‘Changes afoot in US abortion law: a political-legal earthquake’

Sir, I was struck by the tone of your editorial about the potential reversal of Roe v. Wade (“Legal Politics Earthquake,” May 4), in which the US Supreme Court accuses the US Supreme Court of “overtly politicizing,” inflicting “deep and lasting” damage to the American political system, and threatening to make the country uncontrollable.”

Would you launch such an attack on the Irish Supreme Court’s decision? Your newspaper has correctly criticized political and media attacks on the independence of judges in the United Kingdom, Poland and Hungary in recent years. Shouldn’t the independence of judges in the US be similarly defended?

The current controversy is a corollary of the increasing reliance on unelected judges to force controversial policy changes that do not have enough electoral support to enforce them in law. You can’t celebrate the US Supreme Court’s 1973 decision to support abortion, and then accuse it of “overtly politicizing” when they rule against abortion 2022. Either both decisions are right, or both are wrong.

If the retention of the so-called right to abortion in all 50 states is “supported by a clear majority of Americans,” as the editorial states, why should that majority not be used to pass it into law by Congress and the Senate, rather than through the courts? The simple reason is that there is no such majority. Support for abortion has become more ambiguous, with opposition steadily growing in recent decades as the consequences of widespread abortion become apparent.

Judges are not soldiers who grant political wishes, and there are no courts to mollify a vocal section of the electorate or succumb to political and media pressure. They can only adjudicate cases before them and the law as they see fit.

Elimination of Roe v. Wade, a decision that should not have been made in the first place, would put the abortion question back in the political and electoral realms where it belongs.

you and so on,

Barry Walsh

clontarf,

Dublin 3.

Sir, – The leaked draft opinion on Roe v. Wade attributed to US Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito is an attack on the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. The first section of the amendment contains the provision popularly known as the “Equal Protection” clause; This requires that every person should enjoy equal protection and be treated equally under the law. The Fourteenth Amendment also provides for the right to a fair trial at the state level. The US Supreme Court has used due process in previous decisions to strike down state legislation that restricts personal liberties and interests not expressly set forth in the Constitution, such as the right to privacy. The Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution greatly expanded the protection of citizens’ rights at the state level. If the leaked document becomes the de facto ruling of the current court, citizens in some states will be denied a right declared to citizens of other states. This totally contradicts the principle of equal justice under the law. If such a provision were to allow state legislatures to restrict a civil right, what would stop such restrictions on other existing rights not specifically listed in the United States Constitution? – to you, etc.,

Dan Donovan,

Dungarvan,

Co Waterford.

Sir, – in your recent editorial you claim that repealing the Roe v Wade Act may “jeopardize legal protections for rights ranging from same-sex marriage to contraceptives”. While this is an attractive political slogan, no one who has actually read the draft ruling has been able to come to this conclusion.

The ruling details that privacy rights that emerged from the 1965 Griswold case, including marriage and contraceptive rights, were not affected by the rescission of Roe v Wade. The justices state that the Supreme Court was wrong in 1973 when it combined abortion with these other rights, because it is essentially a private matter, while the abortion case affected a third party, the “life of the fetus,” to use the phrase used by the judges in Roe v. Wade, which acknowledged its existence.

It is also curious to criticize the US Supreme Court for being “willing to set aside precedent”, when such is a feature of every common law jurisdiction around the world. Ireland’s Supreme Court has abandoned several key precedents over the past century, most recently in 2015 when it struck down the “Kenny Rule” of evidence, a sweeping change that made it easier for police to conduct trials against those accused of criminal offenses.

Politicians in the United States who bemoan the reversal of Roe v Wade precedent are happy to campaign for repeal of precedents in controversial issues such as Citizens United (which allows unlimited fundraising) and Heller (which protects the right to own guns). So why do they or your newspaper think that Roe v. Wade should be protected from review or revocation? – to you, etc.,

THOMAS RYAN BL,

Harolds Cross

Dublin 6W.

Sir, – In the original Roe v Wade case, the decision to legalize abortion was imposed on all Americans by a group of seven white men with an average age of 66.

The decision to reverse this policy was made by a panel of five judges including a woman, an African American man, and two people in their early fifties.

Surely this increasing diversity of gender, race, and age is something to be celebrated by liberal activists? Or should diversity be celebrated only when it results in policies they agree with? – to you, etc.,

Sarah Ann Cleary,

Strokestown,

Share Roscommon.

Chara, — Daniel Gehry repeats the stereotype of “white men” in the United States being reactionary, conservative and socially backward in general, in this case regarding abortion law (“Roe v. Wade abolition may have a liberal silver lining”, Opinion & Analysis, May 4 ). This is not supported by any available data, indicating that neither gender nor race are particularly reliable predictors of being ‘pro-choice’ or ‘pro-life’. Educational attainment and household income levels are so, but this is an uncomfortable fact for both sides in a highly polarized debate.

The negative stereotype of “white men” seems to arise from intellectual laziness, i.e. the obvious false conclusion that if X percent of loud conservatives are white men, then X percent of white men hold these views. This crude form of analysis is rejected outright when applied to any other demographic group, even when the evidence is more compelling. – Did Miz,

DAVE SLATER,

kilkia

Share Kildare.

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