The courts have once again affirmed that Tennessee’s 48-hour abortion waiting period is legal. Now, it’s on the Supreme Court to offer a clear standard for abortion laws.
The 6th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld Tennessee’s waiting period law after a lower court judge became the first federal trial judge to strike down a waiting period law since 1992. While pro-abortion precedent renders anti-abortion laws void on arrival, courts frequently ignore the precedent that established waiting periods is an acceptable regulation. Courts blocked Tennessee’s heartbeat bill within minutes of passage. The state’s waiting period law was frozen for six months before being reinstated.
This could all be rectified by the Supreme Court, which has punted on major abortion questions for years. Chief Justice John Roberts, concerned more about what media pundits say than the Constitution, previously carved out special medical exemptions for the abortion industry in June v. Russo.
Whether Roberts has truly embraced a more liberal interpretation of the Constitution or has simply gone too far down the path of appeasement jurisprudence, the effects have been clear. Appeasement jurisprudence has led to abuses of power by lower courts, evidenced when Tennessee’s waiting period was initially blocked, and the continued threats by Democrats against the integrity of the judicial branch.
Those abuses of power have now escalated from the lower courts to the executive branch. Justice Brett Kavanaugh joined Roberts and the liberal justices to uphold the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s moratorium on evictions. Kavanaugh’s logic was the moratorium would expire shortly, so upholding it would give everyone involved time to wind the program down.
Instead, President Joe Biden turned around and had it reinstated, fully knowing he had no legal authority to do so. The Supreme Court gave Biden an inch, and he took a mile. That form of appeasement will buy the court no goodwill: Once the Supreme Court gets around to striking down the latest extension, Democrats will throw a fit and threaten court-packing once again.
Roberts may or may not be a lost cause at this point. Kavanaugh certainly isn’t. The 6th Circuit’s ruling, along with the lesson from Biden spitting in the face of the court, should serve as a reminder that appeasing pro-abortion activists doesn’t actually solve anything. The Supreme Court needs to reevaluate its abortion jurisprudence based on the Constitution, or it risks giving away its institutional credibility.
