A new episode of The Josh Marshall Podcast is live! This week, Josh and Kate wrap up the end of a head-spinning Supreme Court term.
You can listen to the new episode of The Josh Marshall Podcast here.
This covers some ground we’ve discussed already. But I wanted to come at it from a slightly different angle. The following is a note from a law professor TPM Reader whose initials I’m omitting because it’s a small world. I’ll call them LP …
Codifying Roe is not so easy. Congress has only the legislative power explicitly provided in the constitution. In the ACA case, the Court (per CJ Roberts) decided that “health care and insurance” was outside the domain of the commerce clause. And perhaps that’s a good thing, because it’s something of a safeguard against a national anti-abortion law. So what about the enabling clauses of the 14th Amendment (sec 5) and the 13th Amendment (sec. 2). The Court has cut back Congress’ power to use sec 5 to “expand” rights. So you’ve made a point of pushing Biden on “give me 2 more Senators and we’ll run over the filibuster to codify Roe,” I think TPM should do some reporting on what “codifying” would mean and whether it’s practicable with this Court, without something like the ERA. And so maybe you ought to be pushing Biden on “give me 2 more Senators and we’ll enlarge the Court.”
Colorado Gov. Jared Polis — a Democrat up for reelection — signed an executive order this week that will, essentially, protect Colorado from having to cooperate with other states’ investigations into people seeking or providing abortions.
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That was quick. Yesterday, Sen. Feinstein’s staff refused to commit to changing the filibuster rules to pass a Roe law in response to questions from The San Francisco Chronicle. TPM’s Kate Riga followed up with her office earlier today and Feinstein has now changed her position. This afternoon she released a statement committing to suspending the filibuster rules to pass a Roe law.