the long reach of the elites or elitism itself.

Perhaps they want to be on the good side of their boss, John Roberts, who assigns plum cases. Perhaps, Barrett and Kavanaugh do not want to be seen or be considered part of the Trump camp, nor be blasted in the headlines of the New York Times and Washington Post. Kavanaugh was thrashed and burned by Democrats during his confirmation hearing and may have learned the lesson they were warning him: Don’t do anything that will thwart us politically or we will again come after you and your family via headlines. A traumatized Stockholm Syndrome victim. Perhaps, Mrs. Barrett wants her children to be accepted in certain Ivy or second-tier influential schools. There is a price to be accepted for that entry: part of your soul.

Perhaps they want to be on the good side of their boss, John Roberts, who assigns plum cases. Perhaps, Barrett and Kavanaugh do not want to be seen or be considered part of the Trump camp, nor be blasted in the headlines of the New York Times and Washington Post. Kavanaugh was thrashed and burned by Democrats during his confirmation hearing and may have learned the lesson they were warning him: Don’t do anything that will thwart us politically or we will again come after you and your family via headlines. A traumatized Stockholm Syndrome victim. Perhaps, Mrs. Barrett wants her children to be accepted in certain Ivy or second-tier influential schools. There is a price to be accepted for that entry: part of your soul.

I suspect that though conservative in approach to constitutional “wording,” Barrett and Kavanaugh are “fair-haired” types, in a way privileged, used to being looked up to and admired, not necessarily fighters, and most likely enamored of certain social “respectability,” getting the nods from the Chevy Chase, Bethesda, Georgetown in-neighborhoods. Perhaps after high school they never had to claw their way up… certainly not like Scalia or Thomas or Alito. They remind me of those sport figures at school that always had a certain leg-up, an ease of acceptance. They got used to it, expected it, and felt entitled to it.

No doubt they are not liberals like Breyer, Kagan, or Sotomayor and will disagree with them regarding the Commerce Clause, some religious liberty issues, etc. After all, conservatives are allowed to support these things without getting totally shunned and ostracized. But they may not be willing to align themselves with the “unsophisticated, deplorable” crowd, something their assent in these cases may have been seen as.

In Yiddish, there is an expression: “der finer mentschen.” It means those who are not willing to get their hands too dirty, like a Romney or Toomey. I hope I’m wrong, but I think these two rarified conservative justices may be from that type, a little too antiseptic and self-conscious to fight the earthy fights. They’ll give us a bone, but not raw meat. Next time, I’ll be looking for a John Wayne-type justice before I travel 800 miles to help.

Photo crefit: YouTube screengrab (cropped)

Rabbi Aryeh Spero is president of Caucus for America and author of Push Back: The Battle to Save our American Judeo-Christian Heritage (which can be purchased on the caucusforamerica website