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!
Saint Louis Catholic 