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Jared and Nick discuss the 5-4 decision to allow a new Texas law to stand, which would enable private citizens to sue anyone involved in helping a woman have an abortion any time after 6 weeks into her pregnancy. There are long term ramifications to democracy baked into the decisions this court is making, and they try to make sense of it all.
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It is a... Nick, I don't know how to sugarcoat it.
It's a shitty day.
It's just a shitty day.
It's a shitty day.
It certainly has been coming out that way on your introduction.
Yes, we can tell.
How do you feel?
It sucks, man.
And, you know, some of these weekenders were able to let our hair down.
What little hair we have left.
We're able to joke around a little bit.
Today is not going to be one of those days, unfortunately.
Well, let's see.
You never know.
Yeah, let's see.
So for those of you who haven't heard already, and I assume you all already have, the wonderful state of Texas
has passed a law that all but makes legal abortion completely null and void by limiting it to within six weeks of conception, which for those keeping track at home is usually the amount of time that passes before somebody even realizes that they're pregnant in the first place.
Texas also, in something that we're going to spend a lot of time talking about today, Made it to where their citizens would...
would earn a $10,000 bounty for turning in their fellow citizens for breaking this law.
There's no exception for rape and incest.
There's no exception for non-viable pregnancies.
And if that's not bad enough, the Supreme Court, in all of its glory after being stolen by the Republican Party, ruled 5-4 with Roberts dissenting to allow this to go forward.
But, meanwhile, didn't have the spine to actually rule on the thing.
They used their shadow docket power, which is disgusting.
And now, word is coming in that the state of Florida is going to pass the same law because the path has been cleared.
Undoubtedly, other states in the South are going to make this happen.
It's a shitty, shitty, awful, disgusting situation.
Well, there's a couple of things about this law that they passed.
And by the way, now do you understand why the Democrats left the state so they couldn't pass these things?
I don't think we understood exactly why they were going until now.
But remember, what needs to be focused on is that this allows regular citizens to, you know, rip up a posse to start trying to find anybody who would help somebody get an abortion.
Sue them, and if they win, not only do they get the lawyers fees and all that covered, they get another $10,000 from the plaintiffs, from the defendants, right back.
Now, if the defendants win the case, alright, somehow successfully argue on the merits and they win the case, they don't get any money to cover their costs.
They get nothing.
It is frightening in this vigilantism what they're trying to do.
Now, in the fucking bill itself, it tries to say this.
You cannot argue that this law is anti-constitutional.
What law gets to say that preemptively before you actually write it and pass it?
This is outrageous what they did here.
And for the fact that the Supreme Court would say, well, we don't know what's going to happen until someone brings one of these suits.
Then we can rule on it.
Well, that means there's going to be months and months, at least, at least of people forced to have kids who didn't necessarily want to have them in the present situation right now going forward.
The idea that they couldn't even rule on that and say, you know what, let's just stop this for right now, get our bearings, let one of these things go, and then we'll decide on it.
How they wouldn't have said that first is outrageous and just shows you how partisan this Supreme Court is now.
Yeah, the Supreme Court has lost any of its validity that it has had in modern times.
I just want to make sure to get on the record that the Supreme Court has been on the wrong side of history almost more than it's been on the right side of history, to be fair.
This is the same Supreme Court that ruled that African Americans weren't human beings, that they didn't deserve rights, that separate was equal.
They have ruled against poor people, for corporations.
They've ruled against women one time after another.
They've ruled against people of color time and time again.
It is a truly disgusting institution, and what we're watching is the weaponization of law.
And to discuss that, we have to, again, understand that law is a social construct.
It is a thing that people agree on.
It only matters as long as people believe in it or play by its rules.
We have lived in a country since its founding where the law is basically twofold.
It's for the powerful and the wealthy and for everybody else.
And the powerful and the wealthy use it as a weapon to control other people.
And what we're watching now is another incident of that, and it's all make-believe.
This shadow docket bullshit, and for people who don't understand what has happened here, the Supreme Court has to decide to hear cases.
And what you just said about whether or not the Supreme Court will rule on this in the future, they also have the complete right to say no.
They have the complete right to say, eh, we're not worried about this thing.
We're not going to rule on this.
We're not going to hear this.
So they just might not deal with it.
And this is something that the Supreme Court has done over and over again.
Kavanaugh, one of the most disgusting individuals in public life in recent history, has now made it his main signature move to say, well, whatever we do here has no bindings on other cases.
This doesn't set a priority.
This is just in the moment.
And why?
Because he's been trained to do this.
He's been taught to do this.
He's been inundated and indoctrinated to do this through the Federalist Society, which unfortunately we have to talk about tonight.
