Rays of Sun Bursting through the Clouds for the Rule of Law

Every Catholic knows about the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision by now, and every Catholic who has a measure of moral compass rejoices in it. Behind and beside the law of it, the plain practical fact is that there are babies– thousands or tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands or (dare we hope?) millions of babies– that will live because of this ruling. They will escape the satanic murder fields in many states.

But as a Catholic with a legal education and a legalistic way of seeing things (I’m looking at you, Pope Benedict’s abdication attempt), I wanted to post about the wonderful and unlooked-for rebound of the rule of law in this term of the Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court sits in session from the first Monday in October until the Summer recess, with decisions typically being released by the end of June. The term ending today would be known as the October 2021 term. In the midst of the maelstrom of lawlessness and illegitimacy we see in the institutions of this country and many others, I believe if we survive as a nation to see the other side of this, the October 2021 term will be the Court’s most consequential since 1857 and (allowing of course for recency bias) the most beneficial to the health of the Constitution in its history.

This one term produced six huge wins for the rule of law:

The first case to come down was the Boston flag case, which held that where the city of Boston allowed various groups to fly flags on public property but was not using the program to express government speech, it could not discriminate against Christian groups who wished to participate. (Shurtleff v. City of Boston). This one is not earth-shaking, but it sent a signal that a brazen anti-religious bias from the government would not pass constitutional muster. And it was the first of three decisions that put real teeth in the Free Exercise Clause, so often ignored by the Court in the past fifty years.

Following this, in late June, we saw the final five enormous victories for the rule of law come at us like a steamroller. In Carson v. Makin, the Court held that if a state provides tuition assistance for its students, it could not impose a non-sectarian requirement without violating the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment.

Switching gears, but of vast importance, the Court confirmed in NYSRPA v. Bruen that the Second Amendment protects the right of law-abiding citizens to carry firearms in public for self-defense. The demonic ferocity of those disappointed with this decision seems tome to be a confirmation of its necessity.

Then, Dobbs. The best decision to come down from the Court in, seemingly, forever. “The Constitution does not prohibit the citizens of each State from regulating or prohibiting abortion.” Nothing more needs to be said.

Next, the Court delivered its other major Free Exercise Clause case, Kennedy v. Bremerton School District, confirming that both the Free Exercise Clause and the Free Speech Clause both act to protect personal religious observance from government reprisal.

Finally, today, the Court issued a decision, heavy in administrative law and dealing with the powers of Executive Branch bureaucracies, that struck down the radical EPA regulations designed to allow the federal government to kill the energy industry in the cause of the “climate change” scam (West Virginia v. EPA). Perhaps the least exciting of the major decisions to read, but not the least in importance to the future of this republic.

Not a bad session, I’d say. And as icing on the cake, all of the intellectual firepower on the Court today is in the conservative camp. Alito has taken on Justice Scalia’s intellectual mantle, while the other four conservatives have their own intellectual heft and ability. Roberts has a fine intellect too, but is not to be trusted, and I suppose will spend the next few terms trying to moderate the language of the majority by occasionally joining them and assigning key cases to himself to write the opinions. Only Kagan on the left has a brain worthy of the highest Court, misguided though it is.

In fact, the situation bodes so well that I expect the revolutionaries to pack the Court and continue to corrupt the electoral process with zeal and glee.

Regardless, this is a Supreme Court term to celebrate, and one for which we should thank Divine Providence.

And… on Cue… They’re Coming for King Lincoln

Worlds colliding… conflicting emotions… can’t articulate a thought…

Dethroning King Lincoln at the Andy Bernard school of wokeism leaves me conflicted. Removing the Gettysburg Address and a bust of King Lincoln because a totalitarian leftist complained is like removing a bust of Hitler because Goebbels complained.

The same communists who just had to take down statues of Robert E. Lee have now completed the circle of insanity.

Do Not Let Your Hearts Be Troubled

The Bergoglio letter has the same effect on the real Mass as a kid at the beach telling the ocean that it must be made of sand.

Pope Publishes Important Letter on the Liturgy. All Need to Read This.

Original here.

News Flash: Colorado’s Stanley Cup as Legitimate as Biden Presidency and Bergoglio Papacy

Congratulations to the St. Louis Blues for their second Stanley Cup in four years!

Hee

“From Leak to Decision, Dobbs Majority Didn’t Waver”

It was very nice to read this legal coverage today. “Never wavered”.

Recalling Roberts’ treacherous vote flip from majority vote striking down the unconstitutional Obamacare regime to forced new majority saving it, this is a very pleasant thing to ponder over my coffee today:

Law360 (June 24, 2022, 8:15 PM EDT) — Justice Samuel Alito’s leaked draft striking down Roe v. Wade underwent few substantive changes before becoming the law of land Friday, signaling a unified conservative majority that never wavered even as public outcry over the decision grew.

