Further jurisprudence development in Texas

Not the state this time but the City and County governments of Lubbock. The County apparently adopted an ordinance criminalizing traveling through its territory for the purpose of leaving the state to obtain an abortion. The City is considering doing the same.

Just about the only court identified federal "privilege or immunity" guaranteed by the 14th Amendment is the right to move from state to state freely. These ordinances are void as a matter of law. Not only that, Chief Justice Roberts stated in his concurring opinion in Dobbs that he doubted any restrictions on interstate travel for abortions would be upheld.

Yet here we are. Now the City and County both have legal departments staffed with competent lawyers who doubtless advise on proposed legislation. These governing bodies know what they are doing and know it is unlawful to do it. Why then do they proceed?

I sense a pattern here in Texas that perhaps the various levels of government believe that the federal government has become too weak to enforce federal law against them. This may be true judging from the unwillingness of the courts to make Governor Stupid remove his illegal barriers.

Nothing in human history suggests that the United States will endure for all time. Rather the reverse is true. Nations rise and nations fall. Perhaps we're seeing the beginning of our national decline.

 

My mistake. J. Kavanagh mentioned the right to travel not C.J. Roberts but I have no doubt Roberts would agree. There are, or would be, five votes to protect the right to travel out of state to obtain an abortion.

 

The United States is pretty unique. When was the last time such a power broke up? Even the USSR was actually an amalgam of countries; it's break up was more of an alliance falling apart with the SSRs going their own way.

We've seen a couple of other artificially built countries break up. Czechslovakia was never one nation; its breakup was mutual and peaceful. Yugoslavia was another, being held together by one guy and dissolved violently upon his death.

Sudan and South Sudan, I guess, but I don't think that's a very effective precedent. We've seen other break-offs, like Timor Leste, as well as the independence movement with former colony nations. But a big power breaking up? One that has dominated the world for so long? And one that has already been through an incredibly bloody civil war? I just don't see it. The economics alone will prevent it; there's just too much at stake.

 

How such a law could even be enforced is confusing to contemplate. They stop all cars leaving Texas and if there's a woman in the car of child bearing age they run a pregnancy test and add her to a database. When returning to Texas they rerun the pregnancy test and see if she's still pregnant? Oh wait, I just checked. A women will still test positive for pregnancy a couple weeks after an abortion. Sometimes even more than two weeks.

https://www2.hse.ie/conditions/abortion/after/post-abortion-pregnancy-test/

So they would have to go to the women's home a few weeks later and test if she's still pregnant. Where upon she denies ever having an abortion. Stating it must have been a spontaneous miscarriage. I guess it couldn't be enforced, especially since all the actions I describe the state taking would probably be illegal?

 

I think it's psychological warfare. And that "they" know it. "We can't really do it - logistics, but it'll throw a helluva scare into some of 'em - the thought's a deterrent an' that's worth somethin'." As Big Orange used to say, "very sad."

 

I think the position of the GOP stating that they are for personal freedoms has a major flaw and weakness. That being it is a lie when considering women having control over their own bodies.

 

Constitutional case law refers to "chilling effect" as cause to sue. No government can bully you into not exercising your civil rights so even if a statute or ordnance is not practical to enforce it can still be tossed out.

 

Yes - and very important. There are, however, plenty more major weaknesses. Perhaps we need a new Political Sub-forum: "Major Weaknesses of the GOP." Some of us could fill that one pretty fast.

 

I don't think a breakup is likely, either. Big powers often just fade to something far less - and it often takes time. Empires break up, but the Emperor countries often don't. The British Empire is gone, but UK survives - albeit in a long-impoverished form. Similarly, Portugal and Spain have lost their New World bonanzas -- and they remain - also impoverished. The Roman Empire took a long time to expire and decay. But Rome, the "Eternal City" is still there. Damn the traffic!

Greece no longer holds the Light of Learning for the whole world, (despite HAU) as it did 2,500 years ago. But it's still there. And people write an evolved version of Greek, in the same letters Homer and Hesiod used, going on three millennia ago. And Greece is just as impoverished as the other countries I mentioned. A bit worse, actually.

For the US? Probably like the others - a century or two of whimper. No one decisive, all-encompassing BANG. At least, I hope not.

 

Wel, ask yourselves this. In 1957, President Eisenhower sent the U.S. Army to Litte Rock Arkansas to enforce the Supreme Court's school desegregation order. Can you imagine President Biden doing anything like that? I can't.

 

Well according Mike Johnson, the reason for the fall of Rome was homosexuality, at least in large part. It must be nice to think that you have everything figured out so clearly and simply.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12709369/House-Speaker-Mike-Johnson-blamed-fall-Roman-Empire-homosexual-behavior-audio-clip-reveals.html

 

Easy. If you live in an alternate reality (fantasy land) you get to ignore whatever you like.

 

Ain't THAT the truth?

 

I remember that. We talked about it in our High School class, when it happened. We were all OK with the idea of sending in the Army, but a lot of us were amazed that it was necessary to do this. How could a State Governor, Orval Faubus, call in the National Guard to aid him in disobeying the ruling of the highest court in the land? Oh, heck. We were kids then - Canadian kids, at that. What did we know? We would have been flabbergasted at the antics of Gov. Abbott, today.

And no - I can't imagine Joe Biden doing that today, either.

 

Good question. He even activated the state National Guard to stop the Black children from getting into the school building. President Eisenhower nationalized the Guard, placing them in federal service which ended that.

 

Governor Stupid also lives in Fantasyland.

 

Yes - Pres. Eisenhower certainly did. Good move. I grew up, from age 10-18 during the Eisenhower presidency. I'm even now, still appreciating why so many people "liked Ike."