And this has been an ongoing project to wheel back all progress, all reforms, and reinstitute white patriarchal power in the United States of America.
And this is about as egregious as it gets.
Well, at least Susan Collins is concerned, Jared.
Is she concerned, Nick?
I want to just... I mean, I wanted to... Listen, I don't wish anybody ill.
I don't wish violence on anybody.
I'm sorry.
But I can... Can I imagine it, at least?
Here's the thing, Nick.
I'll say this.
I wish she would go be concerned elsewhere.
Yeah.
Well, you know, did you see her statement today?
No.
What did she say?
Hold on.
Hold on before you say it.
Hold on.
I want to make a statement.
I'm so fucking tired.
Collins and Murkowski and this dance that they do.
Like, I'm going to steal myself.
I'm going to steal myself and I'm going to prepare for you to read it to me.
Nick, what did Susan Collins say?
She tried to do a scorecard out of this where she goes, you know, four of the justices I voted for were no.
And then four were yes.
And then the fifth one who decided I didn't vote for.
So somehow my hands are clean out of all of this, even though she also condemned the law and what they did in Texas and how it shouldn't really have been passed anyway.
But she somehow is trying to do some sort of, you know, four or five, four on four, you know, we're even here with this stuff.
It's disgusting.
She's disgusting.
Don't you almost respect the disgusting Republicans more than her?
Don't you almost respect, you know, your Mo Brooks?
I almost even respect McConnell more than Susan Collins.
This dance and kabuki theater that she has put on for years now and pretending to be the good Republican, I'm exhausted by it.
Aren't you?
Especially because all these quotes like don't worry and by the way we have to talk about this as well because I think you might be on the same page as her as far as she doesn't think that anything's gonna happen to Roe v. Wade and she insisted that was not gonna happen before she confirmed these justices in the last several years.
She had this sort of notion that oh there's precedent and they'll follow it but I gotta tell you What's going on?
We're going to have we're going to have a constitutional scholar on the show at some point sooner than later to really discuss and dig deep into a lot of the decisions they've made recently with this new court that are clearly indicating that these guys don't care about stare decisis.
They don't care about honoring any kind of precedent, no matter how many decades old that is.
And they certainly don't.
They're certainly going to follow the political lines of where this goes.
And we've known this, but it's never been so out in the open and so clear as it has been the last like even this month or two issues.
It's disgusting and she knows this and just pretends that she doesn't and you know what's worse is that she fucking wins re-election every time on this shit.
Yeah, and this, it's not just Collins.
It is so many of these moderates.
It's so many of these status quo-ers.
And by the way, it's Republican and Democrat alike.
And in our media, and in our political class.
Like, all along, These people who are like, come on.
Don't overreact.
Don't be hysterical.
Trump's not that bad.
The Republican Party's not that bad.
Oh, they're gonna come after a woman's right to choose?
You're being hysterical.
Meanwhile, those of us who are paying actual attention, those of us with some steak in the game, those of us with some skin in the game, Understand what this is.
While the rich and the powerful and the white and the wealthy and affluential, they're just like, everything's fine.
I live in a beautiful place and, you know, as long as they don't touch my wealth or my power, I'm totally fine.
This is one of those situations where, I keep saying this, they don't have to get rid of Roe v. Wade.
In this moment, right now, they're getting what they want.
All of these Republican-controlled states are going to gut Roe v. Wade to the point where it is completely null and void.
You have this six week number, which is on purpose to make sure that women don't understand that they're pregnant and don't have this opportunity.
And if they don't put something like six weeks or all these different bands on it, they will ratchet up a bunch of standards for hospitals and female care clinics and abortion clinics.
And they'll make it to the point where you don't have a single one in the state or they'll jack up their insurance rates or they'll jack up their fees and they'll do all of it to the point where while you live in one of these bullshit states, you're not going to have a You cannot be helped.
You do not have the right to have this done.
And in this way, and the shadow docket thing is really, really important.
They don't have to have a case in order to rule on things.
In this case, it's an emergency situation.
Oh, this needs us to rule on it.
So they do it offhand, over on the side.
They say, yeah, Texas can totally do this.
Meanwhile, oh, what?
We didn't get rid of Roe v. Wade.
What are you so upset about?
What they're worried about is if they get rid of Roe v. Wade, the streets would be flooded, right?
There would be a giant backlash.
We would have a political crisis on our hands, and for good reason.
In this case, they're going to hollow it out.
And even if they got rid of Roe v. Wade, people would still be able to get, you know, They would still get serviced basically in blue states and toss-up states, places where the Democratic Party, Independents, or whatever would have a say.
Meanwhile, in the South, this is what they care about.
They want to go into Republican states and control women, and they want to do it in this... And again, it's very McConnell-ish.