U.S. Supreme Court watchers scanning both the draft and final version of the decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health quickly discovered the documents to be virtually identical, save for a few minor stylistic changes and new responses to Chief Justice John Roberts’ concurrence and the liberal justices’ joint dissent. Word after word, page after page, Justice Alito’s rationale for jettisoning the 49-year-old constitutional right to abortion was exactly the same as that contained in the initial draft of the ruling published in Politico in early May.

“Nobody objected to anything in the draft,” professor Mark Graber of the University of Maryland’s Francis King Carey School of Law said in an interview. “This was a fairly generic argument against Roe, and so it’s not surprising that it didn’t change much. Alito already had his majority. He was never getting Chief Justice Roberts. There’s added material in response to the chief justice. But this summarized where the five justices in the conservative majority were.”

In other words, Graber said, “Minds were made up almost immediately.”

Glory to God in the Highest! Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, We Place All Our Trust in Thee!

Of course the long-prayed-for decision in Dobbs, overturning the truly diabolical decisions in Roe and Casey, merits a blog post. It merits a grateful nation offering up prayers of thanksgiving to God and all His Saints for the mercy shown to us, who have certainly done little to deserve it.

As a legal issue, I will say that the rule of law has been resuscitated, after being flatlined in the wake of the Obamacare debacle. Whether the rule of law will recover is doubtful, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see a relapse. As a lawyer, Dobbs is right on the mark in excoriating the exercise of raw judicial power (to quote Justice Byron White in his dissent in Roe) by the Court to prohibit states from preventing the murder of millions of children. Of course, I think the Fourteenth Amendment is a factor– not as the babykillers do, who say it protects a “right” to kill one’s child, but rather, I believe it is the baby who has a Fourteenth Amendment right to be free from being killed without due process of law. In short, abortion should be always illegal everywhere in every state, if we want to follow the Constitution’s provisions to their logical end. But whatever. Today, no carping. Today, a State may outlaw this heinous affront against God. In fact, many have.

And, praise God, today in my state of Missouri abortion is for all practical purposes illegal.

Who would have thought it possible? Long years of weak inaction on the part of parties, prelates, and Catholic voters could have led one to think of Lucy, Charlie Brown, and the football again and again and again. We were in a perpetual state of “just one more Justice!”

And then, after the election selected Biden, and the rule of law lay motionless on a slab at the morgue, I would not have imagined this. Justice Gorsuch has been solid, but Kavanaugh has caved on several cases and my confidence in Barrett was about 17%. But hey, I give them all credit today. No complaints. I am all gratitude.

And when I say God bless Donald Trump, can I get an Amen? All three of his appointees voted in the majority. All three came through. Though Alito and Thomas were appointed by the Bush family, those presidents offset them with leftist appointments. The Justices get credit, but the Bush contribution was at best accidental. I invite all Catholic NeverTrumpers to come forward today and take their good-natured lumps from their colleagues with some measure of humility. Or at least resurrect the penitential practice of self-flagellation.

Regarding the leaked draft opinion in Dobbs, I thought at the time that the satanic attempt to kill, injure or intimidate Alito and the others was a huge tactical mistake. Alito is not like that. Thomas is not like that. It wasn’t Kavanaugh’s or Barrett’s draft decisions that were leaked. Alito and Thomas are two of the finest Justices in a long, long time. To borrow a phrase from Jack Nicholson in A Few Good Men, “You [messed] with the wrong Marine!” And I credit Alito for specifically referring to Justice White and the great Justice Scalia today in his opinion. Credit where due.

Finally, on the spiritual and thus most relevant and practical level, my prayer is that this act of justice, incomplete and late as it is, will spare us from the worst of the chastisement we have earned, and begin the end of it. May the Sacred Heart lead the Holy Father to consecrate Russia as Our Lady requested, and thus kick start her Immaculate Heart’s triumph at long last. May devotion to the two Hearts increase more and more!

Deo Gratias! Gloria in Excelsis Deo!

Amerika: Preview of Coming Attractions

And This Is Just Normal Now

If you read this blog at all, you already know that young athletes are dropping dead all the time. No cause of death usually given. Just a complete and total mystery. Well, here’s another one, dead at 26. I guess it just hit me today because my own daughter, also in her twenties, celebrates her birthday today.

Per Justin Fenton of the Baltimore Banner, medics were called late Tuesday night to a home in Baltimore because Ferguson wasn’t breathing. He was pronounced dead just after midnight, with police noting there were no signs of trauma or foul play.

How long will people continue to be willfully ignorant? Another person deprived of a likely 50+ years of life. Nothing at all common among these cases. Pure coincidence. SADS strikes again.

And on a completely unrelated note, my daughter hasn’t been injected.