Lawrence O’Donnell used history and reality to admonish Justice Alito’s Roe v. Wade overturning brief. And it was epic.
Lawrence O’Donnell dings Alito
Lawrence O’Donnell destroys Justice Samuel Alito’s argument to overturn Roe v. Wade starting on page 1.
“Samuel Alito says on page one the Constitution makes no mention of abortion. The Constitution also makes no mention of the right to travel,” O’Donnell said. “The government has never granted us the right to travel, yet we have always had it. Roe versus Wade linked the right to abortion services to the right to privacy, which we also always assumed that we have. But the Constitution doesn’t mention a right to privacy. And Samuel Alito and a majority of the Supreme Court don’t believe that you have a right to privacy, but they do believe that they have a right to privacy, which is why the chief justice of the Supreme Court, for the first time in its history, has ordered an investigation of the very worst thing that has ever happened to theSupreme Court. The court’s privacy seat has been invaded.”
Lawrence O’Donnell also blows up Alito’s argument about a law not being “deeply rooted in this Nation’s history” by ridiculing much of what is “deeply rooted” that we best not emulate.
“Samuel Alito says that a right to abortion services is not, quote, deeply rooted in this nation’s history,” Lawrence O’Donnell said. “Women on the Supreme Court are not deeply rooted in this nation’s history. Nowhere does the Constitution say that women can serve on the Supreme Court. Nowhere does the Constitution say that black people can serve on the Supreme Court. The founders thought only white men should ever serve on the Supreme Court. The founders were the original proponents of affirmative action, exclusive only for white men. Founders deeply and fervently believed in carrying out the mass murder of as many members of the native tribes of this continent and enslaving as many black people as was necessary for white men to reign supreme in this land. That is deeply rooted in this nation’s history. If you are using deeply rooted in this nation’s history as the basis for what you think is right, and just then, you are lost. You are morally lost.”
O’Donnell then demonstrates Alito’s legal ineptitude. He showed that Alito showed no moral compass as he used a witch-believing-17th-century English aristocrat as a guide to writing his Roe v. Wade overturning opinion.
“Samuel Alito reaches back to legal writings in 17th century England. to show that the right to abortion services is not deeply rooted in our history,” O’Donnell points out. “He cites Sir Edward Cook writing in 1644 that abortion is a crime in 1644 in England. They were still having witch trials ending in the execution of the convicted witches. And Sir Edward Cook helped English law define witches when he rewrote English law in 1604 to make it even more cruel in witchcraft trials. He wrote, ‘A witch is a person who has conference with the devil to consult with him or to do some act. So Samuel Alito is quoting approvingly the 1644 judgment on abortion of an English aristocrat who said a witch is a person who has conference with the devil. Samuel Alito is reaching back for centuries to use Sir Edward Cooke as a moral authority on abortion, a man who believed in witches and believed they were working with the devil and believed that witches should be murdered by the state. And he helped make sure that they were murdered by the state in England.”
Ultimately O’Donnell points out a few realities about America too many choose to disregard.
- The structure of the Senate, the congressional gerrymandering process, and the Electoral College dispels any notion that America is a Democracy.
- Trump. a twice impeached president who did not win the popular vote, and George W. Bush, who did not win the popular vote, are responsible for providing four of the five votes overturning Roe v. Wade. In other words, minority rule is changing this country.
It is easy to throw our hands up and give up. That is what our plutocracy, our oligarchy wants. We must not let them. Let us must engage, educate, mobilize, and vote.
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