You know what I mean?
It's figuring out the angles, the shortcuts, the way to get in there.
And they'll destroy it until later on they've won a political battle where they have no fear of backlash of Roe v. Wade.
But they are essentially killing it.
That's what's happening here.
Lots of terrific points in there.
You know, it'll go back the way it was, which was before Roe v. Wade was.
Some states had it legal and other states didn't.
Which, by the way, is so rich.
By the way, don't get me wrong.
The wealthy white women in these states will still be able to get abortions.
Here's the thing, in that law, the actual woman getting the abortion, as far as I can tell, doesn't, you can't sue her.
It's everybody else associated.
I could Venmo a woman 500 bucks to get an abortion in one of these states, in Texas.
I would be the guy, and I don't have to live in Texas.
They could sue me in California for, and if I lose, I have to pay as much as $10,000 plus the court expenses.
Oh, and by the way, if you think that they're not going to take the law and translate it and adopt it in ways that aren't even clear to us now, you're dead wrong.
We haven't even talked about the $10,000 bounty because we have to talk about that.
For sure.
I think the diabolical nature, the evil genius of this is that there are smart people doing this, and they're figuring out ways with semantics and sleight of hand to get this past the Supreme Court.
Now, we all know there's a litmus test for the Supreme Court candidates.
We knew that Trump's three people clearly, when they sat down with him, they said, I will make sure to rewind Roe v. Wade and get rid of it as much as they can.
The Federalist Society came in and they said, hey, we're going to help you get elected.
And Trump's like, wonderful.
Who do you want on the court?
And they slipped a sheet of paper across the desk to him.
And if you remember, before Trump even got elected, he had his list.
Before Trump was even elected, Trump had a list of who he was going to put on the Supreme Court.
And the reason is because he didn't give a shit.
He didn't care about the Supreme Court.
It had nothing to do with him.
He simply wanted to hear hail to the chief and be able to engage in mass corruption.
The Federalist Society has created this situation.
And this has been their goal for decades.
Although we would be remiss not to point out that it was Justice Kennedy who didn't end around and like basically forced him to choose Kavanaugh.
Like he was the guy, he's like, I will step down only if you choose Kavanaugh.
Basically, it's what they wanted to do to get that third or the second.
Weird, weird shit there that we can't get into today.
All right, fine.
Weird shit there that we can't get into.
And part of the weird shit is, ironically, Kennedy had been one of the more liberal, on the liberal side of a lot of the decisions too, especially.
But all of a sudden, out of nowhere, he, Kavanaugh, appears.
You know, wasn't on those lists.
So, lots of problems there.
I mean, here's the thing about, like, as much as women's rights are the focus here, well, first of all, back in the day, if you wanted an abortion, it was illegal in your state.
Like, in theory, you could go to the next state and maybe get an abortion.
But what they're trying to do now is make a continuous stretch of the United States that makes it illegal.
So you're talking about Texas across.
You can get every state between Texas and Florida.
Well, now you're really kind of fucked if you're in one of those states.
And how are you supposed to try and get an abortion getting somewhere in the country that allows it?
You're already fucked right now in Texas.
Because all of those other states, again, going back to what I was saying, they have eliminated Women's care clinics, because they've either messed with the regulations, they made it to the point where none of them can even come close to matching the requirements, or they've, you know, ladled them with fees.
So even before this happens, you do not have access to it.
You do not have, and on top of that, by the way, you have to have money and time to be able to go to another state.
You have to, and for everyone who's saying, ah, they need to move out of the South, Most people can't just move.
Most people are locked based on economic, familial, and social obligations.
They're not going to be able to just get up and leave.
And we've talked about this.
Most of these employers anymore are working people six to seven days a week, 12 hours a day.
When are you going to drive off two states over?
Like, these solutions don't really exist anymore.
We are looking at a near total ban on abortion.
That has already come under this weird bureaucratic maneuvering that would make Mitch McConnell proud.
Oh, well, you know, the big meme on Twitter now is that it's worse to be a woman in Texas than it is in Afghanistan.
And it leads on this very specific issue of abortion.
Sharia law, it does appear that way, that they're doing it in a more draconian manner than even Sharia law would permit.
It is disgusting.
Here's some context, by the way.
In my lifetime, while I was alive, it wasn't Banks would legally deny women the ability to have a bank account in their names.
They couldn't have a credit card without their husband co-signing for a credit card.
It was illegal.
Sorry, they wouldn't allow it and it was legal to not allow it.
It took a law passed in 73 or 74 to actually force banks to allow women to have bank accounts.
I don't know what exactly it is, why they're so...
I mean, I guess we know why, but it's like there's something about women that they continually have never, ever left this fever dream of trying to remove rights from them.
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