ROBIN MARTY, via Ruth Weiner, ruth@sevenstories.com, @robinmarty
Marty is director of operations at West Alabama Women’s Center in Tuscaloosa, Alabama and author of the book Handbook for a Post-Roe America from Seven Stories Press. She was just featured by NPR: “Patients in ‘trigger law’ states reorient after access to abortion care halts.”
FRANCIS BOYLE, fboyle@illinois.edu
Boyle is professor of law at the University of Illinois. His books include Tackling America’s Toughest Questions. He has been advocating that the Democrats embrace expanding the court for years. Boyle told the Guardian in 2018: “I think Kavanaugh was put on there to ensure Roe is overturned. … He has used the Roberts dodge of saying it is settled law. So what? The supreme court can unsettle it tomorrow. He did not say it was decided correctly.”Boyle said today: “The Federalist Society, with its complete distortion of the Constitution and phony concept of ‘Originalism,’ has been packing the courts since the Reagan administration. The Democratic Party should embrace counterpacking the courts.
“But the Democratic Party is only going to be moved by sustained, massive protests.“The Federalist Society is ultimately going to target much of FDR’s New Deal and the Warren Court precedents including even Brown v. Board of Education. Also, freedom of the press — they will seek to overturn New York Times v. Sullivan protecting America’s Fourth Estate.“Contrary to what many claim, FDR’s plan to expand the Supreme Court was a great success. The court got the message and began to uphold his New Deal legislation after previously striking it down, which prompted his scheme in the first place. So he did not have to pack the court. But these Federalist Society members are so hard core, it will be needed now. [Boyle is a longtime critic of the Federalist Society, see “Hijacking Justice” from 1999 in Emerge magazine.]“Eliminating life tenure would require a Constitutional amendment, which is a non-starter to begin with and even a waste of time, efforts and money to try. Counterpacking is the best way to deal with this.